Joy Harjo

Poetry

Interviewed by: Rebekah Presson

Catalog Number(s): 20200703, 20121123

Interview Year(s): 1991

Current U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo (2019-2021) talks about her Native American heritage and reads poetry from her fourth book, In Mad Love and War, that won the American Book Award, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Prize, and the William Carlos Williams Prize from the Poetry Society of America. In excerpts from a 1991 interview by former New Letters on the Air host, Rebekah Presson, Joy Harjo shares stories about the influence of her heritage, depicted in her acclaimed memoir, Crazy Brave. This program also includes Harjo reading from her 2019 collection An American Sunrise, recorded for the 2020 Poets House Presents series, with music from one of her five CD’s: Red Dreams: A Trail Beyond Tears.