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Lloyd Schwartz, a poet who incorporates idiomatic, spoken vernacular into his work, explains why he considers himself, above all, an American poet in temperament and subject. His poems are also, perhaps, most quintessentially American in their cheekiness, their sense of humor, and their insistence upon writing against the grain of what poetry is expected to be.

Lloyd Schwartz is the author of three volumes of poetry, the most recent of which is Cairo Traffic. His poems, articles and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, The New Republic, Paris Review, and The Best American Poetry. In 1994, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Currently Frederick S. Troy Professor of English at The University of Massachusetts, Boston, he is the classical music editor of The Boston Phoenix and a regular commentator on National Public Radio.