Larry Price

PennSound Podcast #78

In this episode, poet Larry Price joins Al Filreis and William Fuller for an interview in the Wexler Studio at the Kelly Writers House to discuss his new book 1/0 (“one over zero”), as well as some of his earlier work. The three discuss various influences on Price’s poetry, including his love of Shakespeare and his former work as a performance artist, which are both reflected in the theatrical, monologic quality of his work.

Throughout the interview, Price sheds light on his poetry’s larger critique of society: he often uses “the Market” (always capitalized) to describe the world of capitalism, of expense and exchange, of corporate efficiency. He bemoans the “utter, utter individualism” that this world produces, and seeks through his work to find a unity in the face of a society that encourages us to see ourselves as separate, singular “monads.” Price discusses the importance of the pronoun “we” (he rarely uses “I”) in his work, and its roots in both a theatrical “we” of the audience, and resistance to the “I” of our isolating consumerist world.  

Price visited the Writers House on December 12, 2023 to record a series of his poems for the PennSound audio archive. That recording session can be found HERE at PennSound, along with a further introduction on Jacket2 HERE. Price, Filreis, and Fuller were also joined by Sophia DuRose for an episode of PoemTalk, which will be released later in 2024.