Conversations between writers about their art and craft.
“Thatâs one reason to write poems under fire: to register a human reaction to dehumanizing circumstances. And thatâs one reason to translate: to preserve and convey those vital human responses.” –Boris Dralyuk
We talked about Bernadette Mayer, experimental writing, and courting uncertainty.
“The constant translations and riffs were my attempts to understand my father.”
“The page, for me, is all about the power of return.”
“The moment we give up showing a different way of being with language and the imagination, we have lost.”
“What are ways of looking deeply, at a photograph or other archival filament, that allow us in the present to re-enter the past?”
“The important thing is that the work conveys felt truth.”
“The dark, for me, is always a place of brimming; even when it is anguishing and unbearable. . .”
“At times, forgetting is essential. In the poem, that refers to the way one person, a mother, a woman, part of a traditional family where roles and expectations are clearly cut, needs to forget about that part of hers in order to breathe, to tend to the little things that make her happyâlike doing her nailsâto keep it going. We are a multitude of things, after all.”
Conducted by Jennifer Elise Foerster
