Grace Cavalieri
Interviews
The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress

Father
I Gave You My Work, Gilbert
Don't Undersell Yourself
January
You Can't Start The Spiritual Journey
The Protest
Going South
Two by Two
This Is
Helpmates
Interviews
Grace Cavalieri on MiPOradio
Poetry Commentaries
"INNUENDOES"
Poetry Interviews
"ON LOCATION"
Interviews with
U.S. Poets Laureate
Interviews with Significant Poets
Currency of the Heart
An Interview with Grace Cavalieri
Scene4 Magazine
Grace Cavalieri's book and theater reviews at The Montserrat Review
Articles
Tapes and Books
Pinecrest Rest Haven Audio Tape
WPFW 89.3FM Poetry Anthology
Ordering Information

© 2008 Grace Cavalieri


Welcome

Grace Cavalieri Grace Cavalieriis the author of fourteen collections of poetry, including children's books. Her latest publication is Anna Nicole: Poems. Cavalieri's plays include off-Broadway productions. She's also written texts and lyrics performed for opera, television and film. Her 21st play "Quilting the Sun" was presented at the Smithsonian Institution, and received its world premiere at Centre Stage, S.C. Grace teaches poetry workshops throughout the country at numerous colleges. She produced and hosted "The Poet and the Poem," weekly, on WPFW-FM (1977-1997) presenting 2,000 poets to the nation. She now presents this series to public radio from the Library of Congress via NPR satellite.

Grace has received the Pen-Fiction Award, the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Silver Medal, and awards from the National Commission on Working Women, the WV Commission on Women, the American Association of University Women, plus others. She won a Paterson Prize for What I Would do for Love, and The Bordighera Poetry Prize for Water on the Sun. She received the inaugural Columbia Merit Award for "significant contributions to poetry."

She writes full-time in Annapolis, Maryland where she lives with her husband, sculptor Kenneth Flynn. They have four grown daughters.


"I am still reading the wonderful poetry of Grace, a grace indeed. I will be absorbing and pondering for a long time. She is truly a seer--and a sayer of words that pierce and heal at once."
Daniel Berrigan, S.J.
Daniel Berrigan: Poetry, Drama, Prose

"How wild and wonderful Grace's poetry is. I love the wild. It is there but we cover it with the tame. Grace uncovers it. That's her gift. I say Thank You."

Ruth Stone
Secondhand Coat
surprises us over and over. With humor, with delight she surrounds us like a magic box."

Creature Comforts: "Always with her dramatic ear tuned in, Grace Cavalieri Ann Darr
Riding With The Fireworks


Anna Nicole: Poems

Anna Nicole

Anna Nicole Portrait by Holly Picano

From Anna Nicole: Poems

Unlikely Relationships
Grace Cavalieri

Sleeping with the old man made
Anna feel better. It was like
being a little girl when your mother
would make you hug your smelly
Aunt for the sake of her happiness.
Anna felt secure here.
Why in the world a blind man insisted
on a blue eyed blonde she
never questioned.
Once she held her maid's baby
against her chest
but it felt like a new rug on a dirty floor.
Where did she put that baby?
The old man said she was in
love with her own face and could
not love anything else.
A lie. A dirty lie. There was much
much more about her body she
loved. She loved how it felt
with the baby.

 

Key to the City

I Knox H. White, Mayor of the city of Greenville, South Carolina, do hereby proclaim February 16, 2007, as

GRACE CAVALIERI DAY

and thank her for sharing her brilliant and inspirational work with the Greenville Community.

Signed, sealed and delivered this 15th day of February, 2007

Knox H. White
Mayor


Quilting the Sun

"Inspired by a magnificent quilt created by former slave Harriet Powers which now resides in the Smithsonian, Quilting the Sun stitches an enchanting narrative, pieced together from historical fact, African myth and the brilliant storytelling of one of America’s greatest living poets.".....Centre Stage, S.C.

Quilting the Sun

Poster designed by Tiffany Nave

 


Grace interviews U.S. Poets Laureate

Billy Collins
This interview was conducted at the Library of Congress, December 2001. Grace Cavalieri produces and hosts "The Poet and the Poem;" The series is delivered to public radio via NPR satellite. Billy Collins's most recent books of poetry include a volume of new and selected poems, Sailing Alone Around the Room (Random House, 2001) Picnic, Lightning (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1998); The Art of Drowning, (1995); and, Questions About Angels (1991.) ...

Louise Gluck
Louise Gluck was the 12th Poet Laureate Consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress. This interview was conducted by Grace Cavalieri for the radio program "The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress," during the Library's bicentennial celebration in 2000. The program was distributed via NPR satellite to public radio stations. Louise Gluck holds the Pulitzer Prize for her book, The Wild Iris; She is the author of eight other books of poetry, most recently The Seven Ages (Ecco Press.). She holds the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize for Poetry, The National Critics Circle Award, and The Poetry Society of America's Melville Kane Award. ...

Josephine Jacobsen
Josephine Jacobsen was born in Ontario Canada in 1908. She authored many books of poetry including The Chinese Insomniacs, and The Sisters which won the Lenore-Marshall Award. Her career spanned more than six decades. The American Academy of the Arts Citation celebrated her as a recipient of "almost every major poetry award." From 1971-1973 she served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. This interview celebrated her ninth book, In the Crevice of Time, New and Collected Poems in 1995. Josephine Jacobsen died earlier this year, 2004. ...

Stanley Kunitz
Our guest is the tenth Poet Laureate of the United States, Stanley Kunitz, just inaugurated. Stanley Kunitz, the most beloved poet in America and a fitting choice to hold the county's top poetry post.  Born in Worchester, Massachusetts in 1905, educated in Harvard, he has done many things for other poets in this county. ...

Robert Haas
Robert Hass is our Poet Laureate consultant in poetry. He was born in San Francisco, took his undergraduate degree at St. Mary’s College and his graduate degrees at Stanford University. He reads from Field Guide, his first book, and Human Wishes. His other collections are 20th Century Pleasures, The The Essential Haiku, and he has worked with many translations which we will find out about. ...

Howard Nemerov
Howard Nemerov was the third Poet Laureate of the United States. At the time of this interview he was working on his 14th volume of poetry. He is the author of three novels, two collections of short stories and has received every top award including the Pulitzer in' 78. At the time of his death he was the Distinguished University Professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis. This interview took place the day of Mr. Nemerov's inauguration as Laureate. It was broadcast nationwide on satellite to public radio stations. ...

Robert Pinsky
Robert Pinsky is the U.S. Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, 1997-98. Pinsky's verse translation, The Inferno of Dante, was published in 1995. He teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Boston University. He is the author of five books of poetry: Sadness and Happiness (1975), An Explanation of America (1979), History of  My Heart (1983), and The Want Bone (1990). The Figured Wheel: New and Collected Poems was published in 1996. This program was recorded while Mr. Pinsky visited the Library of Congress as a guest poet, 1995-96 season, the year prior to his appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate. ...

Mark Strand
Mark Strand has published eight books of Poetry, most recently The Continuous Life (1990). He is the author of three children's books and the coeditor of several anthologies, Including New Poetry of Mexico (with Octavio Paz) and Another Republic (with Charles Simic). He is also a translator and an art critic. As a poet, Mark Strand has won numerous awards; In 1990, he was appointed fourth Poet Laureate of the United States. ...

Reed Whittemore
Reed Whittemore is the author of more than 14 books. He is a biographer and one of America’s most distinguished poets. He has twice served as the consultant in poetry to the library of congress. He is Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland, he is the biographer of William Carlos Williams, and he is presently writing his memoirs. ...