AWP Panel on History

Poets Claim American History: Panel with Dolores Hayden, Marilyn Nelson, Frank X Walker, Martha Collins, Martín Espada

In recent years, many poets have turned to history as the inspiration for book-length projects. How does the poet’s craft encompass the historian’s? Panelists explore strategies for choosing a resonant subject and interpreting another era using documents, maps, landscapes, and photographs. Do historical characters and events broaden the audience for poetry? Are there different readers for poetry, historical fiction, documentary films, and narrative history or do they overlap?