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An interview with the award-winning American poet Terrance Hayes
This week, Eleanor speaks with award-winning African-American poet Terrance Hayes. His latest collection is called American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin.
U.S. poet laureate Ada Limón celebrates nature, family and human connection in her newest collection, The Hurting Kind
Called "a poet of ecstatic revelation," U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón brings an observant eye and sense of wonder to all her work – from 2015's Bright Dead Things, to her acclaimed 2018 collection, The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Limón discusses and reads from her latest book, The Hurting Kind, which is a finalist for the $130,000 Griffin Poetry Prize. After the interview, Eleanor receives messages from fans of the show.
U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo pays homage to art and ancestors in her new memoir, Poet Warrior
This week, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo. A member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Joy Harjo's work is a powerful mix of the spiritual and political. In Poet Warrior, she reflects on both the joys and harsh realities of her early life and how she found refuge in poetry, music and art. *Note: The audio for this episode was recorded during the Covid-19 lockdown and contains occasional low-level equipment-related distortion.
Patti Smith on the immediacy of photography - and why she prefers Polaroids
The iconic American musician, writer and photographer talked to Eleanor Wachtel onstage in 2013 to celebrate the launch of her photo exhibit, Camera Solo. (This is a repeat from an Wachtel On The Arts (2013) episode)
A conversation with former U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey
Today on Writers & Company, Eleanor talks with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey. The two-time U.S. Poet Laureate has a haunting new memoir, Memorial Drive, which deals with race, her Southern childhood, and the trauma of her mother's murder. CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains frank discussion of some of the painful experiences in Natasha's account, including physical and psychological violence.
On Ordinary Light - An interview with poet Tracy K. Smith
Eleanor speaks with the Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Tracy K. Smith about her memoir, Ordinary Light - named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times. Tracy K. talks to Eleanor about race, faith, and the elegiac power of poetry.
Poet Sharon Olds at the Vancouver Writers Festival
Eleanor speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Sharon Olds, on stage at the 2016 Vancouver Writers Festival. Olds is known for her intensely personal, emotionally scathing verse. Her new book, Odes, is a celebration of the ordinary.
Kevin Young reminds us there's nothing new about fake news in his new book, Bunk
In his new book, African American poet and essayist Kevin Young traces the history of the hoax — from P. T. Barnum to made-up memoirs — making the case that hoaxes are embedded in race.
Poet Rita Dove talks about her work and reads from her collections, and biographer Ronald Hayman talks about the life and work of Marcel Proust
American poet Rita Dove discusses her work and reads from her new collection, Grace Notes, and from her collection Thomas and Beulah. Then, British critic, dramatist, and writer Ronald Hayman discusses the life and work of Marcel Proust in his book Proust: a Biography.
Interviews with poet and author David Rosenberg, and novelist Mona Simpson
Part I: A Poet's Bible - David Rosenberg discusses and reads from his new translation of the Old Testament. Part II: Does absence make the heart grow fonder, or desperate? American novelist Mona Simpson tackles this question in her new novel, The Lost Father.
Interviews with American poet W.S. Merwin and English playwright Alan Ayckbourn
Part I: An interview with master of language, American poet W.S. Merwin - he has a new book of stories that captures a lost France. Merwin does a reading at the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Part II: An interview with England's most successful playwright, Alan Ayckbourn.
"West Coast Writers" series, part 1: American poet Tess Gallagher
The first episode in a series on "West Coast Writers" - From Port Angeles, Washington, American poet Tess Gallagher. Her recent book of poems commemorates her life with the writer Raymond Carver. This episode includes a recording of an excerpt from one of Carver's stories, read by Peter Reigert.
A rare interview with poet John Ashbery
A rare interview with Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet John Ashbery. Ashbery - often touted as the next Nobel Laureate from the United States - discusses poets and poetry and reads from his work.
Poet Maxine Kumin discusses and reads her work, and critic Terry Castle on the friendship of Noël Coward and Radclyffe Hall
Part I: Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet Maxine Kumin extols nature, family, horses, and her best friend, Anne Sexton. Part II: Kindred spirits - a look at the friendship between Noël Coward and Radclyffe Hall with American literary critic Terry Castle.
An interview with American poet Carolyn Forché
Today, The Angel of History - American poet Carolyn Forché looks at 20th-century disaster and talks about how memory survives the unimaginable.