We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jules Nyquist. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jules below.

Hi Jules, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I always wanted to have my own business. I had previous jobs that were commission-based, such as a travel agent or realtor. I liked having control of my schedule and building relationships. I also had a lot of office jobs with a steady paycheck. Writing was a way to express myself and to figure things out. I landed a part-time job at a non-profit literary center, and that grew to full-time. It was inspiring, invigorating, and a learning curve. I got to know other creative writing teachers, hosted events, supported classroom registrations, and teachers. Eventually I taught my own class. I volunteered to co-host a weekly community radio show where I interviewed writers in poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and expanded my reading list. I grew to respect what other writers went through with writing and publishing. I applied to grad school as an over-40 adult (Bennington College, MFA). Grad school created discipline. I could write poetry and book annotations on deadline. I read more than I wrote and took inspiration from other writers and mentors. I learned that a solitary act such as writing also requires community. I thought of teaching in academia, but at that point in my life, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go through the bureaucracy of the university system, and I wasn’t sure if I’d get published or have the credentials in the competitive field. So I started my own business, Jules’ Poetry Playhouse.

It was more of a calling. I didn’t let others rain on my parade or discourage me. I had plenty of people tell me that I was wasting my time, or how I would find the money or get students or teachers, but, kind of like writing, it was something I had to share with others. When I taught a class as a guest instructor, it was very fulfilling to see others grow in their own writing. I wasn’t tired after a full day like I was with my day job. I felt energized. That is what kept me going. I also loved learning and researching class curriculum. My niche was having fun while writing. I came up with the name Poetry Playhouse as sort of a fun house of ideas. Creativity requires play and loosening up. A blank page can be daunting. I tend to get ideas while in motion, such as walking or riding, and from nature or being out in the world. I wanted to incorporate that into my class settings. So that was solving the problem of not having to grade papers, and to have fun writing and teaching with other writers.

I’ve also learned so much by collaborating with other poets and artists. I’ve made great friendships and it really supports my writing and community. We can all learn a lot from each other, have events or co-teach together, and promote our work together.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Jules Poetry Playhouse is a place for poetry and play. We are located in beautiful Placitas, New Mexico (between Albuquerque and Santa Fe), with a small classroom space in our casita attached to our home on five acres. We focus on three primary areas: poetry writing classes, hosting poetry readings and events, and poetry book publishing. We provide in-person and occasional online poetry writing classes and retreats for all levels of writers, from beginners just starting to write, to more advanced writers. These classes may be on writing and the craft of poetry, a specific poet or era, writing as a response or action to what is happening in the world. or how to organize a poetry manuscript to send out it for publication. We also have poetry writing retreats, where we have a more intense two-day class series, or we travel to another setting and spend a weekend or a few days writing at a resort in an inspiring setting. Students can truly immerse themselves in a creative, playful, supportive space with our classes. Most of our classes are to focus on generating new writing and have supportive feedback, along with knowledge of the writers we read. Reading other poets is as important as writing our own work. We provide handouts, reading lists, and encourage creativity in a relaxing, beautiful setting. We use local vendors or poets to provide snacks for our classes. I believe that writers should have good food options in a class. During the pandemic we moved our classes online and I’ve taught classes via Zoom. That is now sometimes an option, but our primary focus for classes is in-person with a limit of 12 students. I also have a labyrinth in our backyard, and we take time during class to walk it, and explore the native landscape. Our classes incorporate the outdoor landscape as part of our time together and encourage reflection and play. I founded my business in 2012 and my husband is now the “we” – it’s the two of us on this journey, along with featured poets and guest instructors.

We also host poetry readings featuring poets reading from their work with our outdoor back porch reading space. These readings are a time to hear poetry, sell books, and have meaningful discussions about the writing process and get to know our featured authors. We have local, national, and international poets reading at our events. We provide wine and pizza from a local business before the reading, and enjoy the sunset during our reading. We record these readings and archive them on our YouTube channel. Our niche is our retreat-like setting and pairing award-winning authors with emerging poets.

We also publish poetry books. This is primarily for our anthologies, where we invite other poets to submit based on a specific topic. We occasionally publish books for poets that we know that may be a good fit.

I founded Jules Poetry Playhouse in 2012, when a small studio space became available in an art studio space in Albuquerque. In 2016 we rented classroom and office space near downtown Albuquerque. Poetry Playhouse Publications was founded in 2018, and produces award-winning poetry books and anthologies. In January of 2019, Jules’ Poetry Playhouse moved to beautiful Placitas, New Mexico where we continue to lead poetry classes, invite national and international visiting writers and artists in a retreat setting.

I now have my PhD in Adult Education, which has provided structure to my teaching methods, and I was pleased to be able to incorporate poetry into my research. My focus is on using poetic inquiry, or a way of observing and participating in the world. Writing poetry can be a discipline, and it uses the qualities of observation, curiosity, emotion, and imagination. Using our senses, breath, language, and our voice creates the ways to share our stories so we feel our voices are being heard in the world. I earned my doctorate later in life, and it’s never too late to take risks and try new things. The discipline of doctoral research has helped me in time management, perseverance, and staying focused. My husband has a PhD in English, so we have complementary backgrounds for teaching and writing. We stay curious, create new classes and events, and share poetry, and play with the world.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

As of now, this is a side hustle for me. I still have my full-time day job. I am approaching the age of retirement in a couple of years, and at that point, I will need to decide how to make it work to generate more income. It will be nice to have more time to focus on teaching classes more, but I also will allow more time for my own writing. My spouse is a retired professor. As a couple, we are a team in running the business and also our relationship. We have our specialities, which helps us to focus on the things that we enjoy doing. We have to respect each other’s interests and boundaries as to what we want to offer and where the growth will be in a few years. The main interest for us at this point is to generate extra income and to have fun with what we enjoy. We both teach classes and share ideas for featured readers and instructors. We both have extensive connections of poets from our respective backgrounds and growing up in different geographical areas. We both post on social media to promote events. I handle website updates, email newsletters (we also use MailChimp for email management), social media creation, class bookkeeping, class rosters, reminders, and book sales. My husband handles the book publishing primarily, although we both are editors in that area. We occasionally hold pop-up book sales and are involved in local events, including our local poetry society. I also do collage art and have incorporated my artwork and cards into our book sale events, local artist events, and classes combining art and poetry. I do a lot of collaboration with other artists, writers, and friends.

A key milestone was when we moved to our current studio/classroom space. It’s something we own and has a unique retreat-like setting.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

Yes we sell books, classes and ticketed events on our site. We use Squarespace, which has a selling platform that is easy to use and update. We hired a webmaster friend who created our initial site. I had an older, outdated website that was okay for basic information but was cumbersome in selling products and services. I researched different platforms and decided on Squarespace primarily for their product selling and ease of use. I also wanted to be able to update it myself. We are continually adding new classes to the website and I can add a new service or product and set up the sales portion myself. The Squarespace design for the visual feel of the site using photos is important to represent what Jules Poetry Playhouse is about. We had a graphic designer friend help design our logo, and we have created t-shirts, pens, stickers, etc. to tie in with our brand.

It’s also important to continually update social media accounts. This can be a bit daunting at times. It helps to have several platforms with links to the website for sales and events. Some clients find us online, others on a specific social media platform, or word of mouth.

Our book publishing is done through KDP, which is owned by Amazon. As a small press, this is a fairly simple platform where we can upload content from Word PDFs. We hire a cover designer, which is important for a professional look. Our books are available Amazon or directly through our website selling platform. We can upload book covers and info and sell from our site and mail out media mail ourselves. Or, of course, someone can also buy directly from Amazon, although we make more profit from our website. There are other platforms out there, but we are not graphic designers, so KDP seemed a good fit and is fairly inexpensive for print-on-demand self-publishing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.poetryplayhouse.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julesnyquist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/julespoetryplayhouse
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jules-nyquist-phd-mfa-885a273/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLI1Y710KTsRvRwlc9-zxfQ

Image Credits

all photos are copyright Jules Nyquist.
Logo design by Denise Weaver Ross. (logo photo only)