PoorArts.com Interview
Born and raised on Long Island, educated at Fordham University, and toughened by four years of service in the United States Navy, Pete Vanderberg lives in Astoria, Queens.
Pete Vanderberg
Poet, teacher, bon vivant
 
Pete Vanderberg’s poetry finds the beauty in everyday forms and situations.
 
Books
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For sale by the author, contact here
 
Read him on PoorArts
 
Pete’s links
PoorArts.com:  Pete, you are a teacher of English and Art.  How does your teaching inform your writing?
 
Pete Vanderberg:  I think it’s important for an artist to stay in constant practice.  Teaching keeps me in contact with vital texts and ideas.  It forms a good habit of mind.
 
PA:  What about your naval career?

PV:  What about it?
 
PA:  Has that influenced your writing?
 
PV:  I’m sure it has, but I probably wouldn’t be the one best fit to articulate how.  I’m sure it affects me in ways I’m mostly unaware of.
 
PA:  I don’t know if you necessarily agree with this viewpoint, but it seems to me increasingly difficult to carve a niche for oneself as a poet.  Poetry is being written.  How can we get more people to experience it?
 
PV:  I do agree.  I think the market for all literary arts has become frighteningly small.  We’ve taken a turn away from poetry and literary fiction into other avenues that are seen as more expressive.  Art certainly isn’t dead; it’s shifting.  I think the strength of a few individual voices could bring certain elements out to more people, though.
 
***
 
Pete read from his most recent poetry at Waltz Astoria on Monday, 30 January 2006.  Many in attendance appreciated the local color and fine lyricism of Pete’s verse.  Click here for more information or visit the Waltz Astoria Main Page.