The BG News (Bowling Green, OH)
16 February 1996
by Jack Buehrer
Cultural icon and Pulitzer Prize nominee Jim Carroll will give a reading in the Union Ballroom Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. [Note: doors open at 7:00, reading begins at 8:00]
Carroll, an acclaimed poet, diarist, lyricist, musician and performer, said that he looks forward to the reading.
“I’ve never been to Bowling Green before but I look forward to reading there,” he said. “The responses I’ve gotten at different universities I’ve toured have been great. We had to turn people away at NYU, and there were over a thousand people at the University of Kentucky. You don’t usually see crowds like that for a poetry reading.”
While receiving national acclaim for the recent motion picture, “The Basketball Diaries,” which Carroll authored, he said he has enjoyed succes in other avenues of the entertainment industry as well. Musically, The Jim Carroll Band produced four albums in the early-80s and [Carroll] received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for “Living at the Movies,” one of his six books of poetry.
“Of all the things I’ve done, I still consider myself a poet,” Carroll said. “I’ve made a good living with things like ‘The Basketball Diaries’ and my music, but I get the most pleasure out of writing poetry. It’s what I enjoy most.”
Carroll said he’s not sure what he’s going to read during his performance at the University.
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do yet,” he said. “It usually depends on the mood of the audience or the mood I’m in that particular night. I have a lot of work to pull from.”
Doctoral student Cassie Carter was instrumental in getting Carroll to read at the University.
“I’ve wanted him to come here for a long time,” she said. “I started working on this last May. It’s been a real ordeal to get this to happen.”