Howard Camner is the author of sixteen books of poetry.His works are in the most prominent literary collections in the world, including ten historical archives and six royal libraries. He was nominated for Poet Laureate of Florida in 1980, and has the distinction of having been the youngest poet nominated for a state laureateship. During his years in New York, Camner was the featured performer with the West End Poetry Troupe,an offshoot of Kerouac's beat poets, headquartered at the famed West End Jazz Club. Camner often performed in clown makeup backed by members of Duke Ellington's orchestra known as "Ellintonia". Camner's stage persona became as well known as his poetry, described in Broadway Magazine as "a bittersweet Chaplinesque street character with a lot on his mind". With over 1500 published poems, Camner is recognized as Florida's most widely published poet. He represents the United States in the Poet 2000 Sculpted Library, an international exhibition of the works of contemporary poets. He received the Library of Congress Award for his contribution to U.S. cultural arts in 1993 and the first annual MiPo Literary Award in 2004.
Camner was named "Best Poet" by New Times Newspaper's "Best of Miami" 2007 issue. In other ventures, Camner's original feature film screenplay "Duck, Duck, Goose" has been placed in the archives of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, and the comedy television talk show he created and hosted in the 1980s, "Life is a Four Letter Word" was placed in the UCLA Film and Television Archives in 1999.

Camner resides in Miami with his wife, daughter, and son.
Marta Braunstein, editor of Cambio Literary Journal writes: "Camner defies the traditional aesthetic concepts of poetry. He targets a world of ideas in a rather active way as opposed to the more passive, meditative aspects found in most poetry. There is a linguistic simplicity to his poems, an almost transparent quality, over a rather complex web of experience and thought. His poetry is life...All you have to do is look...The obvious and not so obvious."

Q: What is your idea about poets as leaders? Can they make the world a better place by the help of poetry?

H.C.- It's a good idea if the leaders are truly poets. There is a great distinction between true poets and people who write poetry. There are true poets who have never written a word on paper, and there are people who publish constantly and aren't true poets. Here's what I mean: In the United States, most of the people who gain recognition for writing poetry are academics; university professors and the like. I'm not saying that an academic cannot be a poet, but what I am saying is that many of them may know the mechanics of poetry: form, rhythm, schemes, cadence, all that stuff, but they don't have the soul or the spirit or the demons and angels slugging it out in their heads, the unending quarrel with oneself that makes a poet. Many cannot even begin to understand that.

Q: As a poet how do you see the war ? Why it is going to establish itself in your country as the only way to reach the peace ?

H.C.- It seems that people who resort to war, or in the case of Bush, people who insist on it, can't think outside the box. War is tunnel vision. As I'm sure you're aware most people in the U.S. are against this war with Iraq. I am one of them. I believe he did it solely to avenge (and impress) his father. Many Americans are calling it an "immoral war". I'm not sad that Saddam Hussein is out of the picture, but he was not the one who attacked this country. And I find it very suspicious that Bin Ladden is still on the loose five years later. It's been proven that the Bush family has business dealings with the Bin Ladden family. Maybe that has something to do with it. I don't know. What I do know is that many lives have been lost and will continue to be lost on both sides. War is insanity. But it's something that never seems to go away. I think if people did lean toward their imaginations and creativity more than destruction, the world would be a much nicer place to be, obviously.

Q: Do you agree with this statement by Sam Hamill: After the re –election of Bush, we may divide American literature at that point: Before and after the fall of American democracy.

H.C.-Bush holds an important office which he clearly isn't qualified for. And he's making a wreck of the planet. Maybe he's important due to that fact. Because his legacy will take this country forever to shed. Understand he is considered by many to be the worst president this country has ever known. He is in office simply because of his daddy, and no other reason. Pretty sad. Bush doesn't understand that there are human beings on the other end of his missions, whatever they are. A guy like that will never understand much of anything.
I'm just so afraid that Bush is trying to create World War Three. It seems that he wants democracy everywhere except for the United States. Congress tried to withdraw the troops and he vetoed it. Now they're sending in 35,000 more troops. What a mess. Every single person I know in the arts can't stand him. This planet needs a lot of help. It's gone mad.

Q: Don't you fear of speaking so clear ? I mean there is no danger for you ? One of American poets with whom I had an interview , told me he fears of replying to my political answers for , Bush's government , is not indifference to the writers who criticize him and his policy and deprive them of their rights for teaching or publishing or etc....

H.C.-I understand what your friend meant about feeling intimidated (my word) when speaking out against the Bush government. When he was up for reelection (not that he was ever elected in the first place, because he was not, he was appointed by his daddy's court). Around several voting places were his guys sitting in black cars watching. They intimidated many black voters as well. This country was founded on freedom. I think Bush is an idiot and I'm happy to say it. Stupidity is a dangerous thing, and he uses it quite a bit. No I'm not afraid. Writers can't be afraid. It defeats are purpose which is to keep reminding the world of what's wrong and what's right. There can be no leaders without followers. Bush's followers are the wealthy. Just because someone has money doesn't mean they have brains, and he is a great case-in-point.

Q: Has poetry an acknowledged place in American life today?
H.C.- The answer is both yes and no. It does for those who are involved with it, and the numbers do seem to be growing as I think people are starting to look down different avenues and alleys for some kind of hope. The world is starting to tilt the wrong way. And I believe a few eyes who before didn't want to see, are starting to look to the artists and poets for some kind of light. Still there are too many "suits" (as I call them) who can't see past their wallets. They'll never understand anything. Unfortunately it's primarily the suits who pull the strings.

Q :To Plato inspiration was next to madness or even madness itself and to some extent he was right."there's no invention in him(the poet) until he has been inspired and he's out of his senses and the mind is no longer in him, when he has not attained to this state, he is powerless and unable to utter his oracles." He says.

H.C.-I certainly agree with the "madness" aspect of creating poetry. That may be part of my problem with "academic" poets. Many of them don't have that madness. They have a piece of paper that proclaims that they took courses about the madness. But that's not real. I had that very discussion last night with a group of people who cornered me at a party. They were talking about poetry workshops and college degrees in poetry. I told them I found it absurd. You either have it or you don't. Sitting in a room being lectured to or going around in a circle chewing up this and that doesn't make someone a poet. The madness Plato talked about is deadly. I've been face to face with it and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. It's a dangerous thing and you can only hope you can keep it at bay long enough to distract it, pick its pockets and put that on paper.

Q: What did you lose without poetry?

H.C.-Without poetry I would lose my voice and the ability to walk upside-down.And without me,poetry would lose a disheveled frontman with sideshow vision. There's just too much at stake. So I promise I won't leave poetry if poetry promises not to leave me. And if it ever does, I know a good lawyer.

Q: Who are the poets you read their works ?
H.C.- The truth is not many at all because, honestly, I think why am I reading when I could be writing (a notion I've had since I was young) and also because I purposely didn't want to be influenced by anyone. I wanted to be certain I found my own voice first. That said, and having done that, I will on rare occasions look at some work by the "Beat" poets: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac. Most of the others that get published here in the U.S. are the "academics" (I mentioned them before). They bore me silly. They may know mechanics, but there's very little if any soul to what they do. When I had my poetry troupe in New York I would often hear mumblings that we were the "offspring" of the "Beats", so that sort of drew me to see what people were referring to....

Q: I had a friend who was saying that she could not cry when her father died, even though she liked him. However, after she heard the news that her favorite poet had died, she intensely could not stop her tears from falling. Since, it was the poet and the impact of his poetries that helped her managing her life in times of difficulty.Have you ever had such a connection with a particular poet?

H.C.- I guess I was fortunate to have a different kind of relationship with my own father who died several years ago. And my feelings really reached a great sorrow when I was given a letter he had written to me when I was around three years old. I was given the letter very recently and didn't know it existed. Basically it said that the world is full of miserable people who will always try to get in your way, and you have to find a way to go around them. It's amazing how long ago that was written. and absolutely nothing's changed. Pretty sad.