John Lithgow Talks to Publishers Weekly About His New Book of Political Poems

Actor John Lithgow has written "an entire book of political verse," says Jason Boog for Publishers Weekly. Boog spoke to Lithgow about the collection, which is forthcoming from Chronicle Prism. From their conversation:

PW: What place does political poetry have in the 21st Century?

Political poetry is an old, old tradition. Politics is in the water right now. Everybody is consumed with politics, the way we get consumed with a drama series that everybody is watching. Political humor is better than it's ever been because, god, we have to have some outlet. There's such an audience for political humor and there are such brilliant entertainers.

I went back and read some Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, and John Gay. In their era, politics was in the water back too. But so was poetry, I presume.

There is a reason why these poets lasted so long. Why they are so classic. It is because they were so big in their era and they tell you so much about the history of their era. They were writing about what was going on.

PW: What was it like illustrating your own book?

I didn't do the drawings at all until I had all the poems done. For an entire month, I did nothing but illustrate. That was hard. I had a studio for a while, and I did oil paintings as a hobby. I do have regrets that I didn't become a painter...

Don't we (almost) all. Read on at PW.