The Garden of 'ArtSake': What Is Your Greatest Need?

 I'm flattered to be included in an online publication hosted by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, my state's arts agency, called "ArtSake." 
ArtSake publishes a moderated blog in order -- in the council's words -- "to carve out a space where we celebrated art and art-making for its inherent merits. We’ll use this space to celebrate our state’s innovative and creative minds, highlight new projects, and feature ideas and content straight from the artists."
ArtSake's project officer Dan Blask was recently seeking comments from artists and writers about issues they face in their work and lives. He posed the question What is your greatest need, as an artist?

The resulting blog included my response and also mentioned my upcoming public programs, including my talk about "Suosso's Lane" Thursday, April 13, at 7 p.m. at the Ventress Memorial Library, 15 Library Plaza, in Marshfield. 
So here's me quoting myself, courtesy of Art Sake: 

Robert Knox, writer and poet
I’m a fiction writer and poet. My greatest need is ways to connect with readers. Happily, I’m in a stage of life when my most pressing needs are no longer time or money. But I want to see the books that I finally have time to write get into print, or get read, or even noticed somehow. Commercial publication of fiction is a narrow funnel, except for certain formulaic genres, and agents look to meet specific marketing needs. Newspapers, a declining industry in which I’m partially employed, review few books. After my novel Suosso’s Lane was published a year ago by a small independent, I find most of its readers myself through public programs at libraries. Many of the fiction writers I know publish their own books and sell them on Amazon. Poetry is an even more self-contained universe. I’m not proposing any solutions here, just stating a need: How do we get read?
 
Robert Knox discusses his novel Suosso’s Lane at the Ventress Memorial Library in Marshfield (4/13, 7 PM). He’ll read from his poetry collection Gardeners Do It With Their Hands Dirty at Plymouth Public Library (4/24, 7 PM). Currently, he has poetry published in Verse-Virtual.com, where he is a contributing editor.

Here's the link for the full discussion of the question What is your greatest need, as an artist?
http://artsake.massculturalcouncil.org/blog/artsake/