Coming Events

Leading up to the reading of his newest project, “The Box of Torrone,” at Soldato on April 14th from 6:30-8:00pm, John J. Trause came in to talk about inspirations for his newest publication, seeking out community as a writer, and (of course) torrone.

Mia Guzzo: Could you share some of your creative and professional background? 

John J. Trause: My professional background is in librarianship. I’m currently the director of the Oradell Public Library and I've been there since March of 2010 … I started off at the Elizabeth Public Library in 1987 and worked there until 1991. When I started work there, I was put in a professional position but there was no other distinction maybe between me and the other librarians. The only thing is I had a promise to go to library school, which I really wasn't going to do, but within two weeks I knew this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  My professional literary background started in high school… but it wasn't until college that I started taking it seriously. Originally I only shared my work with friends and family, but then it was a classmate, David Messineo, at Fordham University who really pushed me to start taking it seriously, to submit to his newly founded college literary journal Alternative Motifs, and to participate in readings and that type of thing.

MG: It seems like it was very community-based, right?

JJT: Yes. Well, everything I do is community based; my job-- obviously, being a director of a library-- but also my outlook on literature has always been looking back on tradition, in recognizing that very few writers write in isolation. They might write on their own, but it's always within a community. I mean, there were some exceptions, but for the most part, it's communities that produce culture. 

MG: In what way do you think that community found its way into this specific collection? How did tradition and passing that along form this collection? 

JJT: Well,  this collection is very much experimental. I mean, there's some traditional work in there, but so much of it is just visually experimental. Some of the biggest influences on my writing are the early Modernists who did kind of form a community. There was no distinction. You know, you had painters who also were poets. So, the book itself really connects very strongly with the traditions that developed in the late 19th into the 20th century.  Even if people may not have disagreed aesthetically, they still formed and they still created. Modernism-- capital M. 

MG: You have to be around people to be able to disagree with them. 

JJT: Right, exactly. 

MG: How would you describe this collection? 

JJT: Very simply, it is a collection of poems about the Italian nougat torrone. My aunt, who is now deceased, was born in Italy and for every Christmas would give me a box of torrone. One year I received a box from her that had six flavors and each flavor was associated with a city in Italy. The pairings really interested me because they weren't intuitive. Like, what do coconuts have to do with Pisa? That became the challenge, I wanted to write poems about this. So the conception of the idea came in 2004, but it wasn't published until January of 2026 because I really took my time composing it. 

MG: Is there something that specifically inspired you to go across the finish line? Was there a sort of  final thing that made you [say:] “Okay, this collection is ready now?” 

JJT: I wrote a set of three poems to introduce the collection and I don't even know if I thought it would be a book. I finished [the bigger poems] during the pandemic when I was completing many, many projects, on which I was procrastinating before the pandemic. … I've had other books published between conception and publication of this book, but I love the idea of taking one's time, being very careful, and letting things develop because that is sort of the process of another period in literary history that is very important to me-- the Hellenistic period. So we're dealing with  the Greek poets in the, no one ever calls it this, sort of little diaspora after Alexander the Great. There, the Hellenistic poets developed this taste for a very erudite type of writing with multiple references and arcane knowledge and that type of thing. There are certain projects that you just sort of write it all out and then it's like: “Oh, this is ready to go,” or you sort of sit on all of them and let them marinate, if you will. Usually, once I complete a manuscript, it's ready to go-- that’s more of a collection [but] this was a project. My other more recent books have been collections.

MG: That makes a lot of sense that you would call it more of a project than a collection. Something that I was specifically curious about, and you mentioned it a little bit, but some of the sections seemed more daunting to talk about than others. I am [wondering] about the ones that seemed to come easier and what the process of getting those down was like. 

JJT: I would say that the introductory suite of three poems called “In the Box of Torrone,” as that was in response to a collaborative project-- a one shot journal issue called Parse… So that came to me pretty easily. I would say the next poem I wrote came a year later and that was, again, another collaborative project. [It is] called ‘Inside Out’ where poets are photographed naked in some way or other. I had to write a poem and I decided, “Let me tackle Lemons and Naples,” because the photographer of the project Anna Siano was born in Naples. [The ‘Lemons’ section] is a little more straightforward. I mean, it's still collage-like in certain ways, but it's not as wild as some of the others and, therefore it reflects, I would say, Naples being a little slower and not as flashy as the cities of Central and northern Italy. 

MG: What about these more experimental or visual poems worked for this project? 

JJT: I think it worked because of the complexity of the subject I'm writing about. Flavors bring up cultural history [and] I wanted an actual approach to those cities that are not necessarily cliché. So, because it is a complex idea where I have to fulfill, or I felt I had to, fulfill a number of requirements, culture, history, place. I needed to do it in a way that suggests a sophistication and a sense of experimentation. You know, Italy's culture is well known for its design, well-known for its experimentation, but is very traditional in other aspects. 

MG: We’ve talked a bit about community already, so I’m wondering if those cultural references are a way to bring community into it. 

JJT: It could be. I realize with a lot of my poetry how some people might find it, I don't know if the word is “off-putting”, but some people say, “I don't understand,” or,” what's going on.” I want to bring people in and, even though it may be more difficult, that's the kind of literature I like. I'm aware that on the surface people may have some difficulty getting in, but this is one way I do build community. One way that I also, I would say, create a community around the book is when I perform it-- I've gotten other people to take roles. The way Joel [Allegretti] did [at his Soldato event,] he asked me and Denise La Neve, who has a reading coming up here. I've been doing that all along, involving other people in the work I create, especially if it has multiple voices. So that's how, one way of creating a sense of community.

MG: So talking about these performances and speaking of community, the portrait that you had shot with Anna Sano for ‘Inside Out,’ focusing on the vulnerability of being a writer, is that vulnerability that comes with writing and performing a hurdle for you, or is it something that you enjoy?

JJT: I enjoy that. I don't necessarily feel vulnerable when I write and when I present, I just feel I have something to share and I want to share it. I think people who are more like Romantic,  capital R, might view themselves as sort of a vulnerable writer. … But I don't know if I ever did. I mean, I would feel vulnerable if I felt I wasn't being given certain credit…, but I would say writing and performing for me is almost like invincibility. 

MG: We've talked a bit about it, but as Soldato is a book and record store, who are some musical and literary artists that inspired you while writing this collection?

JJT: I would say Ezra Pound, certainly, the Italian film director. Vittorio De Sica for sure, because I use a film in particular Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow as a structure within the book. Michelangelo Antonioni’s is in here [the book] . One of the poems is inspired by a brief, brief scene in The Exorcist . Even if I'm echoing or quoting, I'm usually not just quoting one source. As far as a visual, I can't necessarily pinpoint a painting or particular music. I guess I'm not really picturing anything except maybe photographic images of Italy. The cities in Italy maybe, but I can't pinpoint a particular photographer. I would say that a lot of the poets who have done visual work [that make you ask: “is it] artwork or is it literary?” It's both. 

MG:  So it's less like concrete references you'd say, besides quotes, [and] more just like these associations that come up with all of these different associations. 

JJT: Yes, right. That's how I think, I would say I'm always making these connections and seeing things like that. 

MG: You're going to be having a reading here in the Williams Center on April 14th from 6:30-8pm. What about live events do you enjoy and why is it important for you to connect with these local venues?

JJT: I love various reading series that usually include features and an open mic. I also just sometimes go to open mics to see what's out there, connect with other writers. My connection to Soldato is through Rutherford’s participation in Creative Bergen’s Arts Amble. I saw that there was going to be  an event, a poetry reading,at Soldato. I went to check out this new bookstore,  met Nate, and we were talking, and I said, “I'm a poet, blah, blah, blah. This is cool that you’re doing something here,” So he invited me to participate in the reading there, and I met a bunch of cool people, some of whom I'm still in touch with. Over time, I just wanted to continue to be involved with Soldato; I just love to make these connections and bring different communities together. 

MG: Why should people read “The Box of Torrone?” 

JJT: People should read “The Box of Torrone,” they should buy it, but they should read it because it represents ideas people like. People love to travel. People love to go to Italy [but] I'm taking a very different tack on what Italian culture is. People love chocolate, people love flavors, so I'm taking a completely different tack. Although the book itself may be challenging in that way, everybody tells me it's fun. Even though it may seem daunting, it's fun and they may learn something. I think it'll please them overall. It's fun-- I think that's the big key. I agree. But I'm fully aware that, you know, it may be daunting. 

MG: Most poetry is. 

JJT: Yeah, that's true in a way.

MG: Is there anything I didn't ask that you'd like to share? 

JJT: Yes. I almost see everything I do as a totality, as if life itself is a work of art. I realized, at least in the literary sphere of my life, all my books are connected to each other. Not just because I wrote them, but whether it's themes, whether it's titles, whether it's cover illustrations, all of them are connected in some way. That represents how I see the world, that everything is connected. I mean, it's about community. This world is a community, you know, even my concept of God, which is a very traditional Christian view of God, three persons-- that's a community. God is a community and it's all built around that connection. That’s how I see the world, and that's how I operate in all the spheres of my life, including my literary sphere and the publication of the books.