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.
April 12, 1980 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan profiles and interviews poet Galway Kinnell.
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.
February 12, 1981 - Stanley Kiesel, poet in residence for Minneapolis Schools, talks with Dan Olson about education, poetry, and his new book, "The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids."
May 23, 1981 - MPR’s Nancy Fushan has a Q&A with British-American poet Elizabeth Sewwell on her passion for poetry.
June 20, 1981 - An excerpt of American poet and educator Ai Ogawa reading from her work.
February 13, 1982 - Minnesota poet Robert Bly performs reading about winter during intermission of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra broadcast of Baroque Series Concert V.
November 15, 1983 - Eugene McCarthy, former Minnesota senator speaking at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. McCarthy’s address was titled "Growing Up in Rural Minnesota". McCarthy speaks of experiences in his hometown of Watkins, some of which were expressed in a collection of poems entitled "Gene McCarthy's Minnesota". During the hour, McCarthy reads about a dozen pieces from that book.