The Controlling Image with Dorianne Laux (via Zoom)

Acclaimed for her own hybrid lyric-narrative long poems  that explore wide-ranging experience, from working-class America to  sex and love, poet Dorianne Laux discusses two long, discursive poems—by Deborah Digges and Larry Levis—examining how the personal “I” is used to disclose much and yet retain a sense of mystery.

Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection,  Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems  was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems,  Facts About the Moon,  won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.  Laux is also the author of Awake;  What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award;  Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition,  The Book of Women.  She is  the co-author of the celebrated text  The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her latest collection of poetry is Life On Earth and was released in January of 2024. Finger Exercises for Poets, a book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets was released in July 2024.