So you are up on stage. The question I have is ... Do you enjoy reading before a live audience and does that audience influence your reading or your performance?

Jeffrey D. J. Kallenberg

Well, that's an interesting question. I used to not like reading publicly. I've actually gotten to like it a lot more since being at Columbia. I have found that it is really fascinating to hear other people read your poetry and it's fascinating because their phraseology is different than yours, their emphasis -- what they find meaningful is different.

I think one of the hardest things to learn in writing is that once you put something on paper it's really not yours anymore. So if you put it down to reflect something or to express something that's for you the writer. But after it gets out there, if you're fortunate enough that it gets out there, and other people start reading it -- be it publicly or reading it in a book or in a magazine -- then how they take it, how they interpret it is what counts. As much as I've enjoyed reading my poetry lately in public venues, I think I've had a better time listening to others reading it.

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