Bernadette Mayer on writing in traditional forms

At the Kelly Writers House, as a guest during a live interactive webcast hosted by the open online course, “ModPo,” Bernadette Mayer listens to a call from a ModPo participant named Elizabeth, who asks if one should begin writing traditional forms before attempting to write experimentally in such forms. Mayer answers succinctly: “No.” After some further discussion on sonnets, she reads one of her own: “You jerk you didn't call me up.” The discussion took place at the Kelly Writers House on October 21, 2014. The text of Mayer’s poem can be found here. Here is an essay on Mayer's sonnets by Juliana Spahr, published in Jacket #7 (1999).