From the archives of the Port Townsend Writers’ Conference, we’re pleased to present a reading by Cate Marvin, given at the 2011 Conference.
Raised in Washington, DC, Cate Marvin uses her work to explore what it means to be an “American poet,” often citing Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as major influences. Marvin is interested in how American identity collides with the English language, focusing heavily on language play and on the intersection of identity, language, and the natural landscape.
Marvin’s poetry collections include “World’s Tallest Disaster,” which won the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, and “Fragment of the Head of a Queen.” Marvin co-edited, with Michael Dumanis, the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century. With poet Erin Belieu, she is the co-founder and co-director of VIDA: Women in the Literary Arts, an organization that seeks to “explore critical and cultural perceptions of writing by women” in contemporary culture.