Patrick Cotter: Love of poetry colors author’s reading habit
Print Edition
PATRICK Cotter, 51, has worked as artistic director of the Munster Literature Center in Cork, Ireland. His published works include the verse novella “The Misogynist’s Blue Nightmare,” “Perplexed Skin” and “Making Music.”
What’s the best book you’ve read recently? What do you like about it?
I’ve been enjoying reading “The History of Anonymity” by American poet Jennifer Chang. I like her poems because of the appreciation she shows for the texture and music of words.
Describe your ideal reading experience.
Poetry, in my bed, on a morning when I don’t have to go to the office.
What was the last book that made you laugh? The last book that made you cry?
The last book that made me laugh and cry was the same: Billy Collins’ “Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems.”
What does your personal book collection look like? Do you organize your books in any particular way?
I have begun to run out of shelf space in my house. The Irish poet Patrick Galvin once wrote about an old man who got rid of all the furniture from his house to make way for more books. He sat on his books and ate his meals off his books. I’m afraid I will end up like that old man.
Do you have a favorite childhood literary character or hero?
My favorite childhood literary character was William Brown, created by the English author Richmal Crompton. His childhood had much in common with my own. He played outdoors, was a member of a boys gang who fought harmlessly with other boy gangs, attended a school where corporal punishment was common and generally sought to alter the reality of the world with the power of his imagination.
Do you have a favorite classic work of world literature? Why?
I have always loved Mikhail Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margharita.” I like this novel because it describes a world where politics matters. Leon Trotsky famously said: “You might not be interested in war but war is interested in you.” Politics is the same. As individuals, we may choose to avoid politics but politics will always come to us in the end. I also like the novel for its great sense of humor and its surreal depiction of reality.
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