David Gate, Author
In his new book A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays, Asheville poet and creator David Gate invites readers to, among other things, create art as a form of care for self and others. “I hope that readers realize that a radical life of care is right there in the life they already have,” he says. “We don’t have to wait for an institution or system to provide it for us. We can do that for each other.”
A native of England, Gate began his writing career by penning songs. “I had a bunch of songs published when I was a teenager and that gave me a handful of confidence to believe I could write and someone somewhere might listen,” he says. In the 2000s he began blogging and later tried sports writing, before sharing his poetry and prose online.
Posting poems daily on Instagram offered him an outlet outside of the traditional submission/rejection cycle for poets and, he adds, forced him to write “more concisely and directly. We often deride limitations in creative process, but they can teach you things that a creative free rein rarely does.”
Poetry is the antidote, Gate believes, to today’s onslaught of information. “Our brains are frazzled,” he says. “We need more writing that speaks to the heart and spirit, that isn’t trying to sell us the latest skincare routine or a new car. Poetry has been a powerful medium as long as humans have been writing.”
A Rebellion of Care: Poems and Essays, July 2025, poetry, hardcover, $18.99, by David Gate, and published by Convergent Books (Penguin Random House), New York, NY. Learn more at DavidGatePoet.com.
