Mark Doty

steemed poet Mark Doty discusses his work, including Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, winner of the 2008 National Book Awards, and his 2013 book-length poem and meditative bestiary called A Swarm, A Flock, A Host: A Compendium of Creatures. He also talks about why he turned to writing the memoirs, Dog Years and Firebird, and how the prose writing helped him deal more fully with the difficult issues of AIDS, death, and grief. Doty reads from his work and talks about his collaboration with the painter Darren Waterston on his exploration of the animal kingdom through poetry.

(Photo by Slowking CC BY-NC)