Author Essays, Interviews, and Excerpts

Before Breakfast with Thom Gunn

jacket imageThe blog First Book Interviews is running an interview with Randall Mann, just in time for the publication of his second collection of poems, Breakfast with Thom Gunn.
In addition to giving readers an unvarnished look at the early stages of a poet’s career, Mann discusses how his work has evolved between the publication of his first book, Complaint in the Garden, and his new volume, which comes out next month.
“As I have grown more ragged and unsure, so have my poems,” he told First Book editor Keith Montesano. “The poems are mostly set in San Francisco. There is a queer, I hope unforgiving, anxiety, and a harsher take on love and loss and landscape. I worked on the book for nine years.”
We have a preview of the results.