Poet Mike Lala Explores Urban Glittering Hellscapes in "The Unreal City" [INTERVIEW]

Mike Lala is a poet and performance writer living in New York City. He is the author of The Unreal City (Tupelo Press, 2023) and Exit Theater (Colorado Prize for Poetry, 2016);  several chapbooks, including Points of Return (Ghost Proposal, 2023); and a contributing translator to Tales of Dionysus (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2022). Lala’s installations, performance, and libretti include Whale Fall (2021), Madeleines: Tell Me What It Was Like (2020, with Iris McCloughan), Oedipus in the District (2018–19), and Infinite Odyssey (2018).