Katy Lederer

Katy Lederer is the author of the poetry collection, Winter Sex (Verse Press, 2002) and the memoir Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers (Crown, 2003), which Publishers Weekly included on its list of the Best Nonfiction Books of the Year and Esquire Magazine named one of its eight Best Books of the Year.

Her second poetry book, The Heaven-Sent Leaf, was published by BOA Editions in the fall of 2008.

Near the end of 2008 I asked her what she was reading. Her reply:

I have been avidly reading Paul Krugman in the New York Times. His rancor over what has happened bothers me (why not this rancor and deep analysis of the mechanics of Wall Street while the boom was still happening--when it might have done some good?), but his opinions on what Obama should do about the economy once he gets into office are fascinating to read about.

Recently finished the issue of Portfolio Magazine that featured Michael Lewis's piece on the end of the boom. Again: why didn't he write this highly informative article two or three years ago when it might have done some good? Why are all these glamorous big-name journalists piling on now that it is too late? (I mean, it's interesting, but really, it's too late...)

Also read Henry Blodget's recent Atlantic article "Why Wall Street Always Blows It." This is a great article--sums everything up nicely (as does Jeremy Grantham's wonderful quote re the bubble: "We will learn an enormous amount in a very short time, quite a bit in the medium term, and absolutely nothing in the long term.")

Speaking of, today, I applied for (and was granted) an Amazon Visa card. I immediately logged onto Amazon and bought:

- All of Tao Lin's books
- All of the Mary Jo Bang books I didn't have (I have only Louise in Love)
- Modern Life, by Matthea Harvey
- Pre-ordered Frederick Seidel's Collected Poems (coming out on FSG in March)
- All of the Elizabeth Hardwick books I do not have (I have American Fictions, Seduction and Betrayal, and Sleepless Nights, all of which I love dearly)
- The early journals of Susan Sontag
- The Franz Wright books I do not have
- The Essays of E. B. White
- Shakespeare's Twenty-first Century Economics: The Morality of Love and Money, by Frederick Turner
- Time and Materials, by Robert Hass
- As A Friend, by Forrest Gander
- The Golden Notebooks, by Doris Lessing
- My Vocabulary Did This To Me, by Jack Spicer

Visit Katy Lederer's website and read some of her poems online.

--Marshal Zeringue