Episode 53: Tommy Pico
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Rachel Zucker speaks with poet Tommy Pico about his first three books: IRL, Nature Poem, and Junk. Pico talks about epic cycles, the birdsong, growing up on a Kumeyaay reservation, becoming a poet, the culture shock and class shock of going to college in the Northeast, deciding not to go to medical school, training himself to become a performer, his influences and the teachers who helped him stop taking the easy way out and write longer work, learning to write no matter what, letting his voice open up, going from being unknown except in the world of local readings and zines to a headliner reading to a packed house, the craft, form and function of his books, the importance of being alone, the reason he loves long poems, experiments in screenwriting, genre, traveling for work, his podcast Food 4 Thot and so much more.
Books by Tommy Pico
Junk (Tin House, 2018)
Nature Poem (Tin House, 2017)
IRL (Birds LLC, 2016)
Other Writers and Books Mentioned in the Episode
William Carlos Williams’ Paterson (New Directions, 1995)
Robert Graves’ The White Goddess (FSG, 2013)
Claudia Rankine’s Don’t Let Me Be Lonely (Graywolf, 2004)
Maggie Nelson’s Jane (Soft Skull, 2013)
Alice Notley’s The Descent of Alette (Penguin, 1996)
The Monster at the End of this Book (Golden Books, 2003)
Other Relevant Links
