Blog Tour: Sam Love and his collection 'Awakening'

It has been a pleasure to work on the publication of passionate eco poet, Sam Love. His collection 'Awakening' addresses critical contemporary environmental issues. It is suitable for poetry lover, eco experts and eco beginners! Read our interview with Sam below and check out the reviews on the tour poster...

How would you describe your writing style, and this collection in turn?

I tend to write free form poetry that explores the cracks in our culture, particularly what we are doing to the planet. Often my poems contain a dash of humor and irony and are often classified as eco poetry.

Which writers do you love and admire?

This could be a long list but it has to include many of the eco poets including Wendell Berry, Thoreau, and Gary Snyder. I have currently fallen in love with poems by Joy Harjo who is the first native American poet laureate of the United States. My favorite contemporary North Carolina poet is Peter MaKuck whose imagery is virtually 3 D because it is so visual.

More about the author

Sam Love’s interest in the environment started with reading Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring as a teenager in rural Alabama. He vividly remembers watching for entertainment the airplane crop dusters spraying pesticides on the fields near his house.

In 1970 he worked on the national staff of the first Earth Day as the Southern Coordinator and later edited the magazine Environmental Action. He has written freelance articles on the energy and the environment for magazines such as Smithsonian and Washingtonian.

Currently he lives in New Bern, NC where he is president of Nexus Poets that organizes a monthly poetry reading. He considers it as good a place as any to observe the drama that currently passes for Western Civilization.

His poetry has been widely published in numerous publications including Kakalak, Slippery Elm, Voices on the Wind, The Lyricist, Flying South, Sleet, Burningword, and other publications. Eno published by Duke University has published six of his environmental poems and his poetry has also been featured on Poetry in Plain Sight posters throughout North Carolina. One of his poems Blueberry Mourning was published in the international anthology Planet in Peril.

His full-length poetry book, Cogitation, is available from Unsolicited Press. His illustrated children’s book My Little Plastic Bag is available in Spanish and English and has won numerous awards including a Nautilus Award.