Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Mark Doty with Eloise Klein Healy, Conversation, 11 February 1997 – Video

Recorded in Los Angeles, California on February 11, 1997.

Mark Doty’s five books of poetry include My Alexandria, which won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award; Atlantis; and Sweet Machine. Mr. Doty said he wrote Heaven’s Coast, a memoir about his life with his partner who died of AIDS, when he realized “it would have felt in some way dishonest to the gravity and intensity of this time of grief to attempt to order it, to shape it in that very controlled way that poems are shaped. Potentially, it was an infinite book.” Mr. Doty read from Atlantis, Heaven’s Coast, and Sweet Machine and talked with Eloise Klein Healy, whose poetry books include Artemis in Echo Park and Ordinary Wisdom.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.

Mark Doty, Reading, 11 February 1997 – Video

Recorded in Los Angeles, California on 11 February 1997.

Mark Doty’s five books of poetry include My Alexandria, which won the National Book Critics’ Circle Award; Atlantis; and Sweet Machine. Mr. Doty said he wrote Heaven’s Coast, a memoir about his life with his partner who died of AIDS, when he realized “it would have felt in some way dishonest to the gravity and intensity of this time of grief to attempt to order it, to shape it in that very controlled way that poems are shaped. Potentially, it was an infinite book.” Mr. Doty read from Atlantis, Heaven’s Coast, and Sweet Machine and talked with Eloise Klein Healy, whose poetry books include Artemis in Echo Park and Ordinary Wisdom.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.

Robert Creeley, Reading, 16 April 1990 – Video

Recorded in Los Angeles on April 16, 1990.

Robert Creeley, one of the most influential American poets of his generation, launched the Black Mountain poetry movement with Charles Olson. He has said, “I write when no other act is possible.” He read from The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley, 1945-1975; Mirrors, Windows; and from work in progress on April 16, 1990.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.

Sandra Cisneros with Dorothy Allison, Conversation, 8 October 1996 – Video

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.

You may learn more about this and other events on the Lannan website.

Sandra Cisneros, Reading, 8 October 1996 – Video

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.

You may learn more about this and other events on the Lannan website.

Lucille Clifton with Quincy Troupe, Conversation, 21 May 1996 – Video

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.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.

Lucille Clifton, Reading, 21 May 1996 – Video

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.

You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.