An Interview with Stephen Pollock

Stephen C. Pollock (“Steve”) is a poet, essayist, eye surgeon, neuro-ophthalmologist, business executive, and inventor. His debut poetry collection, Exits, won the 2024 North Street Book Prize for Poetry, the Gold Medal for Poetry in the 2023 Readers’ Favorite Book Awards, and 1st Place for Poetry in the 2025 Firebird Book Awards. The twenty poems in Exits were written and edited over a period of twenty years. Designing and formatting the book required an additional two years.

Trained as a physician, eye surgeon, and neuro-ophthalmologist, Steve was recruited to Duke University as Chief of Neuro-Ophthalmology in 1987. He ultimately achieved a rank of Associate Professor with tenure, having published 30 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters in the medical literature.

After seventeen years in academic medicine, Steve left Duke to become chief executive of CEC, a nationwide company that provides vision benefits to individuals and their family members. Following the sale of CEC in 2019, he retired from the company.

Steve has always had a penchant for designing novel devices. As a medical student, he collaborated with another student in the development of a unique variable-focus lens. He drafted the patent as well as the associated illustrations. In 1984, the Patent Office granted U.S. Patent 4,477,158, Lens System for Variable Refraction. Steve subsequently designed an instrument used to biopsy inaccessible tumors in the brain and behind the eye.

For the last twenty-six years, Steve has struggled with the spinal cord variant of multiple sclerosis (MS). The disease has resulted in partial paralysis of both legs, and it has made it necessary for him to use a rolling walker in order to ambulate. He nevertheless continues to exercise regularly, read poetry, and write.

Who/what made you want to write? Was there a particular person, or particular writers/works/art forms that influenced you?

I began writing independently of schoolwork when I was nine. As was true for many children of my generation, I was introduced to the world of poetry through the work of Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. His book Yertle the Turtle was a particularly strong influence (though I had no idea at the time that the story was allegorical, a satire of Adolf Hitler). Not surprisingly, all of the poems that I scribbled on shirt cardboard rhymed.

I’ve always been more inspired by great poems than by the poets who wrote them. In particular, the poems of Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, John Donne, and Caitlin Doyle have been some of my most powerful influences.

Tell us the story of your book’s title. Was it easy to find, or did it take forever?

Nearly all of the poems in Exits were written between 2003 and 2021, before the idea of authoring a book ever came to mind. About three years ago, I decided to incorporate what I considered to be my best work into a book entitled Line Drawings. However, during the process of selecting poems, I noticed that a substantial number were related to various aspects of mortality. This led me to curate a more concise, themed collection, and Exits was born.

An exit is a departure, an act of leaving. It also can be a passageway from one place to another. The title is plural because the poems in the collection address a wide range of endings from a variety of perspectives. (Indeed, the title of the poem “Leaves,” an elegy written for my wife’s grandmother, is a double entendre that plays on this idea of ending and departing.)

What part of publishing your book made it feel real for the first time?

The process first felt real to me a full year prior to publication. That was when I received the first of twenty-two “print runs” of the book. I was fortunate to have identified a printing company in Montana that could transform my PDF files into perfect-bound books of extremely high quality. I began working with them in June 2022, almost exactly one year before the official launch date of the book.

If your book had a soundtrack, what are some songs that would be on it?

The audiobook edition of Exits actually does have a soundtrack. Frederic Chopin’s “Nocturne in C# minor” (the “posthumous nocturne”) closes out the book after the last poem has been performed. If the book didn’t already feature a piece of music, other candidates might include Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings” and Johannes Ockeghem’s “Requiem.”

What’s one thing you hope sticks with readers after they finish your book?

The idea that death is an integral part of life, that it exerts a profound influence on how we think about the limited time granted to us and the meaning we attach to it.

Exits will resonate with different people in different ways. Some readers will gravitate to the visual imagery and nature metaphors. Others will enjoy the wordplay. Still others will find satisfaction in the resurrection of formal elements.

As you’re aware, we live in a time of great uncertainty. War, climate disasters, and a recent pandemic have led many to contemplate the prospect of their own demise. Exits speaks to this anxiety and angst. It also may provide fresh perspective on life’s transience, the cycles of nature, and the potential for renewal.

What was the most rewarding/meaningful part of publishing your book?

Designing the entire book myself! This included: selecting the poems from my existing oeuvre; determining the order of poems; selecting the artwork; designing the front and back covers; drafting the “front material” (title page, copyright page, table of contents, and preface); selecting font style and font sizes; and formatting the book’s interior (e.g. margins, positioning of the artwork, and pagination). Getting to the final product involved twenty-two print runs over the fourteen-month period prior to publication.

I’ve also been delighted with the critical response to the book, which has been exceptionally positive. A number of editorial reviewers have provided enthusiastic feedback. In addition, Exits has thus far received eleven honors in national book contests, including 1st Place for Poetry in the 2024 North Street Book Prize competition.

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