Spotlight On Writers
Tony Covatta
- Where do you originate from?
I’m originally from Louisville, Kentucky. I grew up there, not leaving until I had graduated from college. At that time I was disenchanted and promised myself, perhaps a little theatrically, that I would never go back. As the years passed I found that the homeward tug would never disappear. Louisville, often masquerading as Shelby, shows up in a number of my stories. I can’t seem to stop talking about the place. And I don’t want to.
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
I have lived in Cincinnati, Ohio for the last fifty years. Without family and friends the city would lose its meaning for me. But so long as I have those people, I’m proud to say I love the beautiful river and the tree-lined parkway that bends along it, which I took every night for forty years going home from my law office downtown. I cherish our civic institutions, the vibrant symphony, the museums, and our ballet and opera.
- What ignites your creativity?
That is a tough question. I find that my stories germinate from small seeds of feeling and thought that gnaw at me and tickle me and won’t leave me alone. The seeds keep growing and turn into thoughts and situations and want to be expressed. They aren’t always there. There are periods when they don’t appear. Then I worry that I’ll never write again. Somehow so far it keeps happening. I’m glad of that.
- Do you have a favorite word, and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
I have many favorites but for our purpose here I’ll choose the lovely word waves, in many of its meanings, whether at the beach, in sounds, in the mysterious little particles that seem to constitute light and other basic elements of existence. “The Breaking of a Wave” by Fabio Genovesi is a terrific book. I can never not see the mermaids riding “seaward on the waves” as J Alfred Prufrock tells us. Mr. Eliot and Sir Isaac Newton (in the epitaph of Genovesi’s novel) say the word better than I ever could.
- What is your pet peeve?
People who prefer to take rather than give, who are always right, who would much prefer to teach than to learn, who lack a sense of humor and curiosity. Those two things are related. At least they are to me. I guess I can sum it up in this—I like open. I don’t like closed.
- How would you describe the essence of Tony Covatta?
He has always been eager to learn, not always right, but when he realized that he was wrong, he was generally able to apologize if necessary and get back on the right track if possible. I’m still learning even as I get further into the dark 80s. I hope I never lose that desire. As well as the ability to fulfill it.
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