Ask the Author: Anthony Watkins
Answered Questions (17)
Anthony Watkins
no worries on the time line, thanks for responding! yes, i do think its odd that you can only ask questions:)
Anthony Watkins
Thank you! what mandatory punctuation are you speaking of? if you have read much of my work, you know i am violently at war with the conventions of the english language, especially punctuation. yes, we are discouraged from leaving comments in the poetry contest submissions section, but they are always welcome here, as well as at our publication betterthanstarbucks.org, and on my wordpress blog. i love comments, even when i dont always love THE comments:) i did appreciate both the fact that you commented and the content of you comment. i hope you respond about the punctuation, as i am truly curious.
Anthony Watkins
No. I wish! I love the script. I have begun to incorporate into my poetry because of the way it looks translated into Bengla. unfortunately, i have to trust Google translate.
Anthony Watkins
This has been a time of transition for me: My father's passing, and the disposal of his estate, though not large, is still time consuming, I have changed jobs twice in the past 6 months, and am again in search of employment, so i have been more focused on intense reading of Wallace Stevens, in the SloPo section of ModPo on Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo/...
as well as intense readings of two short stories the first Symbols and Signs by Nabokov and the second Teddy by JD Salinger. I have been reading and writing poetry and stories for over 50 years and I am still amazed at ho little i understand the written word!
as well as intense readings of two short stories the first Symbols and Signs by Nabokov and the second Teddy by JD Salinger. I have been reading and writing poetry and stories for over 50 years and I am still amazed at ho little i understand the written word!
Anthony Watkins
There are several minor mysteries in my life, and all the people who know the answers are dead. I dont know that any of them could rise to the level of holding a mystery together for a whole book. As it happens, I am in a start and stop pattern of collecting sketches of my life. it was pretty colorful and diverse in a lily white and fairly safe sort of way. My life is more of a series of snapshots that I would like to curate before I die. I expect to finish the collection well before I pass on into whatever comes next, but then I am hoping for another 30 years, with no assurance of getting them. The first installment was published as Black Snakes and Happy.
Anthony Watkins
Abel and Rima of Green Mansions is my first answer. Probably because I was a hopeless romantic when I read it as a teenager, and because I don't really think of couples when I read. But then, for a writer, I am a funny reader. I read for the mystical experience and not for some deeper understanding. If I feel the writer has a message about anything, and especially about relationships, I get turned off pretty quick. I like stories that feel like the characters drove, not the other way around. Maybe Antonio and the narrator in My Antonio...
Anthony Watkins
i never know until someone tells me.
Anthony Watkins
breathing, except goodreads has decided that is too short of an answer
Anthony Watkins
i get three ideas for a book every day, sometimes more. if only i could write a book ina day, i might be able to finish a novel!
Anthony Watkins
its kind of like th best thing about being left handed, if you are writer it is simply who you are. if i could not write i might explode, so i guess the best thing about being a writer is not exploding.
Anthony Watkins
be honest. nobody wants your overstylized cliches, use honest words and tell an honest story
Anthony Watkins
Actually, they are listed here on my author page
Anthony Watkins
i'll let you know when i run into it. my biggest problem is staying focused long enough to finish anything longer than a 2000-3000 word blog post
Anthony Watkins
I had entered my books painstakingly at Shelfari over a period of years and then I used the importer from Goodreads i had do it a couple of times as it didnt want to work the first time. seems like i googled how to import booksto goodreads and found something that worked. Good luck.
Anthony Watkins
Thank you! I have woefully under educated in formal poetry training until recently when i lucked upon the MOOC at U of Penn, ModPo. I highly recommend it, and it is FREE!
Prior to that, I had the good fortune to have two of my all time favorite poets as friends and mentors Dr. James Lancaster and Brenda Black White. Of the better known poets, Billy Collins, Gertrude Stein (whose influence is heavy in this poem), William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. I am not consciously influenced by Wallace Stevens, but I have read him a bit and find him masterful.
Prior to that, I had the good fortune to have two of my all time favorite poets as friends and mentors Dr. James Lancaster and Brenda Black White. Of the better known poets, Billy Collins, Gertrude Stein (whose influence is heavy in this poem), William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. I am not consciously influenced by Wallace Stevens, but I have read him a bit and find him masterful.
Anthony Watkins
Most of my poems are available at my wordpress site
https://anthonyuplandpoetwatkins.word...
https://anthonyuplandpoetwatkins.word...
Anthony Watkins
Carlos, that's really cool. Are you acting in any local poetry groups? I used to run one in west palm beach but I could not keep it going after our venue closed.
---UPDATE--
We are now meeting once per month as ModPo South!!!! Please join us. This month's meeting is at the lantana rd branch of the public library 3-5 this Sunday, Feb 12. Just show up and ask for the modpo group(I think there might be another poetry group thee at the same time!)
Phone Number: (561) 304-4500
Address:
4020 Lantana Road
Lake Worth, FL 33462
---UPDATE--
We are now meeting once per month as ModPo South!!!! Please join us. This month's meeting is at the lantana rd branch of the public library 3-5 this Sunday, Feb 12. Just show up and ask for the modpo group(I think there might be another poetry group thee at the same time!)
Phone Number: (561) 304-4500
Address:
4020 Lantana Road
Lake Worth, FL 33462
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