Today, I am thrilled to share my conversation with Eric Pankey, a fantastic poet and teacher, one I had the very good fortune to study with. Pankey’s new book, Vanishments, out recently from Slant Books, is a wonder. I’ve always been in awe of the way Pankey can write so singularly in this oracular voice: it’s magnetic. It’s luscious, even when the poems are spare.
I’ve reviewed a few of Eric’s books in the past, and my revisitation to my comments on Oracle Figures applies here still: Pankey’s “language creates a kind of sonic temple, one that he can pray in and seek out the answer to his search.”
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Eric Pankey is the author of many collections of poems: For the New Year, which was selected as the winner of the Walt Whitman Award by Mark Strand, The Late Romances, Oracle Figures, Reliquaries, The Pear as One Example: New and Selected Poems, Dismantling the Angel, which won the New Measures Prize, Owl of Minerva, Not Yet Transfigured, and The History of the Siege, to name a few. A collection of prose, Vestiges: Notes, Responses, & Essays 1988–2018 appeared from Parlor Press.
His poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared widely in such journals as The Iowa Review, The Harvard Review, The Kenyon Review, The New Yorker, and The Yale Review. His work has been supported by fellowships from Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Ingram Merrill Foundation, and the Brown Foundation.
Pankey is a visual artist as well, whose work has been shown in galleries across the country. He is Heritage Chair in Writing and Professor Emeritus at George Mason University, and lives with his wife, the poet Jennifer Atkinson, in Fairfax, Virginia.
Pick up a copy of Vanishments here.
Read more about Pankey here.
Some notes:
Eric mentioned a book by Susan Stewart on ruins, The Ruins Lesson, I’ve since picked it up. Perhaps you would also like to?
Eric also mentioned Jennifer Atkinson’s book, A Gray Realm the Ocean, a book of ekphrastic poems. My copy is on its way!
I have a new book out! Before the Roses Dishevel, a microchapbook from Tiny Cat Press, is in the world! The book collects all of my Easter-related poems (it turns out I’ve written a handful of those over the years). It’s a beautiful, handmade book, in a limited edition of 50. Only a few left!
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Coming Up: A strong slate of episodes in the queue! Elizabeth Bradfield, Heather Lanier, Matthew Francis, and future episodes with Lauren Camp, Anna Lena Phillips Bell, and National Book Award–winner Patricia Smith!
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About your host: Jason Gray is the author of the poetry books Radiation King (Idaho Prize for Poetry) and Photographing Eden (Hollis Summers Prize), and his poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, American Poetry Review, and Image. His career in publishing has brought him to the university presses of Ohio State and Wisconsin, and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, and he now works as a freelance writer and editor. Additionally, he teaches poetry at the University of North Carolina.
A note on the podcast title. I am an unabashed fan of The Simpsons, and in Season 8, Episode 9 “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer),” Marge attempts to stop Homer from going to the local chili cook-off, because, as she says, every time he does, he “get[s] drunk as a poet on payday.” And that has made me laugh for decades now.
I in no way endorse getting oneself overserved and behaving like a jackass, poetic or otherwise. And if you or anyone you know is struggling with alcohol, there are resources for you: Alcoholics Anonymous Al-Anon
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