The Q & A

Q:     Can anybody be a poet?

A:     Tough question. I mean, can anybody be a welder? I suppose you can, if you've got the inclination and the training and you stick with it and keep trying to improve. It's a painful process.

Q:     Then why do it?
A:     I think the stuff is fundamentally important to who we are as human being. BM: Good Reason. WL: I mean, it's art. It's as important as drawing a paycheck. It's as important as raising child. It's self-discovery.

Q:     What's a decent crowd for a poetry reading?
A:     Whether it's in Kansas City or New York City, a good audience for poetry is 20 - 30 people. Funny thing, our UDPress readings have been seeing an average of about 80. I think our smallest turnout was 59 and our largest was well over 100.

Q:     So how can you tell if you're succeeding?
A:     Success comes down to selling books. If I sell 1,000 books, that's a huge run. If I sell 300, I break even.

Q:     What about live poetry slams?
A:     For all the good that a slam does - and it does very important things as far as expanding the access to the spoken word - to get the immediate crowd approval it produces only a couple of things: funny poetry or dirty poetry. And while those can be very nice, it isn't the spectrum of the human experience. We are doing something different. Our poetry has to stand up on the page as well as entertain in a live performance.

Q:     But you have fun, too, right?
A:     Things get a little crazy. Just the other day we were reading at the Writer's Place and this gal comes up and starts shoving dollar bills in (poet) Tato's drawers. And his wife's there...

Q:     How did he react?
A:     He put the money in his pocket.