"Failing Relentlessly" with Carlos Andrés Gómez (Reach the Stars Podcast Episode 5)
On the 5th episode of Reach the Stars Podcast, we travel back in time to 1999 when the internationally renowned poet, author, and actor, Carlos Andrés Gómez, had just discovered slam poetry.
Learn about his decade of dominating the poetry slam world and his journey out of that world and into one of winning book awards instead. And learn about your host, Janna Willoughby-Lohr's own journey into and out of the slam poetry scene.
During the "Five Questions time" at the end of the show, Carlos talks about his unique attitude towards failure and how he believes that it is necessary to fail to accomplish anything.
Carlos's long-awaited, full-length poetry book, Fractures, is the winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, was published in October 2020, and you can order your copy here: https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5990.htm
In his poems, Gómez casts an uncompromising eye toward both brutality and tenderness, going where we are most uncomfortable and lingering in moments of introspection that reveal the fear, grief, or hatred.
His chapbook, HIJITO, was the winner of the Foreword INDIES Gold Medal, IndieReader Discovery Award, Broken River Prize & the International Book Award for Poetry.
Order HIJITO (#1 SPD Bestseller): https://platypuspress.co.uk/hijito
And (as if he wasn't awesome enough), his OTHER best-selling book, a memoir called Man Up--Reimagining Modern Manhood, can be purchased here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/311620/man-up-by-carlos-andres-gomez/9781592408078
And in case you have never heard his poems out loud, go here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1593846697582433&extid=7cY8LLRWmxbbMsdF