EXCLUSIVE: Poet Theresa Stern Takes Classicalite's Mini-Proust Questionnaire

Theresa Stern was born on October 27, 1949, of a German Jewish father and a Puerto Rican mother in Hoboken, N.J., directly across the Hudson from New York City.

She still lives there, alone, where all the poems in her book WANNA GO OUT? were written over a four month period in the summer and fall of 1971.

She has since devoted that of her time not spent in flipping coins to composing a love story, THIN SKIN.

It describes the murder, in ten chapters fired by Theresa, of her closest friend.

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Gored by Beethoven, inside a little bottle out of wood.
2. What is your greatest fear?
A stranger has a cigar and is observing geese pass across the moon like an intricate model ship or symphonic violins. And all I can do is dream of mud. Oh, mud!
3. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
Rimbaud, probably.
4. What is your favorite journey?
Leaving the Port Authority.
5. On what occasion do you lie?
When I need to publish.
6. What do you dislike most about your appearance?
Hell's nose, Verlaine's ears.
7. Which living person do you most despise?
Mina Caputo, easily.
8. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
WANNA GO OUT?
9. What is your greatest regret?
A tree for a tattoo.
10. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
My box of chocolates, when they start singing "This Is My Father's World."

TagsEXCLUSIVE, Classicalite's Proust Questionnaire, Theresa Stern