WHY DO YOU WRITE POETRY?
I write because I can—because I know how—and I’m pretty sure I do it well. I love words and I want to spread that love. When people read my writing and discover in themselves a reaction that they didn’t know they could have to a piece of writing, their respect for the whole craft of writing increases a little. I don’t see the world in a particularly unique way. People tell me I do, but I don’t think they’re being honest with themselves; I think I see the world just like everyone else, I just have the audacity to know that people will be entertained by an eloquent articulation of their own vision. Someone once called poetry “What oft’ was thought but ne’er so well expressed.” Emerson said that genius was believing that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men; And I want to be a genius in the eyes of Emerson. So I act like one. Then I write about it.

DID YOUR PARENTS WRITE?
My father (H. Allen Mali) was an occasional poet; he wrote “occasional” poems, poems for special occasions (it’s an actual poetic term). My mother’s 38th birthday, his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary, his father’s 80th birthday, my mother’s 50th, my sister’s wedding—certain events would elicit from him wonderful rhyming couplets. It was pure doggerel but it was good doggerel, almost Dr. Seussian. He never had any of his poems published in a book, but my mother (Jane Lawrence Mali) wrote and had published many children’s books (maybe five). She won the National Book Award one year for a book called “Oh Boy! Babies!” about a baby-care class that was taught at my school (The Collegiate School for Boys). The boys got to practice diapering and bathing with real babies! (Most of the mothers who “donated” their babies for the period had sons at the school.) So writing was in my blood. I knew from an early age that words had power.

WHERE DID YOU GO TO GRADUATE SCHOOL?
I went to graduate school in Kansas. Kansas State University. Told me when I was 17 years old that I’d end up going to KSU for grad school, and I would have turned up my nose at you and said, “With the exception of the University of Pennsylvania and a few universities in California, no school that involves the name of the state is any good.” Boy was I wrong! I got great training in graduate school (maintained a perfect 4.0, would you believe?) and learned to love Kansas. I went there to become a better poet, but what I discovered was that I loved teaching. Most of the people I graduated with went on to get their PhDs and are now teaching at the college level. Not me. I wanted to teach students who were younger, to catch them before it was too late.

WHAT WERE YOUR EARLY EXPERIENCES OF THE POETRY SLAM?
I first heard about the poetry slam in maybe October of 1992, during grad school. In the next town over, Lawrence (home of KU, the big rivals of my school, KSU), they held a slam once a month in a strip club called The Flamingo Exotic Dance & Catering Lounge. It was a seedy place, with a mirror on the back wall and a steel pole at the end of the runway. Perfect for a slam. Every fourth Monday, the dancers got the night off and the poets took to the stage, revealing themselves in a completely different sort of way. I’d like to think that some biker came in once and said “Where da goils?” And upon finding out that there were poets instead, he stayed. And he has never been the same since. Did this ever actually happen? No one knows.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR POETS WHO WANT TO GET PUBLISHED?
I tell every young poet who wants to publish a book that there’s no reason not to do it yourself. At least at first. Every poet I know has made a bunch of chapbooks with a laser printer and a Kinkos. What you want a real publisher for? Does it seem like more of an accomplishment when you only make 4% on the sale of each book? If you are a poet, then you are one. And it doesn’t matter if you make your books yourself. You can make a good-looking chapbook at Kinkos for less than $2 per book. Get your friend to draw the cover in black and white ink. Ask your other friend if you can use that photograph she took of you as your author picture. Sell each book for $4 and you’ll be making 100% profit. Any businessman will tell you that’s good. Soon you’ll be LIVING OFF YOUR ART, which is a complicated thing to do, but it feels really good on one level.

WHAT KIND OF EDUCATION DID YOU GET?
Besides college (B.A. in English, Bowdoin College 1987) and graduate school (M.A. in English/Creative Writing 1993), I went to drama school at Oxford University during the summer of 1987. It was a special program called “Oxford in Midsummer” run by Yale Drama School and designed for American actors who want to study with members of the Royal Shakespeare Academy. It was a wonderful experience, but it taught me that I really have no desire to pursue being an actor. If it falls in my lap, fine. But I’d rather write than wait tables. That said, I use my drama training all the time when I am performing poetry.

WHY DO YOU LOVE THE POETRY SLAM?
The most important aspect of slam is that it returns the power to decide what is good and what is bad poetry into the hands of the people from whom that power never should have been wrested: common beer and coffee drinkers! Poetry should be an integral part of the daily common discourse; there should be a constant argument about the quality of poetry and the power of language and the responsibility of the artist in our society. The poetry slam starts the debate.

WHAT’S THE BEST PART OF AN ALL BOYS SCHOOL?
That's a complicated question because I actually feel more strongly about all girls schools, which is to say: Girls gain more from being in a school by themselves than boys do. But since that is a philosophically untenable position, I'll say this: it's great to be able to focus on your studies and your sports and your moral development without having to worry about looking cool in front of girls.

DO YOU THINK THROWING SNOWBALLS SHOULDBE OUTLAWED BY SCHOOLS?
No, but I do know that as a teacher snowballs are a huge problem to deal with because they always end in tears or blood or worse. If I hit you with a snowball in the chest then you have the right to retaliate. That's easy. But what if you miss? Do you have the right to hit me as bad as I hit you? What if you accidentally hit me in the face? Then I have the right to stab you in the eye with an icicle, right? It's a slippery slope.

WHAT WAS YOUR GREATEST HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE?
I loved geometry. All poets do. And I worked so hard on my homework in 10th grade that the teacher invented a new grade, "Elegant," which was a little bit higher than "Excellent." The first trimester, I ruled the class without rival and got an A+: highest grade in the class. But the second trimester, I slipped a little bit and Ray Flores got the highest grade (A+, as opposed to my mere A). So the third trimester we competed really hard against each other. On the final exam, Ray got a 102 and earned an A for the year, and I got a 103, which got me an A+ for the year. Back then, I considered myself a math/science type of person, and for a while after that year I thought I wanted to go to MIT!

WHAT WAS THE MASCOT OF YOUR HIGH SCHOOL?
I went to the Collegiate School for Boys, which was founded by the Dutch in 1628 back when New York City was called New Amsterdam. So I suppose it’s only natural that our mascot was called “The Dutchman,” but he was a ridiculous, cartoonish figure. More like something you might see on the label of a loaf of bread. For crying out loud, he had a pegleg! How are you supposed to intimidate the other team when your mascot is missing a limb!

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINK YOU CAN YOU BENCH PRESS?
It's hard to say how much I could bench press because I only lift one weight these days, my own, which hovers around 200 pounds. I do pull-ups, pushups, and sit-ups; I even have a pair of gravity boots for hanging upside down. Seems healthier and more natural. But back in the day, I think I could press almost 200. Might be able to do 140 now. More important than strength, however, is flexibility, and I have managed to stay very limber because of yoga.