Given that (as they explain in the following email interview), they wrote these poems with the “intention to write about the period of my life in which I lived on the road,” it’s probably no surprise that one of the writers that poet Carson Wolfe credits as an influence on their new collection Coin Laundry At Midnight (paperback) is Jack Keroac. Y’know, the guy who wrote On The Road.
But Jackie’s not the only writer who had a big impact on these poems…
One of the issues with reading poetry is that because both the presses and audience can be small, books often go out of print. But sometimes they come back. Which is what’s happening with Pink Elephant, which poet Rachel Camacho originally released in 2009, and then rerelased in 2016, and is now releasing once more, thanks to Button Poetry, in paperback.
In the following email interview, Camacho discusses what originally inspired and influenced this collection, as well as how it connects to one that followed and another that’s yet to come.
While queer people have it relatively easier these days than their counterparts did in, say, the 1950s or the 1980s, it’s still not easy, especially if you’re a queer teenager. Life isn’t always safe. It’s this lack of safety that author Sadie McCarney explores in her book-length epic poem The Bright Afters (paperback, Kindle), in which she tells the story of a murdered queer boy.
In the following email interview, McCarney discusses what inspired and influenced this epic poem.
Forty-six years ago, at St. Mark’s Church in New York City, poet Eileen Myles read their epic poem “Bird Watching,” a poem they never included in any of the poetry collections they’ve released in the years since. That is, until now. With Bird Watching And Their First Three Books Of Poetry (hardcover, paperback, Kindle), Myles it not only publishing this long-lost epic for the first time, but also all of the poems from their first three collections — 1978’s The Irony Of The Leash, 1981’s A Fresh Young Voice Form The Plains, and 1982’s Sappho’s Boat — most of which have been unavailable for years.
In the following email interview, Myles talks about assembling this collection, as well as how rereading “Bird Watching” for this collection has “influenced me now.”
In the immortal words of Kyle B. Broflovski, “[The Cure’s] Disintegration is the best album ever!” It’s a sentiment that may be mirrored by poet Nathan Hoks, who, in the following email interview about his fourth poetry collection, Moony Days Of Being (paperback), cites The Cure’s frontman Robert Smith as a big influence on these, and all of Hoks’ poems.
At a time when the powers that be are trying their best to demonize diversity and anything that isn’t made by straight white men, it was refreshing when, in the following email interview with author Philip Schultz, he revealed that as he was writing one of the poems in his new collection, Enormous Morning (hardcover, Kindle), that it, and others in the book, were exploring, “…the essential role my mother and women have played in my life.”
The thing about poetry is that it’s not always literal. Sometimes it’s impressionistic. Or surreal. Or more about feel. Which is why — despite noting in the following email interview that “my poetry is always autobiographical” — I’m not fearful that iconic Swedish poet Aase Berg’s new collection of poems is called Aase’s Death (paperback, Kindle).
It seems like some people just don’t appreciate higher education.
Well, here’s a good reason you should: Cord Swell (hardcover, Kindle), the first poetry collection by author brittny ray crowell, which — as she explains in the following email interview, in which she also talks about its inspirations and influences — was originally written as her dissertation.
In the following email interview about her new collection of short stories and poems, Chasm (paperback, Kindle), author Addison Herron-Wheeler says, “It is so important these days for queer and femme folks to find community and solidarity and to read stories that make us feel seen.”
But while that’s what she’s delivering in this collection, there’s a lot more to it, as she further explains in this interview.