“Although Manning has been lauded throughout the country for his work — garnering accolades from some of the major poets of our time, like W.S. Merwin, in addition to the numerous awards he has received — he has found his place in this literary life, wearing it now as effortlessly as the patterned chambray shirts he favors. He is a man of the people, intent on bringing poetry and scenes of rural beauty to them, words of the past, but also the present — the poetry of preservation, of all of us.”
– Jason Howard, Leo Weekly
Episode Show Notes
Books by Maurice Manning
- Lawrence Booth’s Book of Visions
- A Companion for Owls: Being the Commonplace Book of D. Boone, Lone Hunter, Back Woodsman, &C.
- Bucolics
- The Common Man
- The Gone and the Going Away
- One Man’s Dark
- Railsplitter (forthcoming Fall 2019)
Resources & People Mentioned
- ‘Matter is a Relative Matter with Maurice Manning’ by Rob Curry and Tim Plester (documentary about Maurice Manning)
- Bob Dylan
- ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ by Bob Dylan
- Roy Helton
- ‘I’ve drunk lonesome water’ by Maurice Manning
- Robert Penn Warren
- All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
- Audubon: A Vision by Robert Penn Warren
- John James Audobon
Drink Recommended
- Old Forester Bourbon
Questions
- Where I am finding you today, what is the context of your setting?
- What are some of the unknown fruits of watering where you are planted?
- How are you able to recognize moments, poems, experiences, when you can’t tell the difference between the symbolic and the actual?
- You share intimate memories of particular places and people that resonate with me, despite having very different experiences…is that part of the of the gateway of your poetry; particular speaks to particular?
- Can you speak to the accessibility of poetry and how that term is used?
- If someone were going to teach a class on the formation of Maurice Manning, what would be the 3 mandatory readings or works that formed you that would definitely be on that syllabus?
- Do you feel like you are saving some of the lyrical nature of language?
- How has walking been a part of cultivating your craft?
- Can you speak to the depth of what appears at first as the commonplace practice of walking the same land?
- What music resonates with you that comes from a particular place?
- What drink would pair with this conversation?
Photo Credit: Erik Ryan Anderson from Garden & Gun
You must be logged in to post a comment.