guggenheim fellowship
Li-Young Lee reads primarily from his second collection, The City in Which I Love You, which was published the same year as this reading. He also reads one poem from his first collection, Rose (1986).
Li-Young Lee reads widely from his body of work and discusses forms, craft, and chance in poetry.
Poet, playwright, and novelist Owen Dodson reads a range of poems from his distinguished career. As he introduces his poems, Dodson reflects on his consciousness as a writer, from his undergraduate days at Bates College to his engagement with spirituality, Civil Rights, and social justice.
In this performance, Alison Hawthorne Deming reads both poetry and prose, including excerpts from a book published the year of this reading, The Edges of the Civilized World, and poems from a collection that would be published seven years later, Genius Loci.
Grace Paley reads prose appearing in her two collections Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1974) and Later the Same Day (1985).
Alison Hawthorne Deming reads from her 2009 volume of poetry, Rope.
In her opening lecture for the Poetry Center's "Oh Earth, Wait for Me: Conversations about Art and Ecology" series, Alison Hawthorne Deming draws connections between the folk tale of Baba Yaga and the myth of Demeter in order to explore the intersections of science, myth, and ecology.
Jane Miller reads from her third collection, American Odalisque (1987), as well as from August Zero (1993), which would be published the following year. She also reads an excerpt from her nonfiction collection Working Time: Essays on Poetry, Culture, and Travel (1992).
In this reading, originally given with Joni Wallace, Mary Jo Bang reads poems that would go on to be collected in The Last Two Seconds (2015) as well as a segment from her translation of "Canto III" of Dante's Inferno (2012).
In this reading, originally given with Jane Miller, Alison Hawthorne Deming reads primarily from her collection Genius Loci (2005).
Jack Gilbert reads primarily from The Great Fires: Poems 1982-1992 (1995) and Refusing Heaven (2005).
Tillie Olsen reads excerpts from Tell Me a Riddle (1961), her collection of short stories; Yonnondio: From the Thirties (1974), an unfinished novel; and the classic work of nonfiction, Silences (1978). Olsen's reading is interspersed with anecdotes and narrative summaries.
Leonard Michaels reads from short stories written throughout his career, and concludes the reading with an excerpt from his novel The Men's Club (1981). His uncompromising realist sketches catch characters at their darkest and most vulnerable moments, and are colored with absurdist humor. Stories include those published in his collections Going Places (1969) and I Would Have Saved Them If I Could (1975).
Jane Miller opens her reading with "Miami Heart" and "The Poet," both from Memory at These Speeds: New and Selected Poems (1996). She continues with work from Wherever You Lay Your Head, published in 1999. This reading was originally given with Eleni Sikelianos.