A Poet's Mind

*** Winner of the 2013 PEN Oakland Award

“This is a great and spiritually magnanimous volume. Active and peaceful anarchist, and shaper of the best that was to come after him, Robert Duncan possessed genius that opened worlds. These interviews are breathing shapes of consciousness.”
—Michael McClure, author of Of Indigo and Saffron

“It would be hard to overestimate the importance of this book. Like no other yet published, it exhibits the operations of the mind of a great American poet at play in the most diverse fields: social and political criticism; sexuality; philosophy; and of course literary history, theory, and poetics. This collection is a testament to Duncan’s full engagement with how to live in a civil (or uncivil) society.”
—Gerrit Lansing, author of Heavenly Tree, Northern Earth

“This is, simply, an essential text. Duncan was always an amazing talker and thinker, and these interviews over three decades display his animated intelligence and spirit in full glory. Invaluable for poets and those interested in a broad sweep of modern poetry and poetics, this volume is crackling with Duncan’s wit and honesty and profound seriousness about the art and its forebears. His creative energy is inspiring and open and a great gift to the reader. Added to the mix is editor Christopher Wagstaff’s lucid contextualization of the interviews. This gathering is a treasury, as well as a proxy autobiography of a major American poet.”
—David Meltzer, author of When I Was a Poet

Christopher Wagstaff holds a PhD in American Literature from the University of California at Davis. He spent many years teaching writing and literature, most recently at the University of California at Berkeley.

Wagstaff has curated numerous art exhibitions, showcasing the drawings and decorated books of Robert Duncan, as well as other art and literature. These exhibitions have been displayed at venues such as University Art Museum, The Bancroft Library, the Palo Alto Cultural Center, and Mythos Gallery. He is currently preparing a traveling exhibition focused on Robert Duncan, his partner Jess Collins, and their artistic circle.

He has published a series of chapbooks featuring his interviews with Bay Area artists. Additionally, Wagstaff edited The Collected Poems of Madeline Gleason 1919-1979 (Talisman House, 1999) and A Sacred Quest: The Life and Writings of Mary Butts (McPherson & Co., 1995).

Wagstaff serves as co-trustee of the Jess Collins Trust, which manages the estates of Robert Duncan and Jess Collins. He resides in Berkeley, California.

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