HoCoPoLitSo's video: Richard Wilbur and Linda Pastan talk shop

In this 1986 edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, Linda Pastan, then the recent winner of the Maurice English Poetry Award, speaks with poet, translator, and lyricist Richard Wilbur. The winner of two Pulitzers and a National Book Award, Wilbur served as the nation’s second National Poet Laureate. Pastan and Wilbur chat about their origins as writers and their common Harvard University background. Wilbur reads “The Writer,” about his daughter, Ellen. Pastan follows with the poem “Rachel,” about naming her daughter, and “A Name.” In the conversation about family, Wilbur reads “The Wedding Toast,” written for his son’s nuptials. The poets discuss why writers shouldn’t only write on “accepted” topics, their writing process, forms such as the rondeau and the sonnet. Pastan reads a pantoum, “Something About the Trees.” Wilbur reads his famous “To the Etruscan Poets.” Pastan closes the program by reading her poem, “Ethics.” For more information on or to support the production of HoCoPoLitSo’s live or recorded programs, visit www.hocopolitso.org.