The Writer’s Block: An Interview with Lucas Hirsch

The Writer’s Block is an ongoing video series of interviews with visiting writers at City of Asylum/Pittsburgh. In these Q&A’s, conducted on Sampsonia Way, writers sit down with us to discuss literature, their craft, and career. View all previous interviews here.

Hirsch is the author of two collections of poems, familie gebiedt (2006) and tastzin (2009). He is also a literary agent for the Flemish magazine DWB. In 2007, Lucas founded a small literary production company called ‘Kleine Revolutie Producties’ with which he organizes literary events around Haarlem. In 2011 he was artist-in-residence at Ledig House, Art Omi, New York. In May 2012 his new book of poetry will be published.

On April 17th Hirsch talked with us on Sampsonia Way’s block. This street on Pittsburgh’s North Side is where City of Asylum/Pittsburgh has a row of houses for writers in exile, all of which are adorned with original artwork.

Hirsch appears in the garden of House Poem, a house on the alley covered in poetry written by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s first writer-in-residence Huang Xiang.

Hirsch and other Dutch poets came to Pittsburgh by invitation of City of Asylum Pittsburgh. The event was presented in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s “Distinctively Dutch” festival, the Consulate General of the Netherlands, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Kleine Revolutie Producties, and Lira.