As part of the launch of our Spring/Summer 2018 issue, Let Us Gather: Diversity and the Arts, we sat down with contributors to talk about their work in the issue and more. The following interview is part of this series. Please visit our website to see the complete list of contributors to Let Us Gather, to purchase the issue, or to subscribe.

Tell us a little about your work in Let Us Gather: Diversity and the Arts: what inspired it, how you came to write it, etc.

“George Pearson” is one of the Meditations on Art and Artists which belong to a recent collection entitled “A Mountain on Jupiter”. I simply came across an article about the movie (directed by Pearson) in a Spanish newspaper, along with an image from it. These “Meditations” seek to explore my personal relationship with different artworks. Without even seeing the movie at hand, I explored the notion of leaving a movie unseen.

Do you have a favorite line, image, or scene from this work?

I like how the giant red tulips sort of interrupt a black and white poem.

What is your best piece of advice for aspiring writers?

To be aware of all the poems we write when we’re not writing. I’ve met wonderful poets who have never written a poem; and many who have but, in my humble opinion, I don’t really consider them poets.

Tell us something fun, strange, or interesting about yourself. It can have to do with writing—or not!

I’m also a photographer and have had several shows in Spain. One of my discourses is called “Moments of Glass” which is my passion for the reflections and juxtapositions glass often provides. Instead of stealing the token museum shot of a Vermeer painting, for example, I’ll focus on the window the painting has been next to, possibly for centuries, establishing a relationship between the painting and its
“real” source of light.

What’s on the writing horizon for you/what are you working on now?

I’ve just published my debut collection of poetry, “Suicide, 1964”, available on Amazon. I documented the performance/presentation too, available on YouTube.