My appearance on The Curious Man's Podcast with host Matthew Crawford

A conversation about poetry, the writing process, literacy, and dreams

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Listen to the podcast here.

Some of you may have noticed the tagline for my Substack is Poems, prose, conversations posted every other week. Well, this is it, the inaugural conversation. I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with Matthew Crawford, the host of The Curious Man’s Podcast. Matt is the Curious Man behind the show, and I have found him to be an entirely excellent interviewer, both in our conversation and in his many other episodes. Guests on Matt’s show have included the award-winning novelist and short story writer T. C. Boyle, underground rock legend Ian Svenonius (a favorite of mine), and many other fascinating authors, so it was a real honor for me to appear and discuss my book, Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light.

Even though it has been almost a couple years since Wildcat came out, I am very heartened by the number of people who have connected with this book and continue to read it. Matt and I delved into what inspired this 80,000-word epic poem, some mystical occurrences during the writing of it, and we talked a bit about how I went from being mostly illiterate in my childhood to becoming a writer. But the most moving part of the conversation came when Matt spoke about how the book, and a dream I once had as a younger man, resonated with him and brought to mind a defining event in his life — and how poetry and dreams can unlock the power to heal, the power to hope.

Wildcat Dreams in the Death Light is a critically acclaimed epic poem published by First to Knock.