Kevin Killian and Andrew Durbin: November 6, 2014

The Poetry Center presents Kevin Killian and Andrew Durbin, each reading generously from new work and engaging in conversation with one another and in response to questions from their audience. Andrew Durbin, visiting from New York City, reads from from his new book, Mature Themes (Nightboat Books, 2014), "a hybrid text of poetry, art criticism, and memoir." Kevin Killian, at what would be his last of multiple appearances for The Poetry Center, reads poems from his new book, Tweaky Village (Wonder, 2014). This event was supported by the San Francisco Grants for the Arts/Hotel Tax Fund.

Publisher
American Poetry Archives
Location
The Poetry Center, San Francisco State University
Date
2014-11-06
Event Run Time
01:35:41
Contributors
Steve Dickison
Dodie Bellamy
Rights

©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu.

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Andrew Durbin (00:28:56)

Andrew Durbin focuses on pieces from his book Mature Themes parts of which take place in or otherwise have to do with California. He reads "Smile on a Jet," along with an accompanying reader's comment, "Regarding 'Smile on a Jet'"; "Landscapes Without End," in multiple parts; and concludes with a reading of "Monica Majoli." 

Kevin Killian (00:38:21)

Kevin Killian opens his reading, after noting Andrew Durbin's experience that day, with a piece remembering a visit to City Lights Books in search of the poems of Mina Loy. He then turns to Tweaky Village, noting the audience will miss something if they don't know who Kylie Minogue is, and reads, interlacing the poems with on-the-spot commentary and song: "Skull With Jewels on It," "Tight Rope," "Fetish Photography," "The Gifts of San Francisco," "Coloring Book," a translation of Stéphane Mallarmé's "Sea Breeze," then several poems from a challenge he was given to write a series of poems about the dullest things he knows, hence, the elements "Hydrogen," "Tin," and "Emerald."

He closes with a translation of Marcel Schwob's "Girondelle du Bois" — semi-homophonically rendered as "Boy's Swallow," and a final translation of Maxime Le Forestier's pop song "San Francisco," here retitled "Eyes on the Prize."

Conversation (00:21:14)

Kevin Killian and Andrew Durbin, following their readings, talk with each other and engage with questions from their audience, with Dodie Bellamy contributing from among those in the room.

Killian is reminded of then reads "Five Year Plan," a poem he found in his notebook which got incorporated into his manuscript and appears in his book Tweaky Village. After the book's publication he found out that he hadn't in fact written it.

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