What does it take to make a really good book?
Smart people passionate about a compelling topic--and an audience equipped to appreciate and willing to support it. We have the first part covered: twenty-one world-class poets talking about what they know and love best, in fascinating, unusual ways. What we need is the second part of the equation. We need you.
Print-on-demand technology has revolutionized the publishing industry, making small runs of non-blockbuster books economically viable, especially when there’s dedicated volunteer labor to help make it happen. But there are still upfront costs—for design and layout, permissions, printing, shipping. We have invested hundreds of hours of sweat equity in this project, gambling that sufficient demand will be there to make this a break-even proposition, or even, best-case scenario, a modest money maker for the Katonah Poetry Series, for whom all of these poets read.
These poets include three Poet Laureates of the United States--Billy Collins, Robert Pinsky, Kay Ryan. And many other distinguished authors of multiple award-winning collections, like Paul Muldoon, Alan Shapiro, Ellen Bass. (See the full list below).
Advance readers are enthusiastic.
“Andy Kuhn’s questions become conversations that, one by one, deeply engage and enlighten. With major poets so forthright about their craft, you’ll wish you were in the room. At the very least keep How a Poem Can Happen close at hand. It’s simply a gem of a book.”
---Alexander Neubauer, author of Poetry in Person: 25 Years of Conversation with America's Poets (Knopf, 2010)
"While asking (and answering) questions about process, influences and the writerly life may seem easy, it’s really about letting the conversation go toward the unexpected, the uncharted. These interviews give us insight into one of the most difficult jobs to describe: the poetic mind and its workings. And Kuhn has just the right touch—after reading, we readers receive “the poet” as an even more human, and humane, artist."
Sophie Cabot Black, author of The Exchange: Poems (Greywolf, 2013)
Release our matching funds, and help commemorate a 50th anniversary
Not coincidentally, the Katonah Poetry Series is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Billy Collins has helped lead the series for the past 25 years, and he has written the foreword for the book. He and other leading patrons of the arts have come forward with seed money and generous matching grants to help make this commemorative volume a reality. All we need to do is raise $3500 to release those funds and put us over the top. Which is where you, dear reader, dear backer, come in . . . .
Poets interviewed in the book.
- Mary Jo Bang
- Ellen Bass
- Jill Bialosky
- Daniel Brown
- Billy Collins
- George Bilgere
- Jim Daniels
- Carol Ann Davis
- Michael Dickman
- Jessica Greenbaum
- Matthea Harvey
- Paul Muldoon
- Aimee Nezhukumatathil
- Dennis Nurkse
- Kathleen Ossip
- Robert Pinsky
- Katha Pollitt
- Kay Ryan
- David St. John
- Alan Shapiro
- Christian Wiman