"My name is Gary E. Moore. I am a poet, an author and, most importantly, a Dad.
My most recent work, Songs For The Cleveland Avenue Warriors: poems from the past, present and future, was just published and is available for purchase from creativeonionpress.com, an independent, woman-owned press.
I also recently published and released What Daddy Do! and What Mommy Do! the first books in the forthcoming What We Do! The Children's Book Series."
What do you do and why do you do it?
I am a poet, an author and a Dad. I write because it's how I can best express myself, translating how I perceive the world around me. I write because I can't imagine doing anything else.
How does what you do benefit others?
It is my hope that I can provide someone, somewhere, a moment of joyful recognition. I want them to know that there is beauty in the world, even in the most neglected, the most forgotten spaces.
Describe your career journey and how it led you to where you are now.
As a career educator, I've spent the majority of my adult years working with at-risk and distressed youth, whether in the public schools as an Alternative Placement Resources teacher or through various community based programs. I've found that my students and families were my greatest sources of inspiration and as a result, I always structured my works; my art, my poetry, my stories and essays, around my desire to tell their stories.
Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
I plan to be in a position to continue to promote my previously released and upcoming titles. I am really excited for the potential of each of them, but I am most pleased with my forthcoming novel, Bealz, Prince of the Southside. I believe, deep down in my bones, that it will strike a chord with audiences around the world and I can't wait to share it with the public.
Who is your favorite superhero and why? Do you relate to them?
When I was around five years old, my Dad pulled the station wagon over to the curb and parked in front of a yard sale. He made us kids stay in the car, but when he came back he was burdened down with two huge boxes of comic books. Buried down amongst them was a bunch of issues of a comic that neither me nor my older brothers had ever heard of before, Power Man and Iron Fist, featuring Luke Cage, the first black superhero that I ever laid eyes on. I've been hooked since then.
If you could have one superpower to help you further your purpose, what would it be and why? How would you use it?
As a naturally empathetic individual, I would want this trait to be magnified to mutant-levels of power so that I could spread love around the world. Love is light, and just like my works, I just want to bring a little light into the world before I'm gone--