Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 14, 2012.

Kevin Young often finds meaning and inspiration for his poetry in African American music, particularly the blues. His seven collections include Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebellion (Knopf, 2011) and Dear Darkness. His Jelly Roll: A Blues, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize. He is the editor of five volumes, including 2010's The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. His recent book The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness won the 2010 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate ways African American culture is American culture. “I don't mean to taxonomize but to rhapsodize. Take it from me—mean mean mean to be free.”

He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.

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Length: 1:20:43; Size: 38.8 MB

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Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 14, 2012.

Kevin Young often finds meaning and inspiration for his poetry in African American music, particularly the blues. His seven collections include Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebellion (Knopf, 2011) and Dear Darkness. His Jelly Roll: A Blues, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize. He is the editor of five volumes, including 2010’s The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. His recent book The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness won the 2010 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate ways African American culture is American culture. “I don’t mean to taxonomize but to rhapsodize. Take it from me—mean mean mean to be free.”

He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.

In this episode he is joined in conversation with Colson Whitehead. The companion Reading episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to audio recordings of this event there.

Right click here to download.
Length: 28:02; Size: 339 MB

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Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on November 14, 2012.

Kevin Young often finds meaning and inspiration for his poetry in African American music, particularly the blues. His seven collections include Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebellion (Knopf, 2011) and Dear Darkness. His Jelly Roll: A Blues, was a finalist for the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and winner of the Paterson Poetry Prize. He is the editor of five volumes, including 2010’s The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing. His recent book The Grey Album: On the Blackness of Blackness won the 2010 Graywolf Nonfiction Prize and combines essay, cultural criticism, and lyrical chorus to illustrate ways African American culture is American culture. “I don’t mean to taxonomize but to rhapsodize. Take it from me—mean mean mean to be free.”

He is the Atticus Haygood Professor of Creative Writing and English and Curator of Literary Collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library at Emory University in Atlanta.

In this episode he is introduced by Colson Whitehead and then reads from his work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to audio recordings of this event there.

Right click here to download.
Length: 52:33; Size: 636 MB

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• Jimmy Santiago Baca with Carolyn Forché, 15 September 2010 – Audio

Recorded at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico on September 30, 2012.

Mohave poet Natalie Diaz reads from her work after an introduction by poet Arthur Sze, and then takes questions from the audience.

Natalie Diaz is the author of the poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community. After playing professional basketball in Europe and Asia for several years, she completed her MFA in poetry and fiction at Old Dominion University. She was awarded the Bread Loaf 2012 Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry and a 2012 Narrative Prize for her poem "Downhill Triolets." She currently lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, and directs a language revitalization program at Fort Mojave, her home reservation. There she works with the last Elder speakers of the Mojave language.

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You may see the video of this reading on the Lannan Podcast site or get further information on the Lannan Foundation site.

Right click here to download.
Length: 1:13:19; Size: 35.2 MB

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• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Conversation, 18 April 2012 – Video

Recorded at the Lannan Foundation in Santa Fe, New Mexico on September 30, 2012.

Mohave poet Natalie Diaz reads from her work after an introduction by poet Arthur Sze, and then takes questions from the audience.

Natalie Diaz is the author of the poetry collection When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press, 2012). She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Community. After playing professional basketball in Europe and Asia for several years, she completed her MFA in poetry and fiction at Old Dominion University. She was awarded the Bread Loaf 2012 Louis Untermeyer Scholarship in Poetry and a 2012 Narrative Prize for her poem "Downhill Triolets." She currently lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona, and directs a language revitalization program at Fort Mojave, her home reservation. There she works with the last Elder speakers of the Mojave language.

You may listen to the audio of this reading on the Lannan Podcast site or get further information on the Lannan Foundation site.

Right click here to download.
Length: 1:13:02; Size: 883 MB

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Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 24, 2012.

Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright, writer, and a cultural and literary activist. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world. Her most recent poetry collections include Love and Strange Horses, winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award, and Poet in Andalucía, described as "a unique recreation, in reverse, of Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York.” Alice Walker lauds Handal’s work as "poems of depth and weight and the sorrowing song of longing and resolve." She is also the editor of the groundbreaking The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology and co-editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond.

Her most recent plays have been produced at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bush Theatre and Westminster Abbey, London. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including the Guardian, Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica Magazine, Words without Borders, Ploughshares, Poetry New Zealand, and Stand Magazine.

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You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the video recordings of this event there.

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Length: 1:18:20; Size: 37.7 MB

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• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Conversation, 18 April 2012 – Video
• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Reading, 18 April 2012 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 24, 2012.

Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright, writer, and a cultural and literary activist. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world. Her most recent poetry collections include Love and Strange Horses, winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award, and Poet in Andalucía, described as "a unique recreation, in reverse, of Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York.” Alice Walker lauds Handal’s work as "poems of depth and weight and the sorrowing song of longing and resolve." She is also the editor of the groundbreaking The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology and co-editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond.

Her most recent plays have been produced at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bush Theatre and Westminster Abbey, London. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including the Guardian, Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica Magazine, Words without Borders, Ploughshares, Poetry New Zealand, and Stand Magazine.

In this episode she is joined in conversation with Naomi Shihab Nye. The companion Reading episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the audio recordings of this event there.

Right click here to download.
Length: 23:13; Size: 280 MB

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• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Conversation, 18 April 2012 – Video
• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Reading, 18 April 2012 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on October 24, 2012.

Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright, writer, and a cultural and literary activist. She has lived in Europe, the United States, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Arab world. Her most recent poetry collections include Love and Strange Horses, winner of the 2011 Gold Medal Independent Publisher Book Award, and Poet in Andalucía, described as "a unique recreation, in reverse, of Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York.” Alice Walker lauds Handal’s work as "poems of depth and weight and the sorrowing song of longing and resolve." She is also the editor of the groundbreaking The Poetry of Arab Women: A Contemporary Anthology and co-editor of Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia & Beyond.

Her most recent plays have been produced at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Bush Theatre and Westminster Abbey, London. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including the Guardian, Virginia Quarterly Review, Guernica Magazine, Words without Borders, Ploughshares, Poetry New Zealand, and Stand Magazine.

In this episode she is introduced by Naomi Shihab Nye and then reads from her work. The companion Conversation episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also view the audio recordings of this event there.

Right click here to download.
Length: 55:11; Size: 666 MB

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• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Conversation, 18 April 2012 – Video
• W.S. Merwin with Michael Silverblatt, Reading, 18 April 2012 – Video

Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on 18 April, 2012.

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. He currently holds the position of U.S. Poet Laureate.

Merwin’s first book of poems, A Mask for Janus, was selected by W.H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1952. Numerous poetry collections have followed as well as books of essays. He is a notable translator of poetry and drama, primarily from the French and Spanish, and also the classics, with nearly twenty titles published including a much-praised translation of Dante’s Purgatorio, and more recently, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

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 a career spanning five decades, he has published numerous books that explore the relationship between language and landscape, including The Folding Cliffs, The River Sound, and Flower & Hand. His most recent collections are Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001 which won the National Book Award and The Shadow of Sirius which garnered him his second Pulitzer Prize.

Edward Hirsch has written, “Merwin is our strongest poet of silence and doubt, vacancy and absence, deprival and dispossession. He is a master of erasures and negations, a visionary of discomfort and reproof, the Samuel Beckett of postwar American poetry.”

His distinctly American voice has been acknowledged with many honors including two Pulitzer Prizes, the Tanning Prize, The Bollinger Prize, a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize for Poetry, and the PEN Translation Prize.

He lives in Haiku, Hawaii where, over 30 years, he has created a forest of over 800 species of palm that has been turned into a nature conservancy.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website

Right click here to download.
Length: 1:27:10; Size: 41.9 MB

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Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on April 18, 2012.

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. He currently holds the position of U.S. Poet Laureate.

Merwin’s first book of poems, A Mask for Janus, was selected by W.H. Auden for the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1952. Numerous poetry collections have followed as well as books of essays. He is a notable translator of poetry and drama, primarily from the French and Spanish, and also the classics, with nearly twenty titles published including a much-praised translation of Dante’s Purgatorio, and more recently, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

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 a career spanning five decades, he has published numerous books that explore the relationship between language and landscape, including The Folding Cliffs, The River Sound, and Flower & Hand. His most recent collections are Migration: Selected Poems 1951-2001 which won the National Book Award and The Shadow of Sirius which garnered him his second Pulitzer Prize.

Edward Hirsch has written, “Merwin is our strongest poet of silence and doubt, vacancy and absence, deprival and dispossession. He is a master of erasures and negations, a visionary of discomfort and reproof, the Samuel Beckett of postwar American poetry.”

His distinctly American voice has been acknowledged with many honors including two Pulitzer Prizes, the Tanning Prize, The Bollinger Prize, a Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lilly Prize for Poetry, and the PEN Translation Prize.

He lives in Haiku, Hawaii where, over 30 years, he has created a forest of over 800 species of palm that has been turned into a nature conservancy.

In this episode he is joined in conversation with Michael Silverblatt. The companion Reading episode may be found here.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website; you may also listen to audio recordings of this event there.

Right click here to download.
Length: 32:09; Size: 388 MB

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