Matthew Fluharty

Author

Matthew Fluharty’s poetry has appeared in The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Hudson Review, Notre Dame Review, Open City, Poetry Ireland Review, and elsewhere. He is the co-editor of Breaking The Skin: New Irish Poetry (Black Mountain Press, Northern Ireland, 2002) and the editor of a 2005 New Irish Poets feature in the journal Éire-Ireland. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Washington University in Saint Louis.

Interviews

Mar 01 2000

An Interview with Li-Young Lee

I feel that the work of poetry is like making potato latkes. Every poem is like a potato latke, that’s all it is. On the other hand, it’s the most important thing a person can do. I suppose it’s because I believe poetry’s work is to uncover a genuine or authentic human identity, an identity even prior to childhood. It’s like the Zen question: What was your face before you were born? I think poetry tries to answer that, to come to terms with an identity that’s ancient and eternally fresh because it is so ancient.

Author