Peter Serchuk
Peter Serchuk was born and raised in New York and currently lives in Los Angeles. He attended college and graduate school in the Midwest before stumbling on a career in the advertising business, working in Detroit, St. Louis, New York and Los Angeles. His poems and review-essays have appeared in a variety of journals including Boulevard, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Hudson Review, Denver Quarterly, North American Review, New York Quarterly, Poet Lore, Texas Review, South Carolina Review and many others. Additionally, a number of his poems have been anthologized, most recently in Against Agamemnon: War Poetry (WaterWood Press) and The Best American Erotic Poems 1800 to the Present (Scribners). He is the author of two collections: Waiting for Poppa at the Smithtown Diner (University if Illinois Press) and All That Remains (WordTech Editions). His poem “Heyday” from All that Remains was read by Garrison Keillor on NPR in 2013. Read more at PeterSerchuk.com.
What is your creative process?
I have two windows during the day in which to write. First, between 5:30 and 6:30 in the evening (after work, before dinner). And then again, more seriously, between 9:30 and 11:00 at night. As I live in California, I write outside, year ’round, on a covered porch. I even have a restaurant-style heater so I can still write outside when night-time temperatures are in the 40’s. Most of my poems are written and rewritten over time. I don’t think I’ve ever written a complete poem in one or two sittings. In fact, as I have always kept journals, many of my poems are years in the making–or at least years in the making before I’ll finally leave them alone and stop revising. I even revise poems after they’ve been published. Something always seems like it could be better.
What are you reading right now?
Recently, I’ve been re-reading a couple of plays by Arthur Miller, All My Sons, and The Price, both incredible to experience on the page as well as on the stage. I’ve also been reading Jeffery Harrison’s book of poems Into Daylight and Sue Roe’s The Lives of the Impressionists.
What are your favorite books of all time?
The list is too long. In fiction, it’s loaded with titles from Hemingway and Faulkner, to Bellow and Roth, to Malamud, Irving, Russo, Francine Prose, T.C. Boyle, Dave Eggers, Gary Shteyngart and others. In poetry, titles from Williams to Frost to Roethke, Hugo James Wright, Stafford, Dunn, Strand, Kooser, Oliver, Hoagland, Laux, Clifton, Billy Collins, Richard Jones, George Bilgere and many more. And then there are the plays… see what I mean.