Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
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Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
Saeed Jones (with Alice Notley, John Ashbery, Yusef Komunyakaa, and William Kennedy)
The Writers Institute
53 minutes
3 years ago
Saeed Jones (with Alice Notley, John Ashbery, Yusef Komunyakaa, and William Kennedy)
In this series, you hear about writers' words coming to life in different places—in conversation, in TV writers’ rooms, at public readings. When those writers are poets, an especially intense attention to language can do something similarly intense to the places where they read or speak. In this episode, Saeed Jones—author of the new poetry collection Alive at the End of the World—explains how he learned that “my education in poetry as a craft could serve me outside of the context of writing a poem.” Poetic economy of language, he says, informed his work in a newsroom and his presence on social media.
You’ll also hear archival sound from poets Alice Notley, John Ashbery, and Yusef Komunyakaa, thanks to the New York State Writers Institute. And you’ll hear how poetry can echo through an audience, across media, into thought.
On this episode:
Saeed Jones (conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Alive at the End of the World and Prelude to Bruise.
Alice Notley (from the archives). Books: Close to Me & Closer... (The Language of Heaven) and Desamere and Disobedience.
John Ashbery (from the archives). Books: Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror and The Tennis Court Oath.
Yusef Komunyakaa (from the archives). Books: The Emperor of Water Clocks and Taboo.
William Kennedy (conversation with Adam Colman). Books: Changó's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes and Riding the Yellow Trolley Car.
Find out more about the New York State Writers Institute at https://www.nyswritersinstitute.org.
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The Writers Institute
Books are written in solitude, but writers do some of their finest work with crowds—in public talks, interviews, and events. The best moments from those strange, dramatic interactions often go missing, however: either they’re never recorded, or nobody will ever find the recordings.
Fortunately, the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany has been methodically recording thousands of writers’ events since 1983, when it was founded by the novelist William Kennedy. Now, the writer and radio producer Adam Colman is digging into those audio archives, listening to recordings from the likes of Raymond Carver, Grace Paley, Jamaica Kincaid, Margaret Atwood, and Samuel Delany. On The Writers Institute, you’ll hear them, too, along with writers who joined Adam in listening to the archival recordings. They include Jonathan Franzen, Susan Choi, Jonathan Lethem, Saeed Jones, and Amelia Gray. Tune in to hear what happens when intensely solitary work finds its way into the public realm and the wider world.
