amanda gorman reads inauguration poem the hill we climb

People came from all over the country to take the writing courses at the University of Washington and then didn’t go away. Gradually, there was a kind of saturation of more intense reading in contemporary poetry, and a rise in skills in writing. And more and more of them stayed and taught in regional schools, at the community college level, at the college and high school level.

And as it grew, more and more of its graduates-a number of whom were publishing nationally-and even if they weren’t publishing had backgrounds now that transcended the region and could pass that on to their students. Wagoner: In my view-and it’s limited, of course- the heart of poetry in Washington State has been the creative writing program at the University of Washington. How has this regional poetry changed before your eyes? Lamberton: You yourself have been agent and witness to a great deal of change in this region’s poetry. I can’t think of any poet whose work has survived in anthology except for Roethke. To speak on poetic history except in a kind of chronological way is difficult to organize, except to talk in terms of people.ĭavid Wagoner: It begins with Theodore Roethke. And they’ve asked for a lecture on the history of Washington State poetry. They have 20 speakers who circulate through the state, and go everywhere from Twisp to Neah Bay.

The Washington Humanities Commission has a Speakers’ Bureau that goes out to small towns, and to universities, and to whoever wants it. David Wagoner, Interviewĭan Lamberton: What I came to talk to you about is something I’ve been asked to do. Northwest Schools of Literature: Commentary 3.

Amanda gorman reads inauguration poem the hill we climb