Each day in April, in honor of National Poetry Month and our third anniversary issue (find out how to get a copy HERE), we are running an interview with a poet who has been published in Gyroscope Review. Read on.
National Poetry Month Interview Series: Interview with Poet Kake Huck
How will you celebrate National Poetry Month? By contributing to a local haiku tree on the Deschutes River (a tree on which local haiku poets hang poems).
Pen, pencil or computer first? Depends on whether or not I have a view. If I’m somewhere with a view of big water, I use a fountain pen. If I’m stuck at home, I use the computer. Coffee shops are also good places in which to use fountain pens.
Who/what are your influences? Big water (that’s the view thing) and that wonderful collection of readings, “In Their Own Voices: A Century of Recorded Poetry.” Also I’m influenced by the members of my poetry group, Skyhooks. We’ve been meeting once a month for over a decade. How could I not be influenced?
What topic is the hardest for you to write about and why? It’s hard for me to write about food because eating is just more enjoyable than writing about eating. Also, I can’t say anything about food that’s not spread thickly with clichés.
What was the worst writing idea you ever had? Back before the Interweb, I wrote erotica and tried my hand at an erotic novella. Unfortunately, the characters would not keep to their appointed roles and the blond Candy-type chick at the center of the book gradually gave up her sweetness and long hair and became a kick-ass rebel more interested in beating than fucking the guys I was sending to seduce her. Sigh. That’s the problem with my fiction writing — it always goes out of control.
What authors do you love right now? Lin-Manuel Miranda, Judith Montgomery, WH Auden, Marion Davidson, Dame Julian of Norwich, and always, always Agatha Christie.
What is the most important role of poets in 2018? Sorry. I don’t think poets have an important role in the United States (except maybe Lin-Manuel Miranda). As WH Auden wrote, “Poetry makes nothing happen.”
Where do you go when you need to recharge? The Oregon coast.
What is your favorite end-of-the-day drink? A peaty Islay or Highland single malt.
Kake Huck lives in Central Oregon. Her poem, “Tod Browning’s Freaks (1932)”, appeared in the Spring 2017 issue of Gyroscope Review. Find her on Instagram @kakehuck2014.