Interview with Stephen Barile
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Stephen Barile is an award-winning poet from Fresno, California, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. He attended Fresno City College, Fresno Pacific University, and California State University, Fresno. His poems have been anthologized, and published in numerous journals, both print and on-line. He
taught writing at Madera College, and CSU Fresno.
​How do you see your poems connect to the larger patterns or styles you explore in your poetry and writing?
I’ve been fixated on environmental disasters over history that have occurred near where I live and grew up. For instance, the disappearance of Tulare Lake, once the largest freshwater lake in the west to farm cotton in the lake bottom. My writing and poems explore different facets of various dilemma, with a lot of emphasis on the role of the Native American and their relationship to the natural world. So the connections I make are of the larger pictures and their consequential effects into the future.
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How might your poems respond, overlap, or build on each other?
Other than being written by me, the poems connect like tree roots connect with roots of other trees and communicate. Mostly warning, I’m sure. Trees respond at a different speed, much slower, with warnings often unheeded.
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What's one question about poetry you've been wanting to ask others?
Have you read any? Here, read mine. Or, why don’t you read poems? What preconceived notions do you have about reading poetry? Could be, the answer to the question you are looking for can be found in a poem undiscovered somewhere.
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What's something you want to write about or on your writing "to-do" list?
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Something I’m trying to write about is the Tulare Lake in its natural existence before the white man presented himself. The abundance of flora and fauna, the waterfowl, the stillness of the lake water.
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If you were to create a 2025 Writing Wrapped, inspired by Spotify Wrapped, what is one thing you would definitely see there?
Here’s five:
the wild delight of wild things, by Brian Turner
Carpet Weavers, by Brenda Najimian Magarity
Souls on Fire, Selected Poems, by Yegheshé Charents
How to Continue, by Matthew Zapruder
King Sequoia, by William C. Tweed
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What's something you like to do outside of writing that inspires your writing?
Sleep. Something I picked up from a playwriting professor in college, who hurried home every day to take a nap. It’s a great source of inspiration, short of love, and full of wild ideas. He recommended it. I think it has improved my poetry.