The Sweeneys Poetic

Probably the best part of my job as a freelance writer, aside from actually getting paid to write, is that I get to interview people I likely wouldn't have much contact with outside of a professional context. Lately this has included a number of writers, including Audrey Niffenegger ("The Time Traveler's Wife," "Her Fearful Symmetry") and horror novelist Joe Schreiber ("No Doors, No Windows," "Death Troopers"), both of whom are currently on the New York Times Best Sellers list for Hardcover Fiction at spots 18 and 20, respectively.

At the end of October I also had the opportunity to interview Jennifer and Chad Sweeney, two Kalamazoo-based, award-winning poets who will be giving a reading here at the Kalamazoo Public Library at 7 p.m. Nov. 10. Jennifer's latest collection, "How to Live on Bread and Music" (Perugia Press, 2009) won both the 2009 Perugia Press Prize and the Academy of American Poets' 2009 James Laughlin Award, the only second-book award for poetry in the United States. Chad's work appeared in "The Best American Poetry 2008," and his latest collection, "Arranging the Blaze" (Anhinga Press, 2009), clocks in at 106 pages and took him nearly 15 years to write.

The two are currently on a reading tour together down in Florida. Check them out on their Wikipedia pages, here for Jennifer and here for Chad.