NL: Can you share a bio with us?
CL: I am a special and digital collections librarian at Teachers College, Columbia University and sometimes a first thought best thought sort of person. I am also a poet and regularly collaborate and work with All Ways Writing Collective here in Nyack. Our family moved here almost 5 years ago from Brooklyn and can be found frequently enjoying the trails on foot and bike, and of course, visiting the library!

​NL: What are you currently reading? Do you like it?
CL: Every winter I pick up a big, thick classic from Big Red Books that I somehow missed reading along the way. This winter it is Anna Karenina. I think Tolstoy clearly knew what he was doing and I love the book! I am also reading a book of poetry called Standoff by David Rivard which I highly recommend.

NL: If you could have any author speak at Nyack Library, who would it be and why?
CL: Whew. That’s like simultaneously the easiest and most difficult of questions. I am going to go with perhaps the poet Alice Notley or a very old mentor of mine from my days in Las Vegas, and also a poet, Joshua Kryah.

NL: Which character in a book do you most identify with?
CL: Hands down Eumaeus the Swineherd from The Odyssey.

NL: What books are on your night stand?
CL: I have a stack of books from the publisher Song Cave. They publish poetry and have a great yearly subscription. Also: Do Something: Coming of Age Amid the Glitter and Doom of ‘70s New York by Guy Trebay, as well as Black Mountain: An Exploration in Community by Martin Duberman

NL: Are there any books that you feel are overrated?
CL: Sure, but we are each the center of our own universe. One person’s poison is another’s elixir i suppose

NL: Do you have a literary “guilty pleasure”?
CL: Walt Whitman? Just joking. I do happen to get caught up reading books that patrons check out from the library I work at. It is like catching the smallest glimpse into someone else’s temporary life

NL: Are you a re-reader?
CL: I have grown with books over time, and in turn, they have grown with me. I revisit many from time to time, not always in their entirety, but often passages, long or short. Dog-eared pages and annotations are like old friends.

NL: How do you get out of a reading rut? 
CL: Poetry. Poetry is always the answer for me. I also think it is perfectly reasonable to go take a long walk instead of reading, however long that walk might end up being.

NL: Thoughts on prologues? Epilogues?
CL: Read em.

NL: What’s your least favorite book?
CL: Anything Ayn Rand or similar, harmful drivel. Of anything on my bookshelf, I would have to say Fanged Noumena by Nick Land.

NL: If you were to own a bookstore, what would it be like? How would you arrange the books? Would you serve coffee and food? Play music? Where would it be? 
CL: I have always been attracted to informal community spaces (shout out to Sunview Luncheonette). If i had a bookstore, it might try to replicate Mellow Pages Library (RIP) which had a loose membership and really open drop-in vibe for the people. I also love Byron Coley’s YOD, which is basically his insane satellite collection which exists in a functioning storage space up in Massachusetts that is sometimes open. Another space I was always drawn to was Jon Beacham’s (Brother in Elysium) space that was on South 3rd and Havemeyer st. in Williamsburg about a million years ago. He had is old printing press there and you could kind of drop by if he was in, play a few records, have a green tea, and walk away with a pile of books.

NL: Are you a one-book-at-a-time reader? Or do you like reading multiple books at the same time?  
CL: Usually I am reading one book of poetry and one non/fiction.

NL: Do you DNF (do not finish) books or always read until the end?
​CL: It took me a long time to learn that it’s okay to put it down and walk away.