How would you describe what you do?
I'm a former pro skater who writes poems [his previous poetry collections are Out for Air (Penned in the Margins, 2022) and Good Ground (Broken Sleep Books, 2026)]. I don't think anyone's advertising for that particular job, though, unfortunately.
Why do you do it?
It's an impulse I've been responding to, with varying degrees of urgency, since I was a kid. I don't remember making a decision to start writing poems, so it's difficult to find the ‘why'. But I have learned to understand that poems are where I live and skating is who I am.
Who or what inspires you?
Real poetry and poets! Kleinzahler, Seidel, Lowell, Glück, Hofmann, Hughes, Berryman, Olds, Laird, Siobhan Walker.
What creative work got you excited when you were a teenager, and how does it align with what you're into now?
Although I was writing poetry from a young age, I wasn't really reading it until I became an undergraduate. Indie and rock music were the dominant art forms of my teen years – listening, not playing, regretfully. It was through music figures like Jim Morrison that I discovered authors like Jack Kerouac, which led to a deeper dive into Beat literature, which I've since outgrown for better or worse, and literature in general.
How would you describe your experience of working with Palace Skateboards?
I'm wrapping up a third collection manuscript, and have begun work on a new book, which feels so far like it's trying to become a novel in verse. I wonder if it will sustain itself.
What were your thoughts on Palace prior to working with them?
Philippe's, Los Angeles.
What are you currently working on?
I'm wrapping up a third collection manuscript, and have begun work on a new book, which feels so far like it's trying to become a novel in verse. I wonder if it will sustain itself.
Favourite restaurant?
Philippe's, Los Angeles.
Tens of thousands of real human Wallpaper* print edition readers are out there: what is your message to them?
Something about the importance of the written word in print, but they've already got that covered.
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