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Susan Howe

Susan Howe

On LINEbreak radio program with Charles Bernstein, 1995

In two parts:
Part One (29:44): MP3
Part Two (29:00): MP3

Complete program (58:44): MP3

Segmented topics:

  1. Introduction (1:04): MP3
  2. On War As A Motif (3:34): MP3
  3. Reading "There Are Not Leaves Enough to Crown to Cover to Crown to Cover" from the preface to The Europe of Trusts (7:06): MP3
  4. On women writing about war and silenced women (5:36): MP3
  5. Reading from My Emily Dickinson (2:00): MP3
  6. On power, writing as a woman, and Emily Dickinson (2:26): MP3

PoemTalk #83, Discussing Wallace Stevens' “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain,” feat. Susan Howe, Dee Morris, and Nancy Kuhl

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.

PoemTalk #32, Discussing Howe's interpretation of Emily Dickinson's "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"

For complete recording and program notes go to Jacket2.


Concordance: an evening with Susan Howe, Harvard Divinity School, April 24, 2019

Complete recording (39:54): MP3
Alternate video mirror: MP4

Reading of Flow Chart, John Ashbery 90th Celebration, 2017

Complete reading (12:57): MP3

Reading with David Grubbs, WOODSLIPPERCOUNTERCLATTER, ISSUE Project Room, October 25, 2013

  • Complete reading (41:58): MP3
Watch on Media.sas

Spontaneous Particulars: The Telepathy of Archives, Woodberry Poetry Room, October 7, 2014

  • Watch a recording of the event here, via YouTube.

Reading for the Readings in Contemporary Poetry series at Dia Art Foundation, New York:Chelsea, February 11, 2013

with Kate Colby

  1. Discussing The Disappearance Approach (1:59): MP3
  2. The Disappearance Approach (11:31): MP3
  3. Frolic Architecture (6:36): MP3
  4. discussing Thek (4:22): MP3
  5. Thek (4:58): MP3
  6. Tom Tit Tot (4:04): MP3
  • Complete reading (33:31): MP3

Reading with Roberto Tejada at the Poetry Project, St. Marks, New York, February 8, 2012

  • Watch a recording of the event here, via YouTube.

Reading at Jerome Rothenberg's 80th Birthday Tribute, CUNY Graduate Center, New York City, December 9, 2011

Frolic Architecture, performed with David Grubbs, Harvard University, November 1, 2011



"Souls of the Labadie Tract," with David Grubbs, Walker Art Center, April 29, 2010

Reading for the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program, March 22, 2010

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (6:06): MP3
  2. Introduction by Cecilia Corrigan (5:46): MP3
  3. Introduction by Susan Howe (0:57): MP3
  4. from Secret History of the Dividing Line (1:22): MP3
  5. Discussing "Melville's Marginalia" (2:00): MP3
  6. from the closing of "Melville's Marginalia" (1:01): MP3
  7. the preface of "Melville's Marginalia (11:09): MP3
  8. from Bedhangings (17:09): MP3
  9. "Errand" (2:07): MP3
  10. from Souls of the Labadie Tract (10:14): MP3

Complete reading (1:00:11): MP3 / MOV

Discussion during the the Kelly Writers House Fellows Program, March 23, 2010

  1. Introduction by Al Filreis (4:55): MP3
  2. on Wilson Walker Cowen (6:50): MP3
  3. owning Emily Dickinson (1:59): MP3
  4. Wild libraries (5:53): MP3
  5. the Adriondacks (5:54): MP3
  6. on The writing environment (3:08): MP3
  7. on Marta L. Wenrer's Dickinson Project (2:11): MP3
  8. The rhetoric of terror (5:43): MP3
  9. The violence of selving (3:13): MP3
  10. on Wallace Stevens (7:50): MP3
  11. In the stacks (3:53): MP3
  12. Books as transitional objects (5:00): MP3
  13. Marginalia and dirty laundry (4:19): MP3
  14. The recuperation of past poets (5:13): MP3
  15. reading from Frame Structures (6:43): MP3

Complete recording (1:12:44): MP3 / MOV

Reading for Double Change, Paris, October 29, 2009

  • Film available from Double Change archives.
  • Complete program (42:14): MP3

    1. Introduction (2:20): MP3
    2. Errand (2:41): MP3
    3. Personal Narrative (14:25): MP3
    4. Souls of the Labadie Tract (15:12): MP3
    5. Fragment of the Wedding Dress of Sarah Pierpont Edwards (5:46): MP3

"Souls of the Labadie Tract," recorded live with David Grubbs, Southbank Centre, London, October 8, 2009

From Bernstein's: Portraits Series

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Susan Howe, January 27th, 2008

Watch on Media.sas

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club January 26, 2008

  1. Introduction (3:28): MP3
  2. Short selections from Pierce Arrow (5:56): MP3
  3. Stage Snow (1:51): MP3
  4. Concrete Central (8:26): MP3
  5. 118 Westerly Terrace (11:29): MP3
  • Complete reading (31:43): MP3

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Sukey's Walks, Oct. 16, 2007

Watch on Media.sas

Susan Howe
I was at Yale for the day and met Sukey at the Museum of Art, now fully restored to Louis Kahn's original design, though Sukey lamented that Kahn had not wanted blinds on the floor-to-ceiling windows; the views of the city were to be a backdrop for the art on display. The show was hodgepodge from their entire collection, but Sukey was most interested in looking again at the installation African art; she pointed to a wood sculptures that was stunningly spare and noted its similarity to David's work. We walked across the campus and sat on the benches across from the chapel, where, fifteen years ago, we were at David's memorial service.
(mp4, 30 seconds, 30.7 mb)


Kelly Writers House

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

  1. Introduction by Charles Bernstein (4:02): MP3
  2. "What Is This Crackling of Voices in the Mind" (15:37): MP3
  3. From Thorow (19:40): MP3

  4. Complete recording (40:16): MP3

Thursday, February 15, 2007, (sponsored by Theorizing)

  1. Introduction by Rebecca Sheehan (4:32): MP3 (With text of introduction
  2. From The Midnight (first two unnumbered pages at the beginning flyleaf sections then pp. 57-60) (14:52): MP3
  3. "Originality and Quotation: A Prose Poem" [on Jonathon Edwards] (19:57): MP3

  4. Complete recording (40:13): MP3

Thiefth, with David Grubbs, 2005

Radio Readings Project, produced by Ernesto Grosman, 1998

  1. Introduction (0:56): MP3
  2. Thorow: Introduction (5:51): MP3
  3. Thorow: I (3:17): MP3
  4. Thorow: II (5:28): MP3
  5. Thorow: III (3:13): MP3
  6. Introduction to The Europe of Trusts (6:30): MP3
  7. Commentary on Pythagorean Silence (1:07): MP3
  8. The "Pearl Harbor" section of Pythagorean Silence (5:27): MP3
    [Note: Howe reads the verse prologue--"we that were wood..."--and most pages of section 1, titled "Pearl Harbor" of the long poem. In the New Directions edition of The Europe of Trusts, these are the pages she reads: pp. 17, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32. Here is the text of the excerpt.]
  9. Discussion with Ernesto Livon-Grosman (24:13): MP3

Complete program (55:26): MP3

Reading at SUNY Buffalo, April 18, 1996.

Recording courtesy of Chris Funkhouser

Complete recording (44:53): MP3

  • Reading Emily Dickinson's "My Life Had Stood -- a Loaded Gun" and the associated passage about the poem in My Emily Dickinson (6:34): MP3
  • [clip from above, beginning "When I love a thing..."]
  • [clip from above, beginning "I go in disguise, so under stress..."]
  • From painting to poetry (5:57): MP3
  • Reading from "The Nonconformist's Memorial" (5:44) MP3
  • On writing and performing "The Nonconformist's Memorial" (7:09): MP3
  • Reading more from "The Nonconformist's Memorial" (3:18): MP3
  • Advice to new readers of Howe's poetry (1:23): MP3
  • On teaching as a poet (3:52): MP3
  • Complete interview and discussion (58:44): MP3

    Howe's interpretation of "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 32.

    Reading at SUNY Buffalo with Charles Bernstein and Robert Creeley, March 31, 1995

    1. "Scattering As Behaviour Toward Risk" (6:19): MP3
      From Singularities (Wesleyan University Press) EPC Resource: Ming-Qian Ma discusses this poem
    2. "The Non-Conformist Memorial" (14:08): MP3
    3. Complete reading (21:36): MP3

    Wednesdays at 4Plus, University of Buffalo, November 6, 1994

    Complete reading (25:10): MP3

    Reading as part of The Tenth Muse II, Unterberg Poetry Center, 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, March 8, 1993


    Photo © Lawrence Schwartzwald

    Reading at the Naropa Institute, Boulder, Colorado, July 11, 1991 with Charles Bernstein and Nathaniel Mackey

    • Introduction (2:27): MP3
    • Reading (27:15): MP3

    Lecture on Emily Dickinson at SUNY Buffalo, September 28, 1990

    • Part One (1:58:15): MP3
    • Part Two (28:47): MP3

    Reading at the SUNY Buffalo, September 26, 1990

    • Part One (31:59): MP3
    • Part Two (21:39): MP3

    Erica Hunt and Susan Howe for the Poetry Project, St. Mark's Church, New York, January 11, 1989

    Recorded on audiocassette. Recording hosted by the Library of Congress.

    1. Side A (45:50): link
    2. Side B (43:42): same link

    Politics of Poetic Form, New School, NYC, November 4, 1988

    Reading at The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 1987

    • Reading on November 28, 1987 Part One (36:30): MP3
    • Readgin on November 28, 1987 Part Two (31:54): MP3

    Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, June 20, 1987

    1. Heliopathy (14:47): MP3
    2. Thorow (13:44): MP3
    Complete reading (29:45): MP3

    Segue Series Reading at The Ear Inn April 12, 1986

    Howe reads the entirety of Articulation of Sound Forms in Time
    Complete reading (33:17): MP3

    Reading from Barbara Guest's Seeking Air, Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, January 25, 1986

    (with Maureen Owen and Barbara Einzig)
    1. Seeking Air, epigraph (0:33): MP3
    2. Seeking Air, 11 (0:58): MP3
    3. Seeking Air, 12 (1:03): MP3
    4. Seeking Air, 20 (1:49): MP3
    5. Seeking Air, 90 (1:00): MP3
    6. Seeking Air, 100 (0:25): MP3
    Complete program (30:27): MP3

    New Poetics Colloquium at The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, August 22 and 23, 1985

    • Reading from Articulation of Sound Forms in Time(23:37): MP3
    • Essay on Mary Rowlinson & Discussion(1:17:10): MP3

    New York Talk, New York, NY, February 24, 1984

    • "My Emily Dickinson" (2:04:37): MP3

    Segue Series Reading at the The Ear Inn, October 22, 1983

    Howe reads "Speeches at the Barriers"
    Complete reading (25:40): MP3

    Reading for Emily Dickinson's Birthday Celebration, St. Mark's Church in the Bowery Poetry Project, December 10, 1979

    • Complete reading (7:11): MP3

    Segue Series Reading at the The Ear Inn, November, 1978

    Howe reads the entirety of Secret History of the Dividing Line
    Complete reading (23:43): MP3

    Howe's Pacifica Radio poetry programs, 1975-1981

    Collection can be found here

    Also on PennSound:

    Susan Howe on PennSound Daily

    These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author. © 2017 Susan Howe. Used with permission of Susan Howe. Distributed by PennSound.