Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 3, 2010.

August Kleinzahler’s poetry is described by the New York Times as "a modernist swirl of sex, surrealism, urban life and melancholy with a jazzy backbeat. His personality combines Allen Ginsberg's goofball charm and Norman Mailer's inveterate pugnacity." He has published eight books of poetry, including A Calendar of Airs (1978); Earthquake Weather (1989); Red Sauce Whiskey and Snow (1995); and in 2003, The Strange Hours Travelers Keep which won the 2004 Griffin International Poetry Prize and the 2004 Gold Medal in Poetry from the Commonwealth Club of California, and was short-listed for the U.K.'s Forward Prize in Poetry. His most recent collection of poetry is Sleeping It Off in Rapid City. He is also the author of a book of prose, Cutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained (FSG, 2004).

His poems have appeared in numerous publications including The New Yorker, Poetry, Harper's, and The Paris Review. A native of Jersey City, Kleinzahler is the recipient of many awards, including a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 2008. Kleinzahler has been a taxi driver, a locksmith, a logger, and a building manager. He has taught creative writing courses at Brown University, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, as well as to homeless veterans in the Bay Area. He lives in San Francisco. On the title of poet, Kleinzahler says, "I don't like to call myself a poet. Most poets are shiftless, no-account fools."

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Length: 1:32:58; Size: 21.4 MB

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA on October 8, 1996.

Sandra Cisneros, the author of The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, is a poet and fiction writer. Self described as a "terrorist," "anarchist," and a "Chicana feminist," she has said, "I’m trying to write stories that haven’t been told. I feel like a cartographer. I’m determined to fill a literary void." Ms. Cisneros, who received a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, read the story "Eleven" and from work in progress on October 8, 1996. Ms. Cisernos was interviewed by poet, novelist, and essayist Dorothy Allison, whose books include Cavedweller and Bastard out of Carolina.

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Length: 30:40; Size: 352 MB

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA on October 8, 1996.

Sandra Cisneros, the author of The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories, is a poet and fiction writer. Self described as a "terrorist," "anarchist," and a "Chicana feminist," she has said, "I’m trying to write stories that haven’t been told. I feel like a cartographer. I’m determined to fill a literary void." Ms. Cisneros, who received a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, read the story "Eleven" and from work in progress on October 8, 1996. Ms. Cisernos was interviewed by poet, novelist, and essayist Dorothy Allison, whose books include Cavedweller and Bastard out of Carolina.

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Length: 26:50; Size: 307 MB

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, October 18, 2000.

W.S. Merwin poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in America, with a career spanning five decades. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator.

Over the years, his poetic voice has moved from the more formal and medieval to a more distinctly American voice. W.S. Merwin's recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from his deeply held anti-imperialist, pacifist, and environmentalist beliefs. In 2005 he will have three new books: Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001; a book of poems called Present Company; and the memoir Summer Doorways which chronicles his days as a student in seminary school and at Princeton, through the next years spent as a tutor for children of privilege living abroad.
William Merwin was the recipient of the 2004 Lannan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Length: 32:29; Size: 374 MB

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, October 18, 2000.

W.S. Merwin poet, translator, and environmental activist, has become one of the most widely read poets in America, with a career spanning five decades. The son of a Presbyterian minister, for whom he began writing hymns at the age of five, Merwin went to Europe as a young man and developed a love of languages that led to work as a literary translator.

Over the years, his poetic voice has moved from the more formal and medieval to a more distinctly American voice. W.S. Merwin's recent poetry is perhaps his most personal, arising from his deeply held anti-imperialist, pacifist, and environmentalist beliefs. In 2005 he will have three new books: Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001; a book of poems called Present Company; and the memoir Summer Doorways which chronicles his days as a student in seminary school and at Princeton, through the next years spent as a tutor for children of privilege living abroad.
William Merwin was the recipient of the 2004 Lannan Literary Lifetime Achievement Award.

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Length: 54:07; Size: 622 MB

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA on May 21, 1996.

Lucille Clifton has published ten books of poetry, including Blessing the Boats, winner of the National Book Award in 2000, The Book of Light, The Terrible Stories, Quilting, Next, and Good Times. Ms. Clifton, who has also written numerous children’s books, received a 1996 Lannan Literary Award for Poetry. She read from The Book of Light and The Terrible Stories on May 21, 1996. Ms. Clifton was interviewed by Quincy Troupe, whose five books of poetry include Avalanche, Weather Reports, and Snake-Back Solos.

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Length: 20:21 ; Size: 234 MB

Recorded in Los Angeles, CA, on May 21, 1996.

Lucille Clifton was born in 1936 in Depew, New York. Her luminous and incisive poems have been published in nine books, including The Book of Light, Quilting, and Next.

Ms. Clifton has said, “I’ve always been a person who found more interesting the stories between the stories. I’ve always wondered the hows and the whys to things. Why is this like this? What has gone into making us who we are? Is it good or not so good? What is destroying us? What will keep us warm?”

Ms. Clifton, who has also written numerous books for children, received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1996. She was Distinguished Professor for Humanities at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. Ms Clifton died on February 13th, 2010.

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Length: 41:06; Size: 473 MB

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, October 1, 2003.

Seamus Heaney's poetry bears witness to Ireland's complex, violent past and present, articulating the conflicts and tender mercies inherent in human experience. Heaney reads from a wide range of poems and offers easy context for the thoughts, feelings, and events behind his work, before joining in conversation with fellow poet and Irishman, Dennis O'Driscoll.

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Length: 38:38; Size: 444 MB

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, October 1, 2003.

Seamus Heaney's poetry bears witness to Ireland's complex, violent past and present, articulating the conflicts and tender mercies inherent in human experience. Heaney reads from a wide range of poems and offers easy context for the thoughts, feelings, and events behind his work, before joining in conversation with fellow poet and Irishman, Dennis O'Driscoll.

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Length: 39:20; Size: 452 MB

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on March 21, 2001.

Anne Carson is a poet, essayist, and scholar of classics who lives in Montreal. Her books include Men in the Off Hours; Autobiography of Red; Plainwater; Glass, Irony, and God; and Eros the Bittersweet. Ms. Carson, who received a Lannan Literary Award and a MacArthur Fellowship, has said, "I will do anything to avoid boredom…It is the task of a lifetime. You can never know enough, never work enough, never use the infinitives and participles oddly enough, never impede the movement harshly enough, never leave the mind quickly enough." Ms. Carson teaches at McGill University.

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Length: 26:09; Size: 300 MB