Joshua Beckman is a poet and editor at Wave Books in Seattle, Washington. His works include Things Are Happening (1998), Something I Expected to Be Different (2001), Your Time Has Come (2001), Shake (2006), and Take It (2009).
In this interview, Jana La Brasca and Joshua Beckman discuss how the physical world influences his writing, and the poet's interest in diverging from the traditional format of a reading.
"I think the thing that I'm always looking for in the experience of the reading is something that's as transformative as it can be. So that it's not just a pure presentation of something that's complete and something that's been finished, but a part of the living experience of the poems..." Beckman explains. The writer has experimented with injecting more playfulness into readings by conducting them in different environments. For example, he's read on boats off-shore and to audiences looking out of windows.
Joshua Beckman will read at the Crowley Theater on Sunday, February 11 at 6 pm. A reception will follow at 717 W Washington St.
