“I have to live this life. I have to be a poet.”: An Interview with Alex Dimitrov

By Harriet Staff

Alex Dimitrov took part in an interview with The L Magazine.

He talks about his work,:

For our readers who may not be familiar with your work, what’s the most accurate thing someone else has said about it?

It’s great when people I don’t know write to me, over Facebook or Twitter or email, and say that they strongly respond to a particular poem. I remember one person told me that he enjoyed the stripped down, accessible nature of my poems and that it provoked a visceral, emotional response in him. I love that. My best friend Rachel recently told me that one of her friends described my poems as Romantic, as being in dialogue with Romanticism. I love that too. It’s really important to me that my poems connect with people on a personal level.

the works of others,:

What have you read/watched/listened to/looked at/ate recently that will permanently change our readers’ lives for the better?

So much. I love Henri Cole’s new book of poems, Touch. Owen Jones’s new and first book, Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class. I like Nico Muhly’s last CD, A Good Understanding. I’ve been raving about Riccardo Tisci’s last collection for Givenchy to everyone. Anthony Goicolea’s photographs. Terence Koh’s recent work. I’m so into Dorothea Lasky’s poems. This one, “The Poetry that is going to matter after you are dead” is one of my favorites and you can hear her read it here.

potentially embarrassing things,:

Have you ever written anything that you’d like to take back?

Not yet! But I’d like to sleep with Owen Jones, whose book I mentioned earlier. I’m probably going to regret telling you that. It’s ok, he lives in London so I can’t run into him on the street. I’ll have a new crush by next week anyway.

and more! Make the jump!

Posted in Interviews on Thursday, September 15th, 2011 by Harriet Staff.