1. Tell me a little about yourself
All of my books to date reflect who I am. I identify as a Pittsburgh native, daughter of Italian immigrants from an extended blue-collar family working in a steel mill, plate glass factory, mirror works, the produce business. The highest complement anyone could pay me is to say I’m a poet of witness to working class lives, to those who are marginalized and struggle to be accepted for being “other.”
2. Tell me a little about the book you just published?
Here’s the publisher’s description:
In Vertical Bridges: Poems and Photographs of City Steps, Paola Corso celebrates public stairways in her native Pittsburgh and around the world. Inspired by her Sicilian grandfather, a stonemason who built concrete steps, and her Calabrian grandfather and father, steelworkers who once climbed them to the mill, Corso is a storyteller. She shares memories of her family, the history behind Pittsburgh having more public staircases than any other city in the country, and curiosities about some of the world's most famous steps. Vertical Bridges includes photos by the author along with archival photos from the University of Pittsburgh Library's Pittsburgh City Photographer Collection.
3. What is your writing process like?
Since I’m writing mostly poetry these days, I often will jot down a phrase or scribble a rough sketch in a pocket notebook that I carry in my purse. Of course, I could do that on my phone but prefer the tactile experience of handwriting on a piece of paper. It could also be a line of dialog that I heard or a connection I make when I’m mulling over my thoughts. I go back to my notebook and see if I can take one of these and develop, often times, within the theme of my current body of work.
4. What is your writing process like?
I cofounded Steppin Stanzas, an art and poetry project celebrating city steps. Andy Edwards and I wrote wrote poems inspired by city steps and performed them with musicians and dancers on the steps.
But then a day came when steps weren’t just an artistic endeavor with my group Steppin Stanzas. I remembered my personal connection to steps. My maternal grandfather was a stone mason from Sicily who built concrete steps. My father and paternal grandfather lived up the hill and worked in the steel mill along the river.
And when I discovered a set of steps near their house buried in leaves, that was an epiphany for me. Those steps were built for steelworkers like them to commute to work, steps as our first form of public transportation.
I have a poem about my father and his brothers picking my grandfather up from the mill on his last day as a crane operator before he retired after 47 years on the job. They saw to it that he wasn’t going to climb up any steps but ride home in style in a Cadillac they borrowed from a friend.
5. What's the most important part of writing a poem?
Along with all the poetic elements such as imagery, rhythm, sound, and remembering that less is more, I want to find a poem’s emotional center. Explore and deepen the feelings they invoke in me then craft the poem so it’s conveyed to my reader. If someone reads my poem and says beautiful imagery, for example, but don’t know what to take from it, then I haven’t succeeded.
6. What makes a good poem?
Writing and rewriting. I am a believer of multiple revisions. Some changes may be major and the equivalent of deleting and replacing stanzas that aren’t working to advance the poem, some minor, such as coming up with a better word choice to convey the tone I’d like to come across, or deleting an article before a noun, an alternate title.
I workshop everything with my writing group and revise before I consider submitting for publication. No matter how books I’ve published, I recognize that while I strive to be objective about my own work, it’s a sure thing with my writing group. Taking a writer seriously enough to offer honest, constructive feedback and following it as one can is what makes for a good poem.
7. Where can we find your book/social?
Info on my website:
http://paolacorso.com/
Amazon.com
https://www.amazon.com/Vertical-Bridges-Poems-Photographs-Steps/dp/1989305059
Karen’s Book Row
https://bookshop.org/books/vertical-bridges-poems-and-photographs-of-city-steps/9781989305058
Littsburgh:
https://www.littsburgh.com/start-reading-vertical-bridges-poems-and-photographs-of-city-steps-by-paola-corso/
Pittsburgh City Paper:
https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/paola-corsos-vertical-bridges-pays-tribute-to-pittsburghs-beloved-city-steps/Content?oid=18561395
Watershed Books Review:
https://thewatershedjournal.org/2021/03/15/vertical-bridges-a-review/
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