Browse Items (9012 total)

"Tony: Ending the Life," published in A Scattering of Salts, is an "expansive elegy for his friend" (Tony Parigory, who died in summer 1993 of AIDS), "and (it is all but explicit) himself." Merrill had been largely silent about his AIDS diagnosis but…

William Gass introduces keynote speaker William Gaddis at the International Writers Center conference "The Writer and Religion," October 23, 1994, detailing the rise of his work from the "cult" like shadows to an equally--if not more--shadowy…

In his October 23, 1994 keynote speech for the International Writers Center conference, "The Writer and Religion," William Gaddis gestures toward the foggy line between the "ascetic" and the "aesthetic," citing his experience with a "pro-Catholic"…

On November 9, 1997, at the International Writers Center conference, "The Dual Muse: The Writer As Artist, The Artist As Writer," Tom Phillips discusses the usefulness of "failure" and the difference between an artist's external career and internal…

Breyten Breytenbach discusses the advantages of "bilingual" artistry at the International Writers Center conference, "The Dual Muse: The Writer As Artist, The Artist As Writer," November 9, 1997.

Jennifer Bartlett delivers a remixed version of her essay "A Peaceable Kingdom" for the International Writers Center conference, "The Dual Muse: Writer As Artist, Artist As Writer." Bartlett's address incorporates diary entries from her late fellow…

Derek Walcott reads from his poetic essay "Tiepolo's Hound" for the International Writers Center conference, "The Dual Muse: The Writer As Artist, The Artist As Writer". Walcott wrote this piece in response to his invitation to the conference.

A three-page draft of an unfinished, untitled poem from winter 1992 addressing Elizabeth Bishop. It is an "uncharacteristically awkward" but powerful poem about "raw life" prevailing over "graceful art."

Holograph and typescript fragments toward and three full drafts of "Self-Portrait in a Tyvek Windbreaker." A play on John Ashbery's "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," and published in A Scattering of Salts, it is one of the longest poems of…

"The Will," published in Divine Comedies, contains the first mention of Ephraim in a poem, as well as the first time he speaks. In it, Ephraim explains why the novel draft was lost twice--implying that he was involved.