Orlando White and Patrick James Dunagan: April 27, 2017

Steve Dickison introduces Patrick Dunagan. Dunagan reads from his book Drops of Rain / Drops of Wine: "Gregory Corso's poems are eggbeaters for shit...," "And we, with profligates, sashay...," "Crooks and hustlers, hustlers and crooks...," "Reading skullface...," "One's haunt, not haunted...," and "Dolphy Time." He then reads from Book of Kings, published as one half of a longer book-length poem: "What's suspicious...," "Dairy cows riding musical carousels," "Organism interlude...," "Lorca's son and I...," "No trajectories, fields, conquests...," "Hangs in space...," "Reach out stars, right there...," "What is beauty...," and "Ever tussling, tit for tat..."

Patrick Dunagan introduces the Poetry Center Book Award winner, Orlando White. Dunagan explains his process for selecting White out of 150 entries and how White's use of sound and movement of words on the page ultimately moved Dunagan to select LETTERRS. White then reads from his book LETTERRS: "Nascent," "Paper Milk," "Juncture," "Finis," "To Uncolor," and "Cephalic."

Orlando White and Patrick Dunagan take questions from the audience. When asked how he imagines sound in his writing, White talks about the diacritical marks in the language of his poetry and how they differ when switching from Dine to English. He also discusses using worldplay to negotiate differences in language and how he measures the pauses instinctually when reading his work. White mentions Jackson Pollock as an influence and compares Pollock's method to how Dine people construct sand paintings, and discusses other Native artists he admires. Both writers also discuss how they write while being unable to find the right words. White suggests working with interesting words in terms of sound, while Dunagan suggests, based on his co-translating Persian poems by Hafez together with Ava Koohbor, the use of a thesaurus.