Includes index. Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents:
A conversation with W.S. Merwin (Audience, 1956) -- W.S. Merwin (1961) / David Ossman -- "Tireless quest": a conversation with W.S. Merwin (1968) / Gregory Fitz Gerald and William Heyen -- W.S. Merwin: an interview (1980) / Michael Clifton -- "Fact has two faces": an interview with W.S. Merwin (1981) / Ed Folsom and Cary Nelson -- A conversation with W.S. Merwin (1982) / Daniel Bourne -- An interview with W.S. Merwin (1984) / David Elliott -- W.S. Merwin: the art of poetry, no. 38 (1986) / Edward Hirsch -- A poet of their own (1995) / Dinitia Smith -- An interview with W.S. Merwin (1998) / Michael Ondaatje, Sam Solecki, and Linda Spalding -- An interview with W.S. Merwin (2003) / John Amen -- Poet W.S. Merwin (2009) / Bill Moyers -- The Progressive interview (2010) / Ed Rampell -- Nature, conservation, and the unseen: a conversation with W.S. Merwin (2012) / Hal Crimmel -- [List of] additional interviews.
Summary:
"Conversations with W. S. Merwin is the first collection of interviews with former United States Poet Laureate W. S. Merwin. Spanning almost six decades of conversations, the collection touches on such topics as Merwin's early influences, his location within the twin poles of Walt Whitman and Henry David Thoreau, his extraordinary work as a translator, as well as his decades-long interest in environmental conservation. Anticipating the current sustainability movement and the debates surrounding major and minor literatures, Merwin was, and still is, a visionary. At age eighty-eight, he is among the most distinguished poets, translators, and thinkers in the United States. A major link between the period of literary modernism and its contemporary extensions, Merwin has been a force in American letters for many decades, and his translations from Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, and other languages, have earned him unanimous praise and admiration. Merwin also wrote at the forefront of literature's environmental advocacy and early on articulated concerns about ecology and sustainability. Now for the first time, this book offers insight into the various dimensions of Merwin's thought by treating his interviews as a self-standing category in his oeuvre. More than casual narratives that interpret the occasional poem or relay an occasional experience, they afford literary and cultural historians a view into the larger through-lines of Merwin's thinking"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.