Meet Kevin Grauke

Kevin Grauke & Ridge Anderson

Kevin Grauke has published poems in The Threepenny Review, The Cincinnati Review, New Ohio Review, Ninth Letter, and The Louisville Review, amongst others. He is the author of the short-story collections Shadows of Men and West of Destry, and a third short-story collection, Bullies & Cowards, is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. He has an MFA from Texas State University and now teaches at La Salle University in Philadelphia.  

The theme for the upcoming edition of Chautauqua Journal is Intervals. How did the idea of Intervals contribute to your decision to submit your writing?

I had recently written the poem that Chautauqua accepted, “Little League Diamond in July,” and I thought it might be a good fit, as it concerns that strange, quiet interval of stillness that sometimes takes place between an average summer day and the sudden arrival and eruption of a massive, late-afternoon thunderstorm. I grew up in North Texas, the heart of Tornado Alley, and I remember these moments vividly.

When you’re beginning a new poem, what’s your first step?

Most of the time it’s the music of a particular string of words, but for this poem, I definitely remember setting out to do my best to capture the very particular moment between the calmness of an average summer day and the violence of an angry thunderhead. It’s an interval that’s simultaneously soothing and terrifying, but I’m not sure whether every part of the country really experiences it. I can’t say that I’ve ever really experienced the same thing in Pennsylvania, which is where I’ve lived for the last twenty-two years.

Do you have any projects that are taking priority with your time right now or that you are particularly excited about?

No, no projects, per se. Right now, I’m just writing poems as they come to me. I try not to push too hard.

What do you find most challenging when creating a collection of your work and how do you overcome that challenge?

For me, at least so far, it’s less about creating a collection and more about looking at all the various little things I’ve written over a period of time and seeing if there’s some theme that potentially binds them together in a meaningful way.

Discover more about Kevin Grauke and explore his books here:https://www.kevingrauke.net/