Official Interview: Rex W. Last

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Official Interview: Rex W. Last

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Today's Chat with Sarah features Rex W. Last author of Making Sense of Poetry.

Official Review

Amazon (Free on Kindle Unlimited)

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1. What do you do when you aren't writing?

Binge on Netflix and Amazon Prime, especially foreign language stuff. Also research on my next book on caring for people with dementia. My wife had PD which became dementia, and she is now in a care home, so I visit her a lot. Listening to classical music (Saint-Saens, Finzi, Elgar, Messian, Chopin, a really eclectic mix).

2. What person or resource was most important to you while writing?

Difficult to say. Personal experiences rather than dusty tomes of information.

3. Let's discuss your book Making Sense of Poetry. Why did you decide to write a book about interpreting poetry?

Because I wanted to record the way I taught poetry to my university students. It’s not about po-faced seriousness, or accepting received ideas, nor is it about elitism. It’s compressed language and expression and the student needs to have a set of techniques to be able to listen to what poetry has to say. See also my answer to question six.

4. Who would you say is your ideal audience for the book?

Anyone who loves poetry, but also those who were put off at school or elsewhere by the very notion of the stuff. Give it another try. It won’t hurt and you may unlock a whole new world of understanding, emotion and experience. I offer a painless (I hope) way of achieving this.

5. Have you written your own poetry? If so, is there any included in the book?

Gosh no. There’s enough out there without me polluting the environment. However, I have met and known several poets, mainly German, but also Philip Larkin who was a librarian at Hull University where I lectured for many years. But, I did publish some translations of poetry by Dadaist poets, notoriously difficult to translate. One of those poems by Hans Arp, published in a Tate Modern collection, features in Making Sense 2. See answer to question 8. (PS for US readers, the Tate Gallery is one of the key art collections in the UK and Modern is one of its spin-offs).

6. The reviewer mentions that there is humor infused throughout the book. Why did you feel that was important?

Absolutely. Well spotted! I always half-jokingly told my students that my educational technique was to tell a joke and slip in a fact or two while they were still laughing. Also, don’t take anything too seriously, especially poetry and those folk who practise what I call the ooh-ahh school of poetry reading, who fall on their knees as the small hairs on the back of their necks stand quivering up. Get people to enjoy learning and expanding their world.

7. What do you know now that you wish you'd known at the beginning of your writing/publishing journey?

How the publishing world would explode with the computing revolution. When I started reviewing for the Times Literary Supplement many moons ago, I was presented with galleys to proof and actually witnessed some of my first book being printed on a hot letterpress machine in the back of a printer’s shop in a nearby town. Now? The ease of publishing and the shift of power to the writer is great, but the downside is that there are far too many books of dubious merit cluttering up the electronic bookshelves and it’s very hard to get one’s work a fair hearing. Also, too many first-time writers don't go through a proper period of apprenticeship. My first novels are up in the attic, if the mice haven't got them, and there they will stay.

8. Do you have anything in the works?

Yes. Since retirement, I have written 4 novels subtitled Germans against Hitler, two of which so far I have submitted to your scrutiny. Both got four stars (thank you). Number five is at the note scribbling stage. Also as I mentioned earlier I am committed to helping unpaid carers for folk with dementia and am working on my second book in that area. The first is under a pseudonym (Bill King) to protect family, and it’s Parkinsons – The Slippery Slope to Dementia. Also, I’m working on another Making Sense of Poetry 3. Number two in that series – Making Sense of Unseen Poems – is now out. See my website www.locheesoft.com.

I like to end with fun questions.

9. I feel it's only fair to ask who your favorite poet is.


Not chickening out here, but the answer I want to hear from students is ‘the one I am reading at the moment’. I don’t go for ‘favourites’ in literature or poetry. I also find that the interaction between reader and poet changes radically as the reader matures and increases in their knowledge. I loved Robert Frost and Coleridge as a student but am so disappointed when I return to them now. Maybe it’s me. On the other hand I couldn’t understand Gerard Manley Hopkins or Rilke or Celan in German, but I think I do now.

10. Can you name a few books on your to-read list?

Apart from medical books on dementia (highly recommended is Kitwood’s book, the later edition edited by Professor Dawn Brooker), I am going through a pile of non-fiction on Berlin in the aftermath of World War Two and trying to figure out how much humanity was destroyed along with the physical damage.

11. What's your biggest fear?

Dunno. Reminds me of the joke: It’s all right, Mr Jones. You aren’t paranoid. They are after you.

12. Where in the world would you like to travel or where have you traveled that you most enjoyed?

Many years ago when my wife, Oksana, was well we went to Fuerteventura, before the last of the big Canary Islands was overrun by tourists. The locals on Lanzarote would say then that if you watched the island of an evening, the lights went out at 8pm. That was the time everyone went to bed. The food was particularly great.
A book is a dream you hold in your hands.
—Neil Gaiman
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Post by Ramon Scott »

Very incredible interview. The author strikes me as a funny person with a great personality. Definitely enjoyed it.
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Chandelier Eden
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Post by Chandelier Eden »

Oh wow... I love poetry!!! It's the writer's humility for me, "There is enough poetry out there..." and his sense of humor is super nice.
Nice interview.
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Eleni Antonopoulou
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Post by Eleni Antonopoulou »

Maybe this book is for me after all! All those people who love poetry but were put off at school. Great interview!
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