Relationship, Place, and Company: A Conversation with Robert Creeley about Robert Duncan

Authors : James MAYNARD

Pages : 141-181

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Publication Date : 2008-04-01

Article Type : Conference Paper

Abstract :The following conversation with Robert Creeley took place on February 18, 2002. That semester a number of graduate students in the University at Buffalo’s Poetics Program were engaged in “Opening the Field: A Group Reading of Robert Duncan” with the assistance of Robert J. Bertholf, and Creeley—who at that time was no longer actively teaching at the University—graciously agreed to speak with us about his relationship with Duncan 1919-1988 . On a cold winter’s night he generously talked with us for over two and a half hours, weaving together a multitude of anecdotes in response to our sporadic questions, and as is evident these stories implicate their teller as much as their ostensible subject. Those present included then Buffalo students Chris Alexander, Barbara Cole, Patrick Durgin, Lori Emerson, Sandra Guerreiro, Greg Kinzer, James Maynard, Anna Reckin, and Kyle Schlesinger, and also Dan Featherston, who was visiting from the University of Arizona. The event took place in Patrick Durgin’s apartment on 383 Summer Street, across from a carriage house that just happened to be one of Creeley’s many former residences in Buffalo.
Keywords : Relationship, Place, Conversation