American culture

Craig Santos Perez engages the audience with several performance pieces incorporating poems from his book from unincorporated territory [guma']  (2014). This reading was originally given with Yona Harvey as part of the Morgan Lucas Schuldt Memorial Reading Series.

Adam O. Davis reads from his first book, Index of Haunted Houses (2020), which inhabits the ghostly landscape of American capitalism. He closes with several poems from an unpublished manuscript. This reading was originally given with Manuel Paul López.

Sawako Nakayasu reads work stemming from her 2017 return to the United States from Japan and the challenges of being immersed again in the violence of American culture. She opens with several new ant poems before reading from Say Translation Is Art (2020), Some Girls Walk Into the Country They Are From (2020), Pink Waves (2023), and her forthcoming book Settle Her. This reading was presented in collaboration with the American Literary Translators Association and as part of the ALTA46 conference.

In this colloquium, Robert Pinsky answers audience questions on topics including the inspiration behind particular books and poems; his Favorite Poem Project; meter, rhyme, and music in 20th century poetry; and the cultural roots of conflict in American public life. The original questions are not included in the recording due to poor audio quality.