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INTERVIEWS:


INTERVIEW WITH THE WEBMASTER OF THE POETRY SUPER HIGHWAY, RICK LUPERT

 Conducted by Sharida Rizzuto


Q) How did you become involved with creating the Poetry Super Highway?

The PSH started out as a small section of links to other poetry sites on the net . . . it was one web page . . . My goal was to expose as many people to as many other peoples' poetry as possible . . . so I started to feature poets online as well . . . started out with one a week . . . but the submissions were too numerous . . . so I quickly moved up to featuring two . . . soon the link submissions became far too numerous to keep all on one page . . . it all sort of exploded from there with classifieds, a bookstore, a chatoom, contents, annual awards . . . The Poetry Super Highway takes up much more space than the personal section of my website.

Q) What is your background in poetry?

I started writing "seriously" in about 1990 . . . went to a few open readings, was
encouraged by the feedback . . . started sending work to magazines . . . Caffeine Magazine in Los Angeles was the first to publish me which was great because they were nationally recognized (they were written in Spin Magazine) . . . soon had poems in other places, Blue Satellite, The Los Angeles Times, and many other journals and magazines, and have recently had work anthologized in the nationally distributed Caffeine Magazine Anthology (on Incommunicado Press) as well as in the upcoming Juke Joint Magic Spoken Word Anthology.  I give featured readings all over Los Angeles and traveled to Fargo North Dakota! and Las Vegas in August and September to do readings there.  I have four books published.

Q) Are you interested in other types of writing?

I like short story, erotic fiction, humor, absurd novels, and occasionally science fiction. Favorite authors are Richard Brautigan and Harlan Ellison. I also like Douglas Adams, and have a secret passion for Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (please don't tell anyone).  I have also enjoyed Douglas Coupland, Kurt Vonnegut, and Gabriel Garcia-Marquez.

Q) What do you do when you aren't working on your website?

Lots . . . I only work on it a couple hours on Sunday (have it down to a science) . . . I work as a music teacher at a bunch of different Jewish schools in the greater Los Angeles area . . . I bring in my guitar and sing with kids basically.  I also go to lots of readings in L.A. I'm a vegetarian, and I lend to the needs of my two cats, Cleopatra and Tigger.

Q) How difficult was it to create your website?

Not at all . . . though I'm sure it depends on your natural fear (or lack thereof) of learning how to do stuff on the computer . . . it was as simple as simple as laying stuff out in a graphical website creation program, and then learning the easy steps to upload it.  There's tons of very helpful information on the web to help you to do more tricky things, and as it turns out, it's all really easy.

Q) Tell us about the different sections on your site.

My site is huge and my wrists can't last that long . . . but basically the front page leads you to selections from my four books (each of which has sample poems and ordering information), a Judaic links section, a miscellaneous section for poems/stories and real audio of me reading my poems, a calendar of my upcoming readings, a bio of me, . . . and the Poetry Super Highway which features two different poets online each week chosen exclusively from e-mailed submissions, hundreds of categorized links to other poetry sites on the web with descriptions of each one written by the site maintainer/creator, an online bookstore (in association with Amazon.com) where you can peruse the titles which I recommend or search for any book or recording in their huge catalogue an order directly online, an awards section highlighting the winners of last year's Web Sites and Poet of the Year awards which were chosen by e-mailed votes, a contests section with information on the currently running 1998 Poetry Super Highway Contest, an archive section with every single past featured poet's work online, a chat room with regularly scheduled poetry/ writing related events . . . (the chat room is hosted on about 20 different websites and we invite more) and probably a lot more which I can't think of . . . explore!

Q) What type kind of submissions are you seeking?

I seek submissions of any style, length or content.  The idea here is to expose as many people to as many other peoples' poetry as possible.  I sometimes put up work which I'm not that interested in, but which I feel is good work in whatever style it is written . . . it's not about me choosing what I think is better . . . it's about exposing people to other peoples' work.

Q) What has been the response to your site?

It's been very positive . . . I receive tons of submissions for Poet of the week, as well as tons of new link submissions every week . . . there are more than a thousand people on the PSH e-mail list, 20 websites hosting the chat room, plenty of contest entries . . . the only part that could use some help is the chat room . . . although plenty of websites host it . . . few people tend to show up for the events.

Q) Do you think poetry is only enjoyed by a small minority of people?  If so, what do you think would help to interest more people in reading or writing poetry?

I think people participating in live readings is the best way to spark interest.  I do think it's enjoyed by a minority of people.  People tell me all the time that they don't like poetry when they find out I'm a poet . . . though my poetry tends to be humorous so that seems to catch the interest of those who don't normally seek out poetry.  I think there are plenty of engaging poets out there whom the 'uninterested' just don't know about. It's an amazing art form.

Q) What poetry sites do you enjoy on the net?

I think the MiningCompany poetry site is great (http://poetry.miningco.com/) because they get a lot of attention, publish a great free e-mail newsletter and it's a well-designed site.  I also think the Poets and Writers Inc. site (http://www.pw.org) is a fantastic resource for all writers.  As far as individual poets pages, I thoroughly enjoy any sites created by Michael McNeilley as they all look great and have very enjoyable poetry . . . check my links sections for a good starting point to surf through his sites. (He runs the online publication, Zero City, and it's a good starting point.)

Q) What advice would you give to a writer trying their hand at writing poetry for the first time?

I'd tell them they've done a great thing by beginning to explore this art form . . . and I would encourage them to go and read their work at an open reading because it inspires people to write more and is also a good way to get feedback on your work.  And as always reading the work of other people is the best way to improve one's craft.

Q) What are your future plans for the Poetry Super Highway?

Early September we announced the winners of the first poetry contest and sound out the tons of prizes which have been donated . . . also toward the end of the year we will begin the voting for the second annual PSH awards for Favorite poetry websites and favorite featured poet . . . I'd like to expand activity in the chat room, have more interesting events, publication readings, workshops, to boost attendance and create excitement about online poetry.  Also, I've been considering for quite some time adding real audio content . . . but it's a huge task so I don't know how/when that will happen. I'm always open to new ideas.

 Poetry Super Highway
http://PoetrySuperHighway.com