Tommy Pico will be reading at Free Water #8 on Friday, August 14th, at KGB, at 7 p.m. along with Morgan Parker, Lynn Melnick, and Angel Nafis.

What is the best poetry advice you’ve received?

Tommy Pico: Milk, milk, lemonade: around the corner, verse is made! Juuuust kidding. I think it was probably something like, “don’t be so vain” both with regard to my nerves while reading in front of people, and being too precious with the “I” of the poem. Like the speaker or whoever shouldn’t be the hero, the smartest, the best, the most witty or the most complex.

What are you currently working on?

Pico: Right now I’m trying to finish a book-length poem called Nature Poem, and understanding the features of my like ancestral anger at America generally.

In a previous interview with EKR, Britt said “everything is sound.” So if everything is sound, how would you describe yours? Or, disagree:

Pico: I think abt this a lot, and I’m pretty sure I sound like Ursula the Sea Witch + Fran Drescher + Barry White + Nicki Minaj but don’t quote me on that.

What is the last book you read?

Pico: I just finished the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang–I loved comic books as a kid, but more the super hero stuff, and am a little late to the whole “graphic novel” party. I am truly astounded by how much in common some of these comics have with poetry, and how similarly you can read them.

What is your favorite drink?

Pico: Watermelon or Blood Orange ANYTHING literally ANYTHING like I wd probably drink strychnine if you said it was blood orange flavor. Also hint hint it’s nearly my half birthday so keep b.o. in mind.

Find Tommy Pico on Tumblr at heyteebs.tumblr.com or on Twitter @heyteebs and in real life at Free Water 8 on August 14th at KGB Bar. Follow Freewater on Twitter @FreeWaterArts.