For Park Slope’s own poet laureate, most things are better said in verse. We caught up with Leon Freilich to talk poetry and Park Slope. You say that “Light verse is [your] medium For the war on tedium.” Can you explain? For a skeptic like me, excessive seriousness hides pomposity and pretension—balloons just begging to be exploded.  Glad to oblige. How did you get into poetry? Poems distill the best of language and emotional thought. And light verse, the class cutup of poetry, tweaks the words of everyday along with exotic doings into a new vision, a comic vision of things gone cockeyed and …

It might be accurate to say that Amy Sohn has become infamous in our little Brooklyn neighborhood. But whether you love or loathe Sohn’s popular portrayal of the neighborhood in her novel, “Prospect Park West,” few would argue that she has a keen eye for observation.    We caught up with the busy author to chat about the neighborhood, and the upcoming sequel to “Prospect Park West.” First off, when can we expect “Prospect Park West,” the sequel? Summer 2012. Will the bike lane debate to make an appearance in the book? You know, I thought a lot about it.  Brian Lehrer told me to do it.  The …

Park Slope resident Adrian Tomine, 36, made his way into the world of comics when he was only a teen in Sacramento, California, self-publishing his cult comic book series Optic Nerve. The series still lives on today, but since then Tomine has added a laundry list of other accomplishments to his resume: a slew of New Yorker covers, a string of critically acclaimed graphic novels, and more recently, fatherhood. We caught up with Tomine to talk comics and Park Slope. Your new graphic novel, Scenes from an Impending Marriage, just came out in February, what’s the story behind it? When my wife and…

North Slope resident Torrey Maldonado, 37, uses the power of words to reach young adolescents. Last year, the social studies teacher at Park Slope’s M.S. 88 debuted his first novel, “Secret Saturdays,” a powerful tale inspired by his own childhood in the Red Hook projects. Maldonado hopes that the book, about 12-year-old boys living in a tough world where jail-time and tough-guy attitudes end up taking precedence over school, will influence young adults to make the right choices. What was the inspiration for your debut novel, “Secret Saturdays?” I was inspired by my life, and the students …

Ever since Spencer Ritenour moved to Park Slope seven months ago, he’s been obsessed. When the Fort Wayne, Indiana native isn’t working as an optometrist at Park Slope Eye over on Union Street, you’ll find him behind his camera, documenting every aspect of the neighborhood. Ritenour snaps the Slope and blogs about it both on his photography blog, Park Slope Lens, and his photo column over at Effed in Park Slope. You said that you’ve always loved Brooklyn, even as a kid in Indiana. What is it about the Borough of Kings that you love? I’ve been very passionate about Brooklyn my whole life. I …