With an eye for high poetic standards, Stephen Yenser, distinguished professor of English and director of creative writing, has curated a reading series with the Hammer Museum for almost 20 years.
A poet himself, Yenser will host Scottish writer Robin Robertson’s reading at the Hammer on Thursday.
The Daily Bruin’s Natalie Green spoke with Yenser on the origins of the reading series, as well as the selection process and Robertson’s addition to the podium.
Daily Bruin: How did UCLA’s reading series at the Hammer Museum begin?
Stephen Yenser: It’s the oldest reading series in Southern California. It began in 1968 – it was originally at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center – by a woman named Doris Curran. And it was quite a different series in those days, but the essentials have remained the same, bring(ing) in six to nine poets over the course of the academic year.
(Curran) ran the series up until 1995, and I helped her during almost all of those years. But she was the titular head of the series, even when it moved in to the Hammer. (When) Doris retired, I took over the series. So I’ve been running it for about the last 20 years.
DB: How are poets selected and reached out to for the readings?
SY: I do the selection, I’m what the Hammer calls the curator for the readings. My colleague, Mona Simpson, in the English Department, is the curator for the fiction series at the Hammer, but that is the later series and is entirely separate.
I curate the poetry series, I invite the poets, but I accept suggestions from everybody: at the Hammer, in my department, from literary agents and any place else.
DB: How do you typically decide on who to invite?
SY: The first rule is that I can’t invite poets from the Los Angeles area. I think of it as an opportunity to bring poets into Los Angeles who wouldn’t otherwise be here, either from some place else in the United States or from some place else in the world. But we usually have to ask well-known American poets, rather than international poets, because we can’t afford to bring poets in from abroad. So that’s the first rule, they can’t be local.
The second is that they have to have at least some national visibility – this could be a visibility acquired because they are established poets. Many of our poets are Pulitzer Prize winners and so on, or it could be because they are particularly renowned even at a younger age because they won one of the big poetry awards and only have a couple of books out.
So the range is great, in terms of age. But in terms of achievement, it’s pretty high standard.
DB: How was Robin Robertson scheduled for this upcoming reading?
SY: Robin Robertson’s agent is Blue Flower Arts agency in the East, and they advised me on his book trip to the United States and asked me if I would be interested in having him read. He’s a well-known Scottish poet, and I thought it would be good for us to have someone from abroad.
DB: What are you looking forward to for Robertson’s readings?
SY: “Sailing the Forest,” (just released), is a selection of poems, over his full career, so there’s something new about it and something old about it.
I’m hoping he reads from “Hill of Doors,” because it has his most recent work, and it has an overlap with the translation of “The Bacchae,” which is a Greek god he seems particularly fond of and has written about on several occasions using translations.
DB: Why do you encourage students to attend the Hammer readings?
SY: The venue is terrific. It’s a black box theater, called the annex, and it’s a lovely space. Poets love it, and it’s great for the audience … The person who runs the programs (at the Hammer) is Claudia Bestor, and she is just first-rate and sees to everything.
(Bestor) makes it very comfortable, and I think everyone appreciates it very much.
Compiled by Natalie Green, Daily Bruin senior staff.