Tennessee Tech Professor Gets Second Poetry Collection Published

A Tennessee Tech Creative Writing professor has authored a second collection of poetry, now available.

Dr. Erin Hoover said the book titled “No Spare People” is about herself and her daughter, and the relationship. Hoover said much of it was written during the pandemic when she was raising her daughter by herself while facing job insecurity.

“I don’t really think that any person is extra or spare,” Hoover said. “I think everybody is necessary and important. So the book, I would say it’s a largely personal. “No Spare People” is a personal book, but it deals with larger themes as well.”

Hoover said it feels like this publication has allowed her to jump the hurdle of being an emerging writer and move into the middle of her writing career. Hoover said her third book is already in progress.

“I feel like I know how to write and put together a book, you know, definitely having done it now twice,” Hoover said. “I think that the third book, you know, that I write, and what I write next, I can use what I’ve learned during these first two projects.”

She said her desire with this book is to connect with the people who enjoy her writing and care about poetry.

“I don’t have any particular, like, prize I want to win or milestone I want to reach,” Hoover said. “I would like to put out another book I think. But for me, poetry is almost like a vehicle for connecting with other people, so that’s what I want to do.”

Hoover said her work as a creative writing professor allows her to practice skills with her students that she can use in her own work.

“I’m helping students solve some of the problems created by their creative work, or maybe realize the potential of what they want to write,” Hoover said. “And I think that’s like a muscle that, the more you exercise it, I mean, I don’t think you can exercise it too much. So my teaching and my writing are really tied together.”

Hoover said the book is for sale at Plenty Downtown Bookshop in Cookeville and on the website of the publishing company, Black Lawrence Press.