Robert Creeley

Creeley films by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian

Willy’s Reading by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, 1982

'reflecting each other as obliquely as in cracked mirrors'

Lola Ridge and poetry’s refractions in Aotearoa

Lola Ridge
Lola Ridge

Some time ago I was traversing through Papers Past, an archive of digitised newspapers managed by the National Library of New Zealand, when I fortuitously encountered six poems by Lola Ridge in the New Zealand Illustrated and The New Zealand Tablet.

Robert Creeley in conversation with Alan Riach at the University of Waikato, NZ, 1995

New on PennSound

Alan Riach interviews Robert Creeley, University of Waikato, New Zealand, July 26, 1995
(51:15): MP3
Creeley reads two poems:
"I Know a Man" (0:25): MP3 (Creeley discusses the poem at the beginning of the interview)

Robert Creeley interviews Kathy Acker

On December 12 and 13, 1979, Robert Creeley hosted Kathy Acker at SUNY-Buffalo. He introduced her and in two sessions she read from her work and engaged with Creeley on conversation. PennSound now offers, in addition to the whole recording, segments by topic and work:

  1. introduction by Creeley (4:25): MP3
  2. on Erica Jong material (1:15): MP3
  3. on forthcoming work and French novelists (3:02): MP3
  4. introduction to translations (8:41): MP3
  5. Acker reads from Eden, Eden, Eden (5:23): MP3
  6. Acker reads from Laure (10:48): MP3
  7. Acker lectures on Guyotat and Laure (31:15): MP3
  8. on self-expression (16:37): MP3
  9. on self-reflection (4:18): MP3
  10. on subjectivity and perception (12:37): MP3
  11. on the writer's perspective (5:04): MP3
  12. on the divided self (8:14): MP3

Many thanks for Hannah Judd, who did the editorial and segmenting work.

1968 Ted Berrigan reading as recorded by Robert Creeley

New at PennSound

Some of Robert Creeley's reel-to-reel tapes given to PennSound after the poet's death

Robert Creeley recorded Ted Berrigan’s May 6, 1968 reading given in Buffalo. And Creeley gave the introduction (although, unfortunately, whoever was monitoring the tape recorder while Creeley got up to speak, only caught 27 seconds of the statement). This is the earliest recording of Berrigan currently in the PennSound archive. After his death, Creeley’s many, many recordings have been made available through PennSound. This 1968 Berrigan reading, now newly available on PennSound’s Ted Berrigan page, is one of the most remarkable poetry events Creeley documented.

Creeley on Dickinson

Image of Creeley courtesy Francesco Clemente (from a 2002 oil painting); image of Dickinson courtesy Penelope Dullaghan (from a poster she created for the Dickinson Museum in Amherst, MA).

In late September of 1985, Robert Creeley visited New College. He gave three lectures on Emily Dickinson (one each on September 20, 23 and 25) and a reading (September 23), introduced by Aaron Shurin and Duncan McNaughton. We at PennSound have now segmented the first of the three talks by topic. Many thanks to Anna Zalokostas for her superb editorial work. The recordings came to PennSound courtesy of David Levi Strauss. So here are the segments of the first lecture on Dickinson:

  1. challenging the image of Emily Dickinson as eccentric, reactive, and fragile (11:06): MP3
  2. on the comings and goings of the Amherst town and church, her secondary school education, and her daily interactions (10:39): MP3
  3. on her family life (3:34): MP3
  4. reading from Emily Dickinson's letters (8:28): MP3
  5. on the patterns of her friends and family (13:47): MP3
  6. reading from Emily Dickinson's letters (3:19): MP3

Robert Creeley in conversation with his mother, 1970 (MP3 oral history)

photos by Jan Erik Vold, Bolinas, Spring 1972

Creeley in conversation with his mother on her first visit to Gloucester, probably summer 1970: 
audio file courtesy PennSound: (32:32):  MP3
(Sidney Goldfarb comes into the conversation at the end.)



For My Mother: Genevieve Jules Creeley 
April 8, 1887 - October 7, 1972

Robert Creeley at Kelly Writers House, 2000

Editorial noteThis interview took place on the second of two days of visits by the late Robert Creeley to the Kelly Writers House in 2000 as part of the Writers House Fellows program, which brings three writers to the University of Pennsylvania’s campus each spring for close interaction with students, faculty, and other literary aficionados.

Robert Creeley Symposium at Notre Dame: the videos with Penelope Creeley, Steve Clay, Kaplan Harris introduced by Stephen Fredman

and graduate student roundtable

Bobbie Louise Hawkins: Home movies of Robert Creeley and company

Olson, Creeley, Wieners

Bobbie Louise Hawkins took these home movies from 1962 to 1965. She provided them to Robert McTavish for his film about the Vancouver poetry conference of 1963, The Line Has Shattered (2013), and then asked McTavish to send them to PennSound.  Penelope Creeley and McTavish provided most of the annotations. We welcome any further identifications: let us know! 

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