About James Carlo Naggi:
Starting in 1969, Jim Naggi coached high school football for forty-two seasons. Most recently, in 2014, he coached American football in Lugano, Switzerland. Naggi’s “Football Coaching Tips” have appeared at www.fbwinnipeg.com every Thursday since March, 2013. He’s also a contributing author of “The Soul of Sport”, due for release by University of Notre Dame Press in August, 2015.
Naggi is a native of Detroit, Michigan, and now lives on the West Coast.
What inspires you to write?
I began writing the poems in my book as an exercise to make myself tighten up my prose writing. I wrote about high school football because throughout my career as a coach I’ve always found it to be incredibly intense and dramatic. As I continued writing I came to realize that under the format of a game there was a great deal of authentic human drama going on.
Tell us about your writing process.
I begin by writing the poem not as a poem but as a prose narrative focused on key imagery and emotions. Using a word processor I then break the prose out of its paragraph style and create a series of lines on a page, breaking each line where it seemed logical even if it was mid-sentence. Then I go back and chop out all the extra verbiage, the articles, adverbs, etc. that distract from the images. Next I check all the verbs, making sure they project plenty of energy. I re-edit, re-punctuate, decide and my capitalization. What’s left I’m calling a poem although to be frank I’m not quite sure what it is.
What advice would you give other writers?
Stay economical.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
It was book of football poems. I couldn’t envision an established publisher being interested. So I researched self-published e-books and ended up going that route.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
There will always be hard copy books. They are too traditional to perish completely. That being said, as hand-held devices, screens, etc. are further developed and made more appealing, hard copies will become a secondary venue.
What do you use?: Professional Cover Designer
What genres do you write?: Poetry and prose non-fiction
What formats are your books in?: eBook
