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Allison Larkin

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You are here: Home / 3Ws / 3Ws – Tony Leuzzi

3Ws – Tony Leuzzi

November 26, 2014 Filed Under: 3Ws, books are awesome, poetry, writing

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What do you create?

I write poems: individual poems; poem sequences; series of poems gathered together by theme or form. I started writing (very bad) poems when I was 16 and persisted in the delusion that I could write well until I actually began to write well. I’d say my first really fine poem didn’t come until I was about 26 years old. The next one might have come when I was 30. There were very few successes and a lot of failures. I remember writing a sonnet everyday for several years and getting about three decent poems out of that. Regardless of the high-rate of failure, writing poems was a lot of fun. I kept at it, not really thinking about what I was doing, just doing it. Later, as I got better, I started to mindfully consider an aesthetic, a point of view—those things that distinguish a craftsperson from an artist. It’s hard work, but it remains a lot of fun. I’m currently “at work” on a poem I began in mid-August. I’ve carried it through umpteen versions to its conclusion, but I can’t stop editing it. Occasionally, a poem will announce its arrival immediately, with very little alteration from the first draft. Such poems are usually inspired. Unfortunately, they are rare.

I am also a visual artist, mainly an assemblage artist who builds through collage and erasure. I prefer to work with found objects. Much of what I do as a visual artist is mirrored in how I compose poems, too. That, I suppose, is another story.

Why do you create?

I love making things. I can’t imagine myself not making things.

Why I create is a huge question and if I were to answer it fully, I’d probably need five or six pages. Poet Dorianne Laux once told me most writers as kids didn’t get enough attention or felt they weren’t heard: so much of their creative life is a way to preserve the child they can’t leave behind. Mary Ruefle, another poet, told me there are two kinds of artists: those whose parents encouraged them to carry on the cultural traditions of their families and those who were outcasts that didn’t fit in. I’m definitely the latter. I turned to poetry quite naturally, as an extension of the music I was playing on the piano, and because I was so in love with reading that I needed to try writing literature myself. Reading, writing, assembling collages, playing solo music—those are all solitary pursuits. You can identify with a community of other artists like yourself—read at open mics, attend art openings, play music with others—but the creative act necessitates concentration and, by extension, solitude.

What do you consume?

I am a movie slut. I will watch anything in the big theatres, or on the smaller screens.  I watch Netflix on my iPad at home. I don’t love everything I see equally, and I’m pretty particular about my tastes, but I enjoy CONSUMING movies, just taking them in, along with Youtube postings of my favorite scenes from British, German, Finnish, and Brazilian soaps.

I love music, am a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac. I’m an acoustic jazz and classical music nut as well. I could listen to Rachmanninov’s  “Symphonic Dances” all day. Stravinsky’s “Firebird Suite” gets me every time—no matter how well or badly it is played. I like consuming more obscure things, too: one of my favorite jazz recordings is an obscure Mal Waldron release from 1969 called Free at Last. Sun Ra, love Sun Ra and his insistence on hailing from Saturn. Space IS the place for that glorious nut job.

I’m an avid, hungry reader. I love reading poetry, am committed to the new poetry being written today. But my first reading pleasures came from encyclopedias and novels. I still love to read both of those genres, too.

Food—I’m a foot nut. Give me a good steak or a fresh lobster right from the ocean. Give me ceviche. Fish steeped in citrus: heaven!

But, largely, I am not much of a high-end consumer. I held onto my last car for thirteen glorious years; I live in the same house I bought a dozen years back; I’m not a clothes horse or purveyor of expensive toys. Most of my discretionary expenses involve buying art on the installment plan, shopping for used books, and frequenting garage sales and flea markets in the summer.

 

Links

A book of my poems came out in March 2014 through Tiger Bark Press. Called The Burning Door, it has received flattering reviews at these places:

http://publishersweekly.com/978-0-9860445-2-6

http://www.lambdaliterary.org/reviews/poetry/05/20/the-burning-door-by-tony-leuzzi/

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/06/books/this-instance-of-entrance

I have also been able to speak at length about some of my unusual compositional practices unique to this book, practices that involve formal and experimental creative triggers:

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2014/06/books/occasional-instances-of-confession-tony-leuzzi-with-david-groff

http://www.thebakerypoetry.com/on-writing-fibonacci-and-cadae-poems/

 
Tony’s books can be found at:

 IndieBound

Amazon

Barnes & Noble 

BAM!

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3 Comments

Comments

  1. Carol Kirkwood says

    November 26, 2014 at 3:37 am

    Thank you for resuscitating my memory of the day Sun Ra and the Arkestra appeared at the Lake George (NY) Jazz Festival some years ago.

    While the music was interesting, at the time I was not educated to appreciate it as I should. The amphitheater where they performed is nestled on the west side of Lake George in Sheppard Park. It was a misty day, and lowering clouds provided the right conditions for sound to reverberate against the surrounding mountains, The echo and the volume seemed to me to distort the sound.

    However I was fortunate enough to have the chance to speak at some length with a woman who played tambourine with the band — I do not remember her name, and I don’t find it in
    Sun Ra’s online biography. Suffice it to say that she was small with long, white hair under a beret. Her tights and eccentrically colorful mini dress were reminiscent of the beatnik era of Jack Kerouac’s day. And she had many stories to tell.

    Best wishes for a long and fruitful career.

    Carol Kirkwood

    Reply
    • Tony Leuzzi says

      November 26, 2014 at 6:39 am

      Thanks, Carol. I would have loved to have heard the tambourine player’s stories about Sun Ra. He remains a mystery as a personality, but his music–well, there’s no mystery there: he left behind an enormously satisfying body of work….Glad you too are a fan.

      Reply
  2. StephTheBookworm says

    November 26, 2014 at 7:06 pm

    Wow, what a nice surprise to see Mr. Leuzzi on your blog today! I took one of his classes as an undergrad and remember both him and the class very fondly. It was a Holocaust literature class and one of my favorite classes I ever took. It’s really nice to know more about his writing and poetry.

    Very interesting statement about how perhaps writers write because they felt they weren’t heard. I am definitely no professional, but I’ve loved writing since childhood. I’ve always been very shy, quiet, and introverted, so that statement really makes a lot of sense for me and is something I’d never thought of before.

    Great interview! Best of luck to Mr. Leuzzi with his poetry!

    Reply

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Allison Larkin

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Internationally bestselling author of three novels as Allie Larkin and THE PEOPLE WE KEEP. Look for HOME OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS @gallerybooks May 2025

“Larkin abandons the typical story arc in favor “Larkin abandons the typical story arc in favor of a more naturally flowing up-and-down journey that basks in beautiful moments like a slice-of-life story. Whether it’s banter at the bar Freya’s working or a leaking roof that is simply one more thing than she can possibly handle right now, the characters and their experiences are so real and pure that their joys and sorrows are amplified tenfold.” 

So honored by this AP review of Home of the American Circus! 

https://apnews.com/article/home-american-circus-allison-larkin-book-review-79ea3d1fdb69ef16232a8dfb7d148ad6

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I’ve seen a bunch of references to Home of the A I’ve seen a bunch of references to Home of the American Circus as my second novel. It’s actually my 5th! Before The People We Keep, under the name Allie Larkin, I wrote three books: Stay, Why Can’t I Be You, and Swimming for Sunlight. Here they are in their various editions with some of their translations! (And @justjuliawhelan also narrated Stay and Why Can’t I Be You, if you’d like to listen!)

Fun fact: That gorgeous dog on the hardcover of Stay was actually our dog Argo, and I took that photo of him when @duttonbooks couldn’t find the perfect photo of a black German Shepherd. #booksbooksbooks #bookstagram
Pub Day Part One. The thing is, it’s really hard Pub Day Part One. The thing is, it’s really hard to be a creative person in the world, and the blessing, the salvation, the joy of it is the community around art: the writers who will call an emergency novel Zoom meeting when you’re stuck on a draft, the ones who roll up their sleeves and make sure your words are saying what you intend to say, the one who writes an interview to promote your book in the local paper, the reader who captures pictures of the event and makes a reel, the bookstore saints who plan a meal based on the story and serve blue and yellow cupcakes and sing happy birthday to your book on launch day, the readers who show up and get books signed and ask great questions and tell stories about their lives. That’s book magic. And thanks to @townecenterbks (especially Judy and Stacey although I know there are bookstore saints behind the scenes too) and @reneewritesnovels and @woolfmania and @cassandra.a.dunn and @lindalattelessons @aneedleinmybookstack and everyone who showed up to Read it and Eat, I will never ever forget the pub day for Home of the American Circus. You all made it so special. Thank you! I love you. I’m so grateful to be part of the community of writers and readers. ❤️🐘
@deborahblakeauthor RIGHT BACK AT YOU! ❤️❤️❤️
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Well, here we are on the eve of Pub Day for Home o Well, here we are on the eve of Pub Day for Home of the American Circus! 

You know that classic bit of writing advice about how you’re supposed to write the book that scares you? Well, for a long time the thought of actually writing and sharing Home of the American Circus scared the heck out of me. I spent many many years collecting ideas for this book, terrified by the thought of how deep I’d have to dig to tell this story the right way. The book is firmly fiction, and the characters are all my imaginary friends, but the setting and themes are literally and figuratively close to home for me. Freya’s story isn’t mine, we have different life events and demographics, but I understand her sense of grief and loss and floundering and hope on a cellular level. And of all the characters I’ve ever written, the way her mind works is the closest to how I think and feel. It takes place in the town where I grew up. And I think when you read this book, you won’t know my life story, but you will know the tenor of my heart. I grew up as a kid with undiagnosed ADHD in a place where I didn’t fit, frantically trying to look normal, believing it was the only way anyone would love me. Always falling short, terrified of failure. And then in my early twenties, I dropped out of college and worked at a biker bar and made such a huge mess of my life that I was forced to build myself up again brick by brick—this time knowing that failure isn’t the worst thing that can happen to a person. That as long as you can find the strength to try again in one way or another, falling flat on your face is not the end of the world. And I learned that the only way to truly feel loved is to be yourself and see who’s up for loving you in your natural form. The people I keep taught me that. And even though it scared me, this was a book I needed to write, it’s the work I’m most proud of, with characters I love the most. So sharing it doesn’t feel like the end of the world at all. Just the end of the world where I have not shared this novel set in ny hometown with a character who has a heart like mine. #misheardlyrics #rem #homeoftheamericancircus #awkwardguitar #itstheendoftheworldasweknowitandifeelfine
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