Joel Nathanael served three years active duty in the United States Army as an Infantryman. He is currently a student at Des Moines Area Community College; he will be transferring to Iowa State University in spring 2012 to study music and writing. Joel was recently published in the Drake Annual, Periphery 48.
Joel was selected as the winner of the YAPRS Iowa poets performance competition at our benefit in October, and he'll be kicking off the reading with Alex Long and Robyn Schiff on December 1st. We asked him a few questions in anticipation of the reading.
YAPRS: Do you have a favorite book that people who know you might not expect you to like?
JN: My friends are quite aware of my strange proclivities when it comes to my reading selection. Next to my bed at the moment I have Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Before you Leap: A Frogs-Eye View of Life's Greatest Lessons, The Watchmen, Where the Sidewalk Ends, The Book of Five Rings, Bukowski’s Women, and some Carl G. Jung.
YAPRS: What influenced you to begin writing poetry?
JN: I heard Allen Ginsberg’s Howl performed and by the end of it I was hooked. I’ve been consuming as much poetry as I can ever since.
YAPRS: To what do you aspire in your writing?
JN: I have personal goals to attain with my writing, but none of them are as important as serving my desire to communicate.
YAPRS: Is poetry your main form of writing?
JN: Poetry is not quite my main focus when I write. I alternate between poetry, music, lyrics, and recently just finished plotting a story that I am unsure of how to implement. No matter what creative format I use I hold it up to the same set of standards, and as long as it meets those standards I keep it.
Come listen to Joel read on December 1st, 7pm, at Beaverdale Books!
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