1. Why Poetry?

I write poetry because I have to! It is what’s most natural for me, and it’s been that way for most of my life. When I write fiction, there is a lot of planning, plotting, and forethought, whereas my poetry is written in flourishes of inspiration and spontaneity. I began writing poetry seriously when I was deployed to the Middle East as a soldier, as a means of self-preservation and self-medication, and I suppose all these years later, I still write poetry for the same reasons.

Additionally, as my writing has matured, an added focus has evolved in which I wish to show the sacredness of our shared world and our existence on it. And I endeavor to bring my readers with me to the places I travel to and explore.

2. Tell us about your most recent collection.

My most recent release is my poetry collection Purgatory, released in January 2024. My sixth published full-length poetry collection, Purgatory is perhaps most heavily influenced by the poetic works of Dante Alighieri and the holiness I find interwoven in the mountainscapes of the American West, where I live and explore. Dante’s The Divine Comedy has been the most influential work of literature I’ve read. I read it once a year and every time I take away something new. My last three poetry collections have all been influenced by The Divine Comedy, but Purgatory really doubles down on the journey from despair and suffering toward healing and acceptance. It has already been my most successful book, spending quite some time as the #1 New Release in American Poetry on Amazon, and the reviews for it have so far been a pleasure to read.

3. Give the backstory behind one of your poems

My poem “Tomato” from my collection Purgatory seems to already be a favorite among my readers. It’s one of several long poems contained in Purgatory. There’s a lot to unpack in this poem, which was written primarily in the spontaneous composition style championed by Jack Kerouac’s poetry. It’s a poem about rejuvenation, healing, and regrowth after destruction, comparing a relationship healing to the new verdant growth that rises from a landscape after wildfires. During the time I wrote the rough draft of “Tomato” my wife and I were growing tomatoes in our garden at my home, so that imagery got interwoven into the context of the poem as well. Like the collection Purgatory as a whole, “Tomato” shows that overarching journey in a microcosm, recovery and growth after suffering.

4. Who are 3 poets you always recommend?

I would say Dante Alighieri because his The Divine Comedy changed my life. I’d also say my other favorite epic poets, John Milton, Virgil, Walt Whitman, and Homer. But any of those can be a tall order to dig into, and epic poetry isn’t for everyone.

So, I suppose I would recommend to modern poets and poetry lovers: Jack Kerouac (who’s wild and spontaneous poetry has heavily-influenced my own), Gary Snyder (who so perfectly blends the themes of nature, sacredness, and adventure in his poems), and Swedish indigenous poet Linnea Axelsson (who has written what I consider to be the finest poem of the 21st Century, the epic poem Ædnan).

5.  I am currently reading….

I am currently reading Cockeyed Happy by Darla Worden. I picked up this hardcover nonfiction book at a bookstore in Jackson Hole, Wyoming in late March. It’s about Ernest Hemingway’s Wyoming adventures in my state of Wyoming with his second wife. I’m already familiar with Hemingway’s excursions and adventures in Wyoming’s Yellowstone region and in the Bighorn Mountains of north-central Wyoming, where I frequently hike and go backpacking. But the additional details and research undertaken in this book have been fascinating, even for a longtime Hemingway aficionado like myself who thought I’ve learned all there is to know about the greatest fiction writer of the 20th Century.

This is an exclusive interview with Nicholas Trandahl to commemorate National Poetry Month. The Smart Cookie Philes is a small business and PR firm dedicated to helping indie authors and musicians espresso themselves.

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