Nebraska Poet Greg Kosmicki Explains the Chapbook

 

Stephen F. Austin State University Press has published Greg Kosmicki's newest book of poetry, Sheep Can Recognize Individual Faces. Laura Madeline Wiseman interviews him for her blog, "The Chapbook Interview: Greg Kosmicki on Death, Work, and the Writing Life" (March 18, 2015). In this interview, Kosmicki gives a nifty explanation of a chapbook's advantages: "Because chapbooks are shorter, they force you to leave out the poem about your parents growing old and the one about when Old Shep your dog died if the rest of your chapbook is about all the time you spent in the army smoking dope and lobbing grenades or whatever. A chapbook is more like a short story—you have to have a unified action and everything has to relate to the same theme, all lead to the ending climax, just because it’s short, and you don’t have the space to goof around."

 

This veteran poet is retiring from The Backwaters Press, one of the leading presses in the Mid-Plains region. He will read for The Big Tent series in Lawrence (Raven Bookstore, 7 pm) Oct. 22, 2015. See more of this excellent interview at this link:

the chapbook interview: Greg Kosmicki on death, work, and the writing life

Another interview is at: http://geosireads.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/interview-with-american-poet-greg-kosmicki/