We recently had the chance to connect with Danny Shot and have shared our conversation below.
Danny, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: Have any recent moments made you laugh or feel proud?
Yes, two weeks ago I was in Florence Italy. We were in Italy mostly as vacation to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, but I also had a poetry reading at a place called Itaca, which was at Via San Domenico, 22 Firenze. My poems were translated into Italian by Sylvia Zanatto and also accompanied by musicians and a dancer. I.m not sure if it made me proud, I guess it did, but it definitely filled me with joy to see my poems delivered with such care by others in a country where English is not their first language. It also made me feel humble as I heard myself being introduced in a language I did not know.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Danny Shot and I am a poet and writer. I am also a retired New York City high school English teacher. I am still a proud dues paying union (UFT) member. I taught for 33 years in the Bronx, Harlem and Brooklyn, and look back fondly on the hundreds, actually thousands of students I taught. I also cofounded an arts and literacy magazine with Eliot Katz that was well distributed and thought of, that had a run of 22 years. 2025 was a good year for me as a writer as I had two books published; a book of prose NIGHT BIRD FLYING by Roadside Press in February, and a book of poems THE JERSEY SLIDE by CavanKerry Press in November.
https://www.magicaljeep.com/product/night/184?cp=true&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=11
https://cavankerrypress.org/products/the-jersey-slide)
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I think that I’ve been basically the same person my whole life. Obviously I’ve grown up and matured, but my personality and demeanor have been consistent. I’m generally cheerful and perhaps Pollyannish, choosing to see the good side of things, though admittedly, I have been tested this past year. My mother called me “Good Time Charlie” from the time I was like 5 or 6 years old. I’ve pretty much always been politically engaged, a characteristic that was instilled in me by my parents who were refugees from nazi Germany and were socialists who could easily see the cracks in the facade of American society. Of course they were thankful to have a landing spot, but there was also an inherent bitterness that more wasn’t done to save the lives of their families. My mother lost her parents and first son, and my father lost his mother and sister to the nazis and my parents try as they might, couldn’t shake the mantle of their histories. As a first generation American, I determined early on that I was not going to allow the weight of our past loss and trauma slow me down. Of course things are never really that simple. I deal with some of that weight in my new book THE JERSEY SLIDE. As the cliché says ‘you can run, but you can’t hide.”
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
This is a funny question to answer because I don’t think I’ve ever been that successful, or at least as successful as I’d like to be. But I do know a thing or two about suffering. I guess we all do. After all, that’s the First Noble Truth of Buddhism: Life is suffering. I already talked about the generational trauma of losing a large part of our family during the Holocaust, so we won’t revisit that. When I was 15 years old, in a span of 2 days I lost one of my best friends and my father. It was a hard time for my whole block, Forest Road in Dumont, NJ. There’s nothing special about losing people close to you. As a teenager, what I learned was that after a personal tragedy, you will get people’s sympathy and good wishes for a few weeks after the event, but then people go on and get back to their lives. It’s up to you personally to find the strength and fortitude to move forward. I had something of a support system in my sister and brother in law Carol and Leo who helped me get through this difficult time, but my mom and I were poor and weren’t sure how we were going to survive financially. Thank god for food stamps and EOF (Educational Opportunity Fund) which provided a college scholarship for disadvantaged students. In retrospect, there were support systems, familial, academic, and societal back then that gave me a fighting chance.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
The cultural value that is most important to me, and I’d like to think to society is Freedom of Speech and/or Freedom of Expression. Over the past year, we have seen an attack on these freedoms that is unprecedented in American history. Well maybe not unprecedented, but under attack in a way we have not seen in a few generations. The truth is we have seen an erosion of these freedoms happening for the past decade or so. I wonder what history will say about these times as we slide past authoritarianism and into out and out fascism. While many of us concerned citizens worry about saying the right or appropriate thing, careful not to offend, we have an unhinged President of the United States who doesn’t hesitate to spout whatever random vile thought plops out of his head. He has no compunction whatsoever about going after his perceived enemies in the courts or of course on social media. I worry about how this will all end. It feels like we’re living in the age of Caligula. So, it means we have to keep speaking up, no matter what the costs as artists, and as citizens.
Another cultural value I feel strongly about is free public education. I believe an educated populace is an engaged populace. It’s ludicrous that in the past year the current Republican administration has created the Department of War and abolished the Department of Education. It’s enough to make you scream!
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: Could you give everything your best, even if no one ever praised you for it?
I try to give my best in anything I’m doing at any time. I’ve pretty much been rather Zen about the practice of work, creativity and daily life. If I’m washing dishes, I try to give my all to the task. Now lol, my wife Caroline might disagree, but that’s how I see it. When I was a high school teacher, I gave everything I had to my students and fellow teachers. When I retired after 33 years, I left satisfied knowing I gave it my all. As a father, I think we did our best raising two curious, caring boys into strong thoughtful men. As a poet and writer I feel the same way, though occasionally it gets in the way. It gets in the way existentially because I will sometimes ask myself “is that the best I can give?” And if the answer is “yes,” that can be disappointing because then I wish I was more talented. But like pretty much every other living writer (I think), I do crave attention and praise, I even dream about it. But I’d like to believe that I’m doing the best I can with the talent, limited though it may be, that I have. Someone, I’d like to believe Dorothy Parker (though I know it’s not) said ‘my style is defined by my limitations.” That’s it for me and my poetry – I do the best with what I’ve got.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dannyshot.com/
- Instagram: dannyshot57
- Facebook: Danny Shot
- Youtube: danny shot poet
Image Credits
Caroline Schott
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