Conversations between writers about their art and craft.
“It’s interesting to me how when we think of the dead and project their presence in our lives, the projections often point to events or milestones that the dead will not experience with us. Birthdays, holidays, first days of school, etc. There were so many events in 2020 that I’m glad Vivian never had to endure.”
“Marrying then and now, that’s a ploy to be sensible, to recognize in my childhood-self the simplification and wishful thinking, to overlay some hard truth, and to acknowledge that I’m chained to this country by love.”
Conducted by Shriram Sivaramakrishnan
“I always felt the poem before I had any idea about its meaning. A good poem is essentially unknowable.”
On translating Green Mountain by Chinese Poet Yang Jian
Conducted by Jessica Freeman
“I’m interested in literature that depicts a person or community’s lived experiences as a wholly social conundrum.”
conducted by Alex Gallo-Brown
“There’s a certain way that the poems seek a new narration, I think, one that hadn’t been there. And yet, maybe still isn’t there, but it is its own thing.”
“I began to feel an urgency, not only in the theoretical power of poetry but in our collective power as poets.”
