Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Deutsch.
Hi Adam, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m originally from Long Island, New York, and moved out to San Diego when I was twenty with some friends because our fingers got too cold when we were skateboarding in a parking lot. Over the years that followed, I yo-yo’d from here to there, going to school and getting a couple of masters degrees in English, writing, and poetry. I settled back in San Diego in 2008, started teaching community college, writing poems, and getting out into the community.
Living in North Park at the time, I once tried to swing by a spot by 31st and University, circling for parking for so long that I ended up about two blocks away from my place at Texas and Lincoln. I parked back at my spot, got to the spot on foot, and decided that I never wanted to try to find parking in the neighborhood again. I started walking and biking everywhere I could from that point on, not just for transportation, but also exercise, and discovering our transit system.
When my spouse and I moved to Normal Heights, I served on the neighborhood planning group for about six years, learning about the history of our city, and ideas for how to make it a better place to live. I almost went to get an additional degree in City Planning from SDSU, but then locked into my full-time job at Grossmont College. The 10 mile commute by bike isn’t bad. It’s also not great, and that led me to starting a YouTube channel called Riding Bikes in San Diego, where I document what it’s like to bike in various places around the city.
From what I’m told, the channel is watched by some of the folks in government, and by some of advocacy organizations in town, and I hope it’s helping to make our city safer. I’d love to see a city where more and more people are able to drive less, and ride a bike, or walk, take transit, or any combination of the modes.
Time spent riding my bike, walking, or on the bus is time that gets used for quiet thought, observations, and writing that becomes poems. My first book, Every Transmission, was released from Fernwood Press in 2023, a second manuscript is out at publishers now for consideration, and a third is in process. I’ve also started taking a turn to studying photography, which is another craft that benefits from my time outside of cars, being in the world moving a little more slowly than we’re sometimes allowed to. It’s also more time I get to spend with our son, being with him instead of having to focus on moving a car.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’ve been pretty lucky along the way, and have fantastic family supportive friends, and feel like the last person who can complain. So I won’t. However, I’ve chosen roads that aren’t particularly smooth. I love education, and my years in school were some of the most important years of my life–the knowledge and learning, the communities with the same resolve, and people who strap into lives out of a passion that isn’t always friendly in capitalism. Living on part-time academic work isn’t easy, and until just before the pandemic, I always had 3 jobs going at once, often two in addition to a full-time. The full-time jobs don’t come around often, and I interviewed something like 9 times in 10 years to get the position I have now.
Another struggle is the literal road. It’s expensive for every adult in a house to have a car, so we decided a few years ago to be a one-car family. Finding the safe routes around our city can be difficult, and there are often dangerous gaps between them, or other obstacles in the way. About two years ago, I was commuting home at around 5:30 pm, and a board was in the bike lane on Montezuma and took me down going about 30 mph. The street lights were out, and the fall tumbled me into the street. I was lucky to not get hit by a driver on the road, but I had injuries that kept me from walking for a few days, then on a cane for months, and medication for the better part of a year. I’m all healed up now, but think about it all the time, mostly when I catch the bus after the sun goes down because we can’t get safe infrastructure along my route.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a Professor in the English Department at Grossmont College, an author/poet, the publisher at Cooper Dillon Books, and a student in photography.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I’ve managed to make a career as a professor in a country where education is consistently underfunded and under threat, and do that while riding a bicycle in a society where more and more people are distracted by media on screens. Cooper Dillon Books is a small poetry press in a place where poetry, while highly valued, is one of the least read genres a bookstore. I’d say I’m pretty damn lucky.
As for the “business” of poetry, making books, and photographs, I’ve never been able to live off it, and the passion of the project is rewarding enough. I guess I’m lucky to be able to have that perspective.
Pricing:
- Every Transmission is $16
Contact Info:
- Website: https://adamdeutsch.com
- Instagram: adamsdeutsch
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Ridingbikesinsandiego
Image Credits
Image with bike is by Israel Castillo
Author image is by Alanna Airitam
