Noel Sloboda Interview

For iTunes users:



Noel Sloboda currently lives in Pennsylvania, where he serves as dramaturg for the Harrisburg Shakespeare Festival and teaches at Penn State York. His poetry has appeared in a number of places, including Chronogram, Waterways, BLOW, Cape Rock, Blue Earth Review, Ghoti, Free Verse, erbacce, and the Ottawa Arts Review.

This summer sunnyoutside will be releasing Noel's chapbook, Shell Games.

We take all things Keyhole-related very seriously...here's an example of our dedication to making things happen (note from the interviewer, Brandon Schultz):
"I decided that I'd conduct the interview at work because it’s quiet in the afternoons after everyone leaves. So I chose the small conference room and got all of my stuff in there: laptop, power cable, mouse and mouse pad, a can of soda. I stepped outside to get one last thing and the door shut and locked behind me. I started freaking out a little because the interview was in fifteen minutes. I pulled and yanked on the knobs and crammed credit cards into the crevice of the door, anything I could think of to get inside. But of course I didn’t get the door open. A guy that works evenings in the lab, came down the hall and asked if he could help. He tried everything I tried—crappy library cards in the door slot and an unfurled paperclip in the keyhole. But then I got an idea: go through the drop down ceiling in an open office adjacent to the small conference room. I had a stepladder in my office, but it was far too small, so Stephen offered to let me climb on his back. Now I’m sure this looked rather funny: I’m about 130 pounds soaking wet and Stephen is closer to 300 pounds (also, as an aside: he looks exactly like Kevin Smith and is always eating chocolate cake and reading the funnies). Anyway, I heaved myself over the giant walls and came pummeling down to the ground like John Candy hanging Christmas lights. Hurt my ankles a little bit and had a whole bunch of insulation in my hair, but I was otherwise ok. The interview went well. Noel’s a nice guy, and you'll get to hear him talk thanks to my catlike reflexes and my ninja skills."