Video Library - Last Names A—D
Yehuda Amichai
Yehuda Amichai was born in Germany and grew up in Palestine. Mr. Amichai, who writes in Hebrew, is one of the most distinguished Israeli poets of the twentieth century. Mr. Amichai read from Selected Poetry of Yehuda Amichai at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. on March 15, 1989.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1989 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940119
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...HideAmiri Baraka
Amiri Baraka, born Leroi Jones in Newark, New Jersey, in 1934, is a poet, playwright, novelist and essayist who has written about music, politics, and culture. He is also a political activist who was instrumental in establishing the Congress of African People. Mr. Baraka read from Boptrees and unpublished work in this performance, which took place in Los Angeles on February 11, 1991.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1991 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940275
Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder
Running time: 1 hour 29 minutes
© 2001 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1-57394-083-6
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Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder
Wendell Berry, poet, essayist, and novelist, pursues what he calls "an ethic and way of life based upon devotion to a place and devotion to a land." He has published more than 30 books, and received a Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction in 1989. The reading took place on November 10, 1999. Gary Snyder’s poetry and prose reflect his study of Eastern literature and culture, his commitment to the environment, and his concepts of humanity’s place in the cosmos. Mr. Snyder lived in Japan for fourteen years, studying Zen Buddhism. He lives in Northern California and teaches at the University of California at Davis.
Running Time: 89 minutes
©2001 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940836
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge
Mei-mei Berssenbrugge is the author of ten collections of poetry, including Fish Souls, Summits Move with the Tide, Random Possessions, Sphericity, and The Four Year Old Girl. Her work has been described as "spiritual exercises in physical form." Ms. Berssenbrugge has received fellowships from the NEA and two American Book Awards from the Before Columbus Foundation. She read on April 1, 1999, and discussed her work with Lannan Poetry Award winner, Arthur Sze.
Running Time: 72 minutes
©2001 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940712
Eavan Boland
Eavan Boland, one of the major Irish poets of her generation, is the author of more than nine books of poetry. In her work, she explores the relationship between gender, art, and national identity. Eavan Boland read from In a Time of Violence and Outside History on November 16, 1994, in Los Angeles. Ms. Boland talked with Eloise Klein Healy, whose books of poetry include Artemis in Echo Park and Ordinary Wisdom.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1994 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940437
Kay Boyle
Kay Boyle (1902-1992), who published more than 30 books of fiction, criticism, and poetry in her lifetime, was an eloquent advocate for human rights in her work and life. This program documents her final public reading. Kay Boyle read from This Is Not a Letter and Other Poems and Testament for My Students in Los Angeles on September 11, 1989.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1989 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940143
Ernesto Cardenal
Ernesto Cardenal is an ordained Catholic priest, a revolutionary, and an acclaimed poet who champions the spiritual and intellectual values of the Nicaraguan people. On January 28, 1991, Ernesto Cardenal read in Spanish from Cántico Cósmico, his masterful 600-page poem. The English translations were read by actor Edward Asner and poet Rubén Martínez, who also interviewed Ernesto Cardenal.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1991 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940240
Hayden Carruth
Hayden Carruth is a distinguished poet, essayist, and editor. He has been described as both a people’s poet, who writes about our common welfare, and also a poet’s poet, "a virtuoso of form from the sonnet to free verse, from medieval metrics to jazz ones." —The Nation Mr. Carruth read from his Collected Shorter Poems, 1946-1991, which received a National Book Critics Circle Award, on November 9, 1993, in Los Angeles. He talked about his poetry with Michael Silverblatt.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1994 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940372
Eilean Ni Chuilleanain and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill
Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin was born in 1942 in County Cork, Ireland. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, including The Brazen Serpent and Acts and Monuments. Ms. Ní Chuilleanáin read from The Second Voyage, The Brazen Serpent, The Magdalene Sermon, and new poems. Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, born in 1952, grew up in the Irish speaking areas of West Kerry and Tipperary. She has written two books in Irish, An Dealg Droighin and Féar Suaithinseach, both of which won the Séan O Riordáin Award and the Arts Council Prize for Poetry. Ms. Ní Dhomhnaill read from Pharaoh’s Daughter, The Astrakhan Cloak, and new poems. They read on April 29, 1997, and spoke with Dillon Johnston, founder and director of Wake Forest University Press. He is the author of Irish Poetry After Joyce.
Running Time: 90 minutes
©1997 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 157394064
Sandra Cisneros
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.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1997 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940569
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...HideLucille Clifton Volume I
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.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1996 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940550
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...HideLucille Clifton Volume II
Lucille Clifton has published ten poetry books, including Blessing the Boats, winner of the National Book Award; The Book of Light; The Terrible Stories; Quilting; Next; and Good Times. 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 received a Lannan Literary Award for Poetry in 1996. She discussed her work with writer Denise Chavez, on December 8, 1999.
Running Time: 74 minutes
©2001 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 157394081
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...HideRobert Creeley
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.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1990 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940208
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...HideVictor Hernandez Cruz
Victor Hernandez Cruz is a poet whose work has been influenced by the African, Indian, and Spanish cultures found in his native Puerto Rico. He read from Rhythm, Content and Flavor, and By Lingual Wholes in Los Angeles on April 17, 1989. Victor Hernandez Cruz talked to students at the Harvard School.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1989 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940135
Mark Doty
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 of Artemis in Echo Park and Ordinary Wisdom.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1997 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940615
Stuart Dybek
Stuart Dybek has written two collections of stories, The Coast of Chicago and Childhood and Other Neighborhoods, and a book of poetry, Brass Knuckles. Mr. Dybek’s luminous and haunting stories evoke the ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago where he grew up. He received the Lannan Literary Award for Fiction, as well as a Whiting Writer’s Award and four O. Henry Prizes. He read the story "Paper Lantern" and from The Coast of Chicago on November 12, 1996. He was interviewed by Barry Sanders, the author of Sudden Glory: Laughter as Subversive History and The Private Death of Public Discourse.
Running Time: 60 minutes
©1997 Lannan Foundation. All rights reserved.
ISBN 1573940577