MPR has had a keen ear for capturing the words and meter of poetry. Minnesota is home to many nationally renowned poets, city and state poet laureates, spoken word artists, and individuals young and old that have simply created work for the sake of the form. The state is also a magnet for poets all throughout the world. Here is a wonderful breadth of those readings, speeches, thoughts, and histories of the poet.
March 8, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan profiles and interviews poet and novelist Marge Piercy.
April 8, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews famed Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. They discuss the changes in attitude of beat poetry and his work.
April 12, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan profiles and interviews poet Galway Kinnell.
April 22, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews poet Faye Kicknosway, an attendee at the Midwest Writers Festival. Segment also includes reading form Kicknosway.
April 23, 1980 - Nancy Fushan profiles poet Jerald Bullis. Segment includes an interview and reading with writer. Bullis’ poetry are literary portraits of his intrinsic relationship with nature.
April 25, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Donald Justice. Segment also includes Justice reading his poetry.
May 8, 1980 - MPR's Nancy Fushan interviews Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Donald Justice, who talks about writing poetry and reads some of his poems.
December 26, 1980 - A presentation of excerpts from 1980 Minnesota Writers Conference, held in Rochester. Part two features remarks by writers Michael Dennis Browne, Carol Bly, Judith Guest, and John Judson. Beryl Byman was the writer, producer and director of program.
January 8, 1981 - MPR's Nancy Fushan interviews poet Howard Nemerov, who reads from his works and explains some of his views of modern American poetry.
January 11, 1981 - On this edition of New Letters on the Air, poet Gary Gildner reads his works dealing with growing up in America.