Manassas author Victor Rook pens ‘Poetry Pizza,’ featuring cartoon video animations

Submitted to Potomac Local exclusively for our new Book Drop section: 

Manassas author Victor Rook has just released a new book featuring poems that leap off the printed page and onto the video screen in cartoon animation form.

Poetry Pizza: A Slice of Collection is an anthology of forty poems covering everything from houseplants that attack to drug commercials on the evening news.

“I wanted to do something different,” says Rook. “I’m aware that many readers dislike poetry because it is often too complex to understand, so I set out to create a simple but enjoyable collection. Effective poems with a punch can be presented without confusing the reader. Many authors choose to cloak what they really mean behind hard-to-grasp analogies, but if a poem is not understood, it serves no purpose.”

Several of his poems—“Houseplant Takeover,” “Automatic Doors,” “Sitting in Silence,” “Red-Hot Rednecks”— and more have been turned into short narrative cartoon animations. “I know that today’s audience is more visual, so I put my skills as a filmmaker to use,” says Rook.

“Each animation took about a week to create.” Some of the animations can be viewed on the order page at https://victorrook.com/poems.

Poetry Pizza: A Slice of Life Collection is now available in print, Kindle, and Nook. Rook will be selling and signing copies of all his books at the Tackett’s Mill Summerfest (2241 Tacketts Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA 22192) on Saturday, June 18, 4-8 p.m. and the Local Authors Night at BadWolf Brewing Company (8420 Kao Circle, Manassas, VA), June 25, 6-9 p.m.