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7 Questions for Kevin Pilkington
Instructor for The Teacher on the Bookshelf
July 22-26, 2024
Kevin Pilkington is a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. He is the author of ten collections: Spare Change was the La Jolla Poets Press National Book Award winner; Getting By won the Ledge chapbook award; In the Eyes of a Dog received the New York Book Festival Award; The Unemployed Man Who Became a Tree was a Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award finalist. His poetry has appeared in many anthologies including: Birthday Poems: A Celebration, Western Wind, and Contemporary Poetry of New England.
Who or what is your single biggest source of inspiration?
I am mostly inspired by the landscape I inhabit. So I try to plug into what the Irish poets call the "place wisdom" of my surroundings. If I am not inspired, I sit down to write anyway. As the artist Chuck Close said, "Waiting for inspiration is the sign of an amateur."
What famous author, dead or alive, would you like to have dinner with?
Dylan Thomas. If he is on the wagon.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Rigatoni bolognese at Monte's Trattoria in the West Village, NYC.
What is your favorite quote or line from literature?
"Erase while you have the time. One word can change the world." - William Carlos Williams
What is your greatest fear?
Bad health. And if next sentence, line or image stop coming which is another form of death.
What three words do you think of when you think of Maine?
Lobster. Sunset. Ocean. And in that order.
What do you hope your students will take away from your workshop?
An even greater love of language. How poems move them closer to those emotions that often defy language. And how their lives are enhanced and transformed because of the poems they wrote and discussed in class that day. Most importantly, they rediscover their shared humanity.
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