released 9/6/2019

Poet and essayist Dana Gioia has been a welcome guest on the Journal since our first conversation with him in 2001. This Friday Feature presents excerpts from each of those instructive and (in the richest sense of the word) entertaining interviews, including comments on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Donne, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Gioia’s latest collection of essays is The Catholic Writer Today (Wiseblood).

25 minutes

PREVIEW

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More to hear . . .

In 2000, Ken Myers enjoyed an hour-long conversation with poet Richard Wilbur. He had just published a collection of new poems called Mayflies. Wilbur — who died in 2017 — received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry on two occasions, and, in the late 1980s, served as Poet Laureate of the United States, succeeding Robert Penn Warren. This Friday Feature honors National Poetry Month (and poetry itself) by remembering one of the greatest American poets.

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