You could say that Matthew Zapruder’s Story of a Poem is about the revision of a poem, that it follows the life of one poem, from its first phrase to its final draft, and invites us, in the most mesmerizing way, behind the curtain of the creative process of composition. And you wouldn’t be wrong. But really it is also the story of the revision of the poet as well, a revision of the stories that make up his own sense of self, that situate him in the world. When his son is diagnosed with autism many of the things that Zapruder had organized his own sense of identity around—a facility and quickness with language to name but one—were called into question. To show up as the father he wanted to be for his son, to truly see him on his own terms, he had to revise his notion of himself. He had to find a new form of being. Zapruder’s new book is also a new form, part prose, part poetry, and is the story of this journey, one that looks at how a poem comes to be, how the poet enters a place that is provisional by welcoming a certain unknowingness, as a guide toward doing the same for himself. Story of a Poem is about poetry and story, revision and self-becoming, coming together and coming undone, and more than anything about building a world where the people and things you most love can thrive.
If you enjoy today’s conversation consider joining the Between the Covers community as a listener-supporter. Find out about the many possible benefits and rewards of doing so at the show’s Patreon page.
The post Tin House Live : Matthew Zapruder on Story of a Poem appeared first on Tin House.
Rob Spillman : All Tomorrow’s Parties
Brian Blanchfield : Proxies
Idra Novey : Ways to Disappear
Ursula K. Le Guin : Late in the Day
Brian Evenson : A Collapse of Horses
Laila Lalami : The Moor’s Account
Lacy M. Johnson : The Other Side
Keith Lee Morris : Travelers Rest
Mary Gaitskill : The Mare
Valeria Luiselli : The Story of My Teeth
Amelia Gray : Gutshot
Ursula K. Le Guin : Steering The Craft
Liz Prato : Baby’s On Fire
David Biespiel : A Long High Whistle
Rebecca Makkai : Music For Wartime
Maggie Nelson : The Argonauts
Lidia Yuknavitch : The Small Backs of Children
Mary Ruefle : An Incarnation of the Now
Neal Stephenson : Seveneves
Viet Thanh Nguyen : The Sympathizer
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
A Tale of Two Cities
The Turn of the Screw
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends