Scott Beal: “When I was nineteen I wrote a poem called ‘Assessment of My Masculinity,’ and assessments of the idea of masculinity have driven much of my writing since. It’s exciting to be living in a time when all the received notions about gender are being challenged, opened, surpassed. I learn new things every day about how it’s possible to be a person, from my kids, students, friends. ‘Ambiguous Antecedents’ is one of many recent poems that grapples with both the liberation and the danger of stepping beyond the binaries we’re coached into.” (web)
Scott Beal: “I am a recently divorced father with joint custody of two daughters, ages twelve and nine. In high school I had a crush on a girl who carried Anne Waldman and Allen Ginsberg books in her backpack. It mystified me that anyone would read poetry by choice, rather than as a painful school assignment. When Lisa played me a recording of Waldman reading ‘Makeup on Empty Space,’ I got swept up in the energy and nerve of the words. I started writing partly to impress Lisa (which didn’t work), but also to see if I could make words, and the world around them, zip and snap like that.”