Browse Reading by Year

Peter Everwine opens this reading with poems from Collecting the Animals. He also performs poems written by Nathan Zach and discusses Zach's work. The reading concludes with poems from Everwine's 1977 collection Keeping the Night.

Steve Orlen reads just after the publication of his first chapbook, Sleeping on Doors.

Stephen Spender reads widely from his earlier works, including Poems (1933), The Still Centre (1939), and The Generous Days (1969); he also reads journal excerpts. Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Stephen Spender. 

Lucille Clifton reads poems published from 1969 to 1980. Her reading also includes exciting performances of drafts and unpublished poems.

Tomas Tranströmer reads widely from his work; he also reads two poems by fellow Swedish poet Harry Martinson. Of note, Martinson received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1974, the year before this reading. Thirty-six years later, in 2011, Tranströmer himself was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The reading includes the performance of two poems in Swedish, and ends with a rich and extensive question and answer session.

Peter Wild reads primarily from Chihuahua (1976). He also reads several poems from a variety of other publications.

William H. Gass reads a section called Mad Meg from his novel The Tunnel (1995) and provides background on the narrator's role in the book.

Seamus Heaney reads from Death of a Naturalist (1966), Door into the Dark (1969), Wintering Out (1972), North (1975), Field Work (1979), and Sweeney Astray (1983). The reading also features Heaney's lively banter.

John Logan reads from his collections The Spring of the Thief: Poems 1960-1962 (1963), The House That Jack Built: or, A Portrait of the Artist as a Sad Sensualist (1974), and from the long poem A Trip to Four or Five Towns. He concludes by reading all eight sections of the book-length poem Poem In Progress (1975). Many of the poems read here would go on to appear in his Collected Poems (BOA Editions, 1989) and are used with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd., www.boaeditions.org.

Susan Fromberg Schaeffer reads poems from her collections The Witch and the Weather Report (1972), Granite Lady (1974), The Rhymes and Runes of the Toad (1975), and Alphabet for the Lost Years (1976), many inspired by nature, teaching, and biblical themes.

Bruce Dobler explains the relationship of his work to documentary fiction. He speaks of the necessity of journalistic fiction and the writer's task of capturing "the spirit and mood of a place and a time that would otherwise be inaccessible." Dobler reads from his novel, The Last Rush North (1976), exploring the construction of the Alaskan pipeline. Rather than picking a single chapter in the novel, Dobler reads an assortment of excerpts following one of the novel's many characters, a truck driver named Jill Jones. He closes with an excerpt following a character named Little Nasty, who gets into a fight with a much larger man.

Three celebrated British poets read poems from throughout their careers.

Primus St. John reads from Love is not a Consolation; It Is a Light (1982) and Skins on the Earth(1976).

William Stafford reads widely from his work.

In this, Tess Gallagher's first reading for the Poetry Center, she performs poetry from three of her books and reads the work of Thomas Lux, Andre Breton, and Ciaran Carson.

Mark Halperin reads work primarily from Backroads (1976). He also reads some unpublished poems at the time, which would go on to be collected in A Place Made Fast (1982).

In this reading, originally given with Norman Dubie, Pamela Stewart reads from The St. Vlas Elegies (1977) and Cascades (1979).

Norman Dubie reads poems from his 1975 book In the Dead of the Night, his 1977 book The Illustrations, and a collection published two years after this reading, The City of the Olesha Fruit. This reading was originally given alongside a reading by Pamela Stewart.

William Kloefkorn reads from Uncertain the Final Run to Winter (1974), Alvin Turner As Farmer (1974), loony (1975), ludi jr (1976), Stocker (1978), Leaving Town (1979), and Not Such a Bad Place to Be (1980).

Steve Orlen reads from Permission to Speak (1978).

W.S. Merwin reads widely from his work. He also reads dreams transcribed and translated by anthropologist Robert M. Laughlin. Used with permission of the Wylie Agency LLC.

Wallace Stegner reads an excerpt from a manuscript that was in progress at the time of the reading; it would later be published as Recapitulation (1979).

C.E. Poverman reads from his collection The Black Velvet Girl (1976).

Kathleen Fraser reads from her collections What I Want (1974) and New Shoes (1978). She also reads an unpublished poem she wrote while staying in the Poet's Cottage.

Thomas Rogers reads from the manuscript of his novel At the Shores (1980). At the time of the reading, the novel was a work in progress with the title The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole.

Marvin Bell mainly performs poems from his collection of poems Stars Which See, Stars Which Do Not See, published in 1977. This reading was originally given with Ross Talarico.

In this reading with Galway Kinnell, Coleman Barks performs poems from New Words and The Juice. The poems that begin this readings are likely from an unpublished manuscript titled To No End.

In this reading with Coleman Barks, Galway Kinnell reads primarily from a manuscript that would be published three years after this reading as Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. He also performs poems written by Christopher Smart and Walt Whitman.

Ross Talarico reads from Snowfires (1972), Trying to Leave (1977), and Simple Truths (1975). This reading was originally given with Marvin Bell.

Stephen Dunn and Dave Smith read from their poems.

William Matthews reads primarily from Rising and Falling (1979).

George Keithley reads from Song in a Strange Land (1974) and The Donner Party (1972).

Philip Levine reads from five of his books, including the manuscript for 1933, which was published four years after this reading.

Michael Dennis Browne reads from The Sun Fetcher (1978) and Smoke from the Fires (1985), as well as some poems set to choral music by Stephen Paulus, a Minnesota composer with whom Browne collaborated frequently over the course of his career. 

Jon Anderson reads widely from his work and also includes some uncollected poems in this performance.

In Louise Glück's first performance at the University of Arizona Poetry Center, she opens with some poems from her third book, The Garden, and then reads from the manuscript of her book Descending Figure, which would be published two years later.

Kent Nelson reads from his short story collection The Tennis Player (1977). He first reads the title story, followed by "Instants" and "The Time and Manner."

Charles Wright reads widely from his work.

Roger Weingarten reads "The Tale of The Green Rose," which is the last poem in The Vermont Suicides (1978).

Richard Shelton reads widely from his work.

Steve Orlen reads from Permission to Speak (1978) and A Place at the Table (1981).

Greg Pape reads from Border Crossings (1978) and Little America (1976).

Criss E. Cannady reads poems appearing in Lakes and Legacies (1978) as well as unpublished pieces.