You used to be an insurance executive. Did your coworkers know that you wrote and what did they think?

Yes, they were aware that I was a writer, and I think most of them thought well of me for it. Most people have a dream of something they'd like to be doing other than what they are doing, and I provided a handy example of someone doing just that.

You have said one of your 10 favorite books was William Carlos Williams’ “In the American Grain.” Can you elaborate?

Williams prose is rich and lovely, for one thing, but he also showed some marvelous insights about American history.

Has the rise of the internet had any effect on your writing?

No, I use the internet very infrequently. However, having a computer has made prose writing much easier. I doubt if I could have finished my prose book, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps (American Lives), without a word processing program that enabled me to move things around. If I'd had to type it I might never have finished.

To what extent do you revise poems? Have you ever had a first draft that you left unchanged?

I revise extensively and have never written a first draft that I left as is. A short poem might go through 30 or 40 versions. I revise toward clarity and away from difficulty, wanting the poem to appear to be written with ease.

Other Poet Laureates, like Billy Collins, have used the position to publicize poetry. Do you have any plans yet for how you might use the position?

I plan to have some projects but it's much too early to be talking about them.