Philip Levine Reading on 7 February 2008

The Fresno Poets' Association is hosting a reading on 7 February 2008 in celebration of Philip Levine's 80th birthday, and I'm lucky enough to have been asked to be one of the readers.

The Fresno poetry community gave me my life, and I owe it nearly everything. It's that simple, and I'm grateful and honored to read one of Phil's poems and then one of mine for this community that means so much to me.

One Final Interview

I forgot that I had also been interviewed by Juliana Barbassa for an article that she wrote on Fresno poetry. I think that this was the last interview, and it was the hardest one to put together, what with her and my busy schedule. And then I did a photo shoot, which was cool because I'd never thought that anybody would want to take a picture of me.

Poetry Foundation Interviews

The interview mentioned in this post came out almost twenty months ago, when I was in the middle of doing a bunch of interviews after my book got a little bit of attention.

A few weeks, ago, I was interviewed by the Poetry Foundation regarding my nomination for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and that interview, along with those of my fellow nominees, is up on their website as of today.

At first, I didn't really want to read my interview (because I'm easily embarrassed and I'm not any good at dealing with any kind of attention), but I pre-cringed (in case I had said something particularly lame), read it, and I managed to get through that experience without having to change my phone number or move to South Dakota.

I Was Interviewed

This is about another one of the interviews that I did during the early part of 2006.

I was interviewed a few weeks ago by Vida en el Valle about my book and the whole NBCC thing. I was told that the interview would be out the following Wednesday, but that Wednesday came and went, and then so did the next one. Finally, I had thought that the interview just wasn't going to come out at all, and especially not since I had already lost the NBCC Award and Vida en el Valle didn't have much of a story anymore.

But, unaccountably, the interview is in print in the Fresno area and online everywhere as of 8 March 2006. If you don't get down in Spanish, here's the English version.

An Interview in the Boxcar Poetry Review

You're going to have to dig around in the archive to find this interview, which was in the very first issue.

Eduardo C. Corral, a fellow poet, interviewed me via e-mail a few weeks ago, and the interview's finally online.

I look pretty tough in the accompanying picture because my new thing is to try to look hardcore at all times, even when I'm having a good time. In fact, at my big bro's birthday party a few weeks ago, a friend of ours wanted to take my big bro's and my picture, but I had him wait until I could stop laughing and "thug up."

My favorite part of the interview? The goatee discussion.

Fresno Famous Interview

As far as I can remember, this is the last interview that I did, in relation to my book, that's still currently available on the internet. There was an interview in the Fresno Bee, but good luck finding it, and another one that I did while I was in Madison for a reading, but I have no idea if it even ever came out.

Oh, and the reading's long past. As the opening act, I read first, and then Brian absolutely killed. It was an honor to read with him.

Ever since the NBCC nomination thing, I've been interviewed a couple of times about my book, which has been cool (though I'm usually completely stressed out during the actual interviews because I can't stop worrying that I'm sounding like a nitwit and that I will be haunted forever by an unfortunate turn of phrase), but I'm pretty sure that, after doing this last interview, that the media interest has come to its end, unless I go on some type of "rampage" or find an interesting way to die.

If you're in the Fresno area next Thursday, come to Brian's and my reading.

This Is So Depressing

Can I get that with sprinkles?