Rukeyser’s Difficulty–ALA Conference Session, Chicago, Illinois, May 26, 2022
Thursday, May 26, 2022, 4:30--5:50pm, American Literature Association Conference, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois Organized by: Jacqueline Campbell, Princeton University Chair: Vivian Pollak, Washington University “The Promise of the Night-Flowering Worlds,” Trudi Witonsky, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater“‘Not even the bones of what I want to say’: On Muriel Rukeyser and Frances [...]
“What are all his escapes for?”: Making Sense of Muriel Rukeyser’s Houdini
Dear Reader, In what follows, I have tried to offer a careful reading of Muriel Rukeyser’s 1973 version of Houdini: A Musical, published by Paris Press in 2002. This is the version new audiences will soon encounter together during the four public Houdini events sponsored by the Eastern Michigan University [...]
A Conversation about Muriel Rukeyser and Harry Houdini
A conversation between Clinical Psychologist Carolyn Stroebe and Muriel Rukeyser Archive Administrator Elisabeth Daumer on Muriel Rukeyser's interest in Harry Houdini.
Celebrating Muriel Rukeyser’s 108th Birthday: A Collection of Readings
Enjoy hearing--and viewing--various Muriel Rukeyser poems read, and in one case performed, in the 21st century to celebrate her 108th birthday on December 15, 2021. Submitted readings are from friends, scholars, and admirers of Rukeyser. Thank you to everyone who submitted a reading. https://youtu.be/jAw1MIG9QXk Dennis Bernstein reads and explains the [...]
Susanna Ansorge, Rat Elegy–A Creative Response to Rukeyser’s Elegies
Preface Muriel Rukeyser's Elegies challenges readers with an array of complicated literary devices and historical references as a way of digesting a thoroughly grueling time in world history, as she lived through it. Since the work isn't reflecting on the past, but rather a historical present, Elegies stands as especially [...]
Bill Rukeyser, Interviewed by Dennis Bernstein, February 16, 2021, KPFA Flashpoints
Dennis: It’s a pleasure and an honor to welcome William L. Rukeyser, son of the late poet and biographer, Muriel Rukeyser, who we are honoring, studying, remembering, during this extended two-day webinar at Eastern Michigan University. Eastern Michigan University is creating an archive for the great work of the biographer [...]
“Every elegy is the present”: Listening to Muriel Rukeyser
Posted by Katherine McLeod on February 12, 2021 On the night of January 24, 1969, Muriel Rukeyser read from Elegies at a reading that took place in Montreal, Canada. But she didn’t read all of Elegies. She only read “Elegy in Joy” and, before reading it, she commented on the [...]
Trudi Witonsky and Elisabeth Daumer: A Visit with Louise Kertesz–Pioneer of Rukeyser Studies
When we told Louise she was a pioneer of Rukeyser Studies, she didn’t quite believe us. It took some time to convey to her just how influential her book, The Poetic Vision of Muriel Rukeyser, has been. Published in 1980, it has served as a touchstone for those of us [...]
The Power of Suicide: Muriel Rukeyser’s Poetic Responses to Sylvia Plath
Posted on December 15, 2016 by Arica Frisbey When it comes to Sylvia Plath and her death, the creative response from fellow poets is so very different. Ted Hughes, her estranged husband, wrote an entire book of poems in regards to her (Birthday Letters). Meanwhile, her friend/rival, Anne Sexton, composed [...]
Discovering Muriel Rukeyser as a Young Writer
Posted on September 8, 2014 by Laura Passin On her 16th birthday, my best friend Jess received a copy of Out of Silence: Selected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser from her mother. Jess and I didn’t live in the same state, so we were avid letter writers; after that birthday, her [...]
Muriel Rukeyser and Other Writers
Posted on May 19, 2014 by Catherine Gander In just a few days, I will have the pleasure of chairing a panel at the American Literature Association’s annual conference at Washington, DC. The panel, organised by Elisabeth Däumer (herself a force of intellectual connectivity of the sort Rukeyser celebrated) will [...]
On the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth: the lives of a poet
Posted on December 14, 2013 by Catherine Gander This post, in celebration of the centenary of Muriel Rukeyser’s birth (15.12.13), is a more personal one than my last. I want to evoke, as far as I can, a feeling as well as an understanding of the enormous influence Rukeyser has [...]
‘Islands’: Dragging Our Heads Back
Posted on December 14, 2013 by Marian Evans The latest draft of the Throat of These Hours radio play, now with a rigorous reader, was hard and slow. I had to reduce – drop storylines, drop characters, drop themes, drop dialogue – and distill. Reduce and distill again. Sometimes I [...]
Crisis, hope, and the life of poetry
Posted on October 3, 2013 by Catherine Gander I’m delighted to be blogging for this website for several reasons. Foremost among them is the great pleasure I have in being part of a growing community of scholars, students, readers, writers, artists, musicians, performers, filmmakers, activists and more who share a [...]
From the Shaky Isles
Posted on August 22, 2013 by Marian Evans ISLANDS O for God's sake they are connected underneath They look at each other across the glittering sea some keep a low profile Some are cliffs The bathers think islands are separate like them I feel so fortunate. I've heard gifted readers read [...]
