Samuel Solomon grew up in New York City and spent his twenties in Los Angeles before moving to the U.K., where he is Lecturer in English at the University of Sussex. He completed a PhD on socialist-feminism and innovative U.K. poetry at the University of Southern California and is co-translator of The Acrobat: The Selected Poems of Celia Dropkin (Tebot Bach 2014). His essays, poems, and translations have been appeared in a range of US and UK journals, including differences, Décalages, Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry, htmlgiant, Hi Zero, and Lana Turner, and his chapbook, Life of Riley (2012), is available from Bad Press. He is Co-director of the Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence.
Lydia and Barbara know Sam as a friend and a poet and a beach lover. Also as a beverage innovator (drink recipes c. 2003 coming soon to this blog...), a fellow West Side Story fanatic (Sam makes a wonderful Tony), an amazing story-teller and a delightful pianist. He also once saved Lydia from a fire. And as if that's not enough, he reads the best books, listens to the best music, and watches the best television programs. Both of us have known him since our undergraduate days, so we are to be trusted on every one of these counts.
We'd happily take his advice on anything, and quite honestly life would be better if we were to adopt his packing philosophy, as he elegantly outlines it below.
Minimalist or maximalist?
Food maximalist, Book maximalist, the rest minimalist.
When you last packed to move, what was the thing or collection of things you couldn’t leave without?
Books.
PS! We're over the moon that we'll be publishing Sam's poem Pebble Mine shortly, so please do stay tuned...