Sarah Ruhl is a playwright, poet, and professor based in New York. Her new essay collection, Lessons from My Teachers: From Preschool to the Present, is an ode to the teachers she has had over the course of her life, both inside and outside the classroom.

In this episode of Tricycle Talks, Tricycle’s editor-in-chief, James Shaheen, sits down with Ruhl to discuss the teachers and tasks that have helped her learn how to listen, what it means to look at grief sideways, whether devotion is teachable, and why she aspires to always be a student.