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Elizabeth Willis

photo © 2007 by Charles Bernstein/PennSound

Close Listening Reading and Conversation at Art Radio WPS1

with Charles Bernstein, March 17, 2008

Conversation (27:17): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:46): MP3
  2. the role of identity in her work (2:31): MP3
  3. on the practice of mining a variety of sources (1:59): MP3
  4. abstraction in relation to radical innovation and modernism, reinvention in relation to a reclaimed past (2:14): MP3
  5. on Christina Rossetti in Kiss Me Deadly (1:20): MP3
  6. on the Darwin of Meteoric Flowers (2:39): MP3
  7. on The Human Abstract (2:39): MP3
  8. on seriality in her poems (2:03): MP3
  9. on discovering line, prosody, and form in the process of writing (1:26): MP3
  10. on literary community and affinities (1:38): MP3
  11. on investigative poetics, and entwining poetry and scholarship (2:56): MP3
  12. on sincerity and artifice (1:38): MP3

Reading (26:30): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:54): MP3
  2. The Human Abstract (9:05): MP3
  3. Sonnet (3:42): MP3
  4. The Similitude of This Great Flower (1:16): MP3
  5. Sympathetic Inks (0:52): MP3
  6. A Description of the Poison Tree (0:59): MP3
  7. Glittering Shafts of War (0:42): MP3
  8. Verses Omitted (0:33): MP3
  9. Pictures Connected by a Slight Festoon of Ribbons (0:43): MP3
  10. Viewless Floods of Heat (0:51): MP3
  11. Address (0:54): MP3
  12. The Oldest Garden in the World (0:39): MP3
  13. Nocturne (1:00): MP3

Close Listening Engineer: Jeannie Hooper

PoemTalk #154, Discussing Elizabeth Willis' "The Similitude of This Great Flower," feat. Simone White, Kate Colby, and Angela Carr

Listen to the full recording and read program notes at Jacket2.

PoemTalk #11, Discussing Erica Hunt's "The Voice of No", feat. Elizabeth Willis, Julia Bloch, and Jessica Lowenthal

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Reading at Poetics Program @25 Conference, SUNY-Buffalo, April 9, 2016

"Plot" (5:26): MP3

Poetry Reading at the Kelly Writers House, University of Pennsylvania, February 23, 2016

Complete reading (53:35): MP3

  1. Introductory Remarks by Davy Knittle (5:17): MP3
  2. Introduction (0:49): MP3
  3. Plot (4:36): MP3
  4. As Fidel (0:54): MP3
  5. A Species is an Idea (0:53): MP3
  6. Vernacular Architecture (1:18): MP3
  7. Flow Chart (0:47): MP3
  8. Trip Tick (1:32): MP3
  9. The Witch (4:09): MP3
  10. January (0:46): MP3
  11. The Completist (1:13): MP3
  12. Sonnet 63 and a Half (1:35): MP3
  13. About the Author (4:20): MP3
  14. Steady Digression to a Fixed Point (9:20): MP3
  15. Q&A Session (14:55): MP3

Berl's Books Reading in Brooklyn, New York on June 5, 2015

Elizabeth Willis Complete Reading (16:15): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:45): MP3
  2. Asphodel (0:48): MP3
  3. Autobiographia Literaria (0:49): MP3
  4. Ides of February (1:12): MP3
  5. Elegy (0:41): MP3
  6. A Species is an Idea (0:40): MP3
  7. Watertown is 99% Land (10:41): MP3
  8. Steady Digression to a Fixed Point (8:55): MP3

Episode #330 of Cross Cultural Poetics

Talks about and reads from her book of poems Address (Weslyan University Press),

Recorded April 2, 2015

Full Discussion (17:45): MP3

Reading her poem "Survey" from the "Playground of the Americas Arkhive"

Complete Recording (3:32): MP3

EPC@20 Celebration, May 18-21, 2011.

"On Wildness and Poetic Form" Talk (Intro by Michael Flatt)

Watch on Media.sas

Audio Recordings:

  1. Introduction (4:29): MP3
  2. On Wildness and Poetic Form (25:43): MP3
  3. On producing wildness (3:10): MP3
  4. On usefulness in poetry (1:17): MP3
  5. On productivity (1:50): MP3
  6. On institutions (2:39): MP3
Audio Recordings:
  1. Introduction (2:59): MP3
  2. Black Holes (5:53): MP3
  3. Friday (0:51): MP3
  4. ruskin (1:22): MP3
  5. Vernacular Architecture (0:57): MP3
  6. Mayday (for Robert Creeley) (1:07): MP3
  7. Triptych (1:26): MP3
  8. Alive (12:23): MP3
  • Reading/Performance (28:09): MP3

Reading at Oh! Sandy: A Remembrance, Industry City, Brooklyn, New York, November 10, 2013, hosted by Phong Bui

Complete reading (6:00): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:31): MP3
  2. Oil and Water (2:54): MP3
  3. Self-Portrait with Imaginary Brother, After William De Kooning (1:01): MP3
  4. Watertown is 99% Land (1:31): MP3

AWP Offsite Reading, sponsored by Bridge Street Books, Four Seasons Hotel, Washington DC, February 3, 2011

Complete reading (9:16): MP3

  1. Introduction (0:27): MP3
  2. Nocturne (1:03): MP3
  3. January (0:48): MP3
  4. Flowchart (0:39): MP3
  5. The Witch (4:17): MP3
  6. Classified (1:14): MP3

Coming in from the Cold: Celebrating Twenty Years of the MLA Off-Site Poetry Reading at the Philadelphia Mariott, December 29, 2009

Complete reading (4:24): MP3

  1. Ballad *Partial Recording* (0:20): MP3
  2. Blacklist (4:05): MP3

Reading for Double Change, Paris, April 7, 2009

From State of the Union: a Poetry Reading, at the CUNY Graduate Center, October 30, 2008

Complete reading (7:49): MP3

from Wave Books' PoetryPolitic Blog, 2008

  • Ferns, Mosses, Flags (1:45): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Bowery Poetry Club, NYC, April 26, 2008

  1. introduction (2:16): MP3
  2. Address (1:36): MP3
  3. Vernacular Architecture (1:25): MP3
  4. A Species is an Idea (0:45): MP3
  5. Valet of the Shadow of Death (1:19): MP3
  6. Suez 1938 (1:54): MP3
  7. Year End Review (1:36): MP3
  8. Yesness Park (0:55): MP3
  9. Elegy for Robert Creeley (1:01): MP3
  10. Bohemian Rhapsody (1:16): MP3
  11. Still Life with Tornado (1:06): MP3
  12. The Witch (4:19): MP3
  13. Poisonous Plants of America (1:04): MP3
  14. Blacklist (4:43): MP3
  15. Samson's Riddle (1:33): MP3

Complete reading (28:37): MP3

From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Liz's Hair, March 17, 2008

Watch on Media.sas

Elizabeth Willis
It was windy, but not the kind of wind I remember from Buffalo, where I first met Liz almost 20 years ago.
(mp4, 28 sec., 10.6 mb)


From Charles Bernstein's Portraits Series: Elizabeth Willis, June 4, 2007

Watch on Media.sas

Versions of Winter
Liz grew up in Northern Wisconsin and spent many years in Buffalo (where she got her PhD), before moving to Western Massachusetts. She and Peter came by my apartment one afternoon and I shined a light on her and asked her about the seasons.
(mp4, 32 sec., 7.4 mb)


Reading for Double Change, Paris, March 12, 2007

Reading for the Belladonna* Series, NYC, September 12, 2006

  1. General introduction (2:19): MP3
  2. Introduction (4:37): MP3
  3. To Be Given Away (1:00) MP3
  4. This is not a Poem about Katherine Harris (5:21): MP3
  5. The Birth of Paris (8:20): MP3
  6. Excerpt of "Meteoric Flowers" (10:04): MP3
    1. Verses Omitted (1:18): MP3
    2. Pictured Connected by a Slight Festoon of Ribbons (0:45): MP3
    3. Oil and Water (0:51): MP3
    4. Rosicrucian Machinery (0:48): MP3
    5. Tiptoe Lightning (0:51): MP3
    6. With New, Prolific Power (0:46): MP3
    7. Viewless Floods of Heat (0:53): MP3
    8. The Ghost of Hamlet (0:59): MP3
    9. Near, and More Near (0:47): MP3
    10. Bright, or the Floor (0:37): MP3
    11. Solar Volcanoes (1:10): MP3

Complete reading (25:09): MP3

Reading from Turneresque at SUNY-Buffalo, April 9, 2003

  1. introduction (4:16): MP3
  2. Autographeme (2:15): MP3
  3. The Tree of Personal Effort (2:03): MP3
  4. Catalogue Raisonné (1:06): MP3
  5. The Heart of Another Is a Dark Forest (1:01): MP3
  6. Little Journeys (1:27): MP3
  7. Three Apples, Two Chestnuts, Bowl, and Silver Goblet; Or, the Silver Goblet (1:14): MP3
  8. Thunder Road (0:51): MP3
  9. Clash By Night (0:44): MP3
  10. The Wolfman (0:35): MP3
  11. On Dangerous Ground (0:53): MP3
  12. The Wild Bunch (0:31): MP3
  13. Kiss Me Deadly (0:38): MP3
  14. September 9 (0:29): MP3
  15. from "Elegy" (1:26): MP3
  16. from "Drive" (6:09): MP3

Complete reading (26:40): MP3

At The Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver, 1997

Reading on March 21, 1997 (18:22): MP3

Wednesdays at 4Plus, University at Buffalo, November 9, 1994

  1. Second Law I: Paralipsis (4:01): MP3
  2. Second Law V (1:12): MP3
  3. Envoi (0:58): MP3
  4. Subject to like passions as we are (1:02): MP3
  5. When I fear the darker syllables (0:20): MP3
  6. A Maiden (0:52): MP3
  7. So small in our (0:33): MP3
  8. What rules a body's buried factions (0:23): MP3
  9. The Relation of the Lion to the Book is the Number 5 (1:24): MP3
  10. Bee Island (0:48): MP3
  11. from The Human Abstract (9:56): MP3

Complete reading (21:58): MP3

Reading at the New Coast Festival, Buffalo, April 1, 1993

  1. introduction (1:44): MP3
  2. AO, Pt. 2 (2:46): MP3
  3. from The Human Abstract (3:37): MP3
  4. Songs for A (7:06): MP3

Complete reading (15:18): MP3

Segue Series Reading at the Ear Inn, New York, March 13, 1993

  1. Introduction (2:19): MP3
  2. The Human Abstract (3:43): MP3
  3. Second Law (15:53): MP3
  4. A Maiden (3:15): MP3
  • Complete recording (25:41): MP3

Reading at Central Park Grill, Buffalo, NY, March 19, 1991

  1. Under the ARC/of disaster (2:28): MP3
  2. AO (1:40): MP3
  3. Two (0:16): MP3
  4. idea three: only one violet (0:36): MP3
  5. Four (1:05): MP3
  6. Kismet (2:25): MP3
  7. Second Law I: Paralipsis (3:28): MP3
  8. Second Law II (5:39): MP3
  9. Second Law III (1:36): MP3
  10. Second Law IV (1:42): MP3
  11. Second Law V (1:05): MP3
  12. Songs for A (2:27) MP3

Complete reading (27:24): MP3

Elizabeth Willis & Charles Bernstein, "The Obvious"

As part of the Double Take series at Apexart, New York, curated by Albert Mobillio. (Willis read a poem, I did I talk in memory of Thomas McEvilley)
Watch on Media.sas


Recorded Poems on Harry's House Vol 2 CD

  • Alabama (for Maria Ragland Davis) - Elizabeth Willis (1:46): MP3

also of interest:

  • Elizabeth Willis reads at the launch of Charles Bernstein's All the Whiskey in Heaven, March 28, 2010

Elizabeth Willis 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. Close Listening © 2008 Charles Bernstein and Elizabeth Willis. Other recordings © 2004-2016 Elizabeth Willis. Used with permission of Elizabeth Willis. Distributed by PennSound.