Description

Larry McCaffery and Sinda Gregory interview Kenneth Gangemi in Gangemi’s New York City apartment. After a discussion of travelling through the American Southwest, the interview begins with a discussion of Gangemi’s poetry. Gangemi explains the way his “list poems” are created. Gangemi explains how his work as a bartender has informed his writing. There is a discussion about “nonsense” writing, both by Gangemi and others. Gangemi describes his educational and literary background. Gangemi discusses the influence of film on his writing, specifically The Interceptor Pilot and The Volcanoes from Puebla. The last fifteen minutes of the conversation centers around San Diego as the three of them look at a map and discuss the area. Throughout the conversation, various authors and books are mentioned with Gangemi often pulling a book off a shelf and discussing it in detail with McCaffery and Gregory. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 80 to 101 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.