Jared Stanley and Steven Seidenberg: October 11, 2018

After an introduction by Steve Dickison, Jared Stanley reads, beginning with "Forces at Work," an unpublished poem, followed by "Civilian," as published in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series, and "Abundance," from Ears. He finishes by reading "Trinity Bellwoods" and "Green Hearts + Fire to You," two new, unpublished poems, the latter a eulogy to the late Joanne Kyger.

Steven Seidenberg reads from his recently published work, Situ.

Steven Seidenberg and Jared Stanley take questions from the audience. They talk of the relationship of visual art to their own written work. Laura Moriarty asks about the physicality of their artistic practices in relation to performance, to which Seidenberg responds that each practice is a "liberator" from the other. Stanley speaks of how spatiality ties his work together, using ideas from cultural geography to conceive of his poems as "little museums of the mind," further remarking on a current collaboration with a sculptor in Toronto to create an artist's museum. When asked on how to field questions on the importance of art, Seidenberg replies that it is not the artist's job to tell others what the point of art is, while Stanley recites a quote by Robert Duncan. They then comment on how movement informs the language of their work, and speak on the differences of their process between writing and performing. Susan Gevirtz asks Seidenberg on the possibility of a podcast recording of Situ, and to comment on the work's lyrical nature, to which he speaks on the meter of Situ as a way into embodying the work. Stanley and Seidenberg then discuss the difficulties in ending a work. Steve Dickison comments on Situ as a "series of returns to initials," and asks if that motif carries over to other projects. Seidenberg remarks that he feels as if he is writing the same book over and over so as to create a reader who then creates their own text. Stanley disagrees, stating that through his work he would rather meet a reader and then relinquish control over the work, to which Seidenberg references Kierkegaard and the idea of "writing toward an opening." The conversation ends with Stanley discussing his compositional intentions behind Ears.