Rae Armantrout Go to Transcript

"Well, actually, I probably work primarily in this old school device called 'notebook' where I, you know, fill pages with illegible text, and then once I start to think that my text is coming together, very often I'll do a version of it--just type it into the iPad."

From interview section 1, "Devices and Digital Practice"
0:00:00

"I mostly save over, which is not a good idea. But sometimes I have printed out drafts, and I save drafts. I probably do not save all of them, which is not great, but I save a number of them and then eventually, I'll probably give them to the library."

From interview section 2, "Current Practice (Digital vs. Physical Files and Formats)"
0:05:10

"I do have a back up on a zip drive, but I haven't backed-up for several months. So, I'm careless."

From interview section 3, "Archives and File Back-Ups (Using Email as an Archive Tool)"
0:06:21

"This is really old school. But the way I use it is, it helps me order—not only keep the poems for the manuscript, but I order the manuscript this way. I mean, I kind of decide what reads well by trying the poems out in different places."

From interview section 4, "Physical Manuscript Archives and Organization"
0:08:10

"I was interested in poetry since childhood. My mother read poetry to me. I wrote when I was a little kid, then I kind of stopped for a while. And then I started again in college and I was reading the poet Denise Levertov..."

From interview section 5, "Writing Career and Education"
0:11:25

"I often start that way--then, and still, you know. Just something that I hear or see, sort of peaks my interest. It could be something I read, and I'll write down a passage, or I'll write down something I overhear someone say, or even on television, I could hear something that I write down. And I kind of collect those things like a magpie until something starts to take off."

From interview section 6, "Generative Practice for Early Poems"
0:20:02

"I still, like I say, work in notebooks; but I am sure that I started going from the notebook to the computer sooner than I would have on a typewriter."

From interview section 7, "Transition and Revision (Transferring Notes to the Typewriter or Computer)"
0:21:59

"I would type something up and send it, usually to a couple of people--two or three people--and I would get responses back. But it certainly--I mean, now we're so used to kind of this instant dialogue, instant gratification. Sometimes I think that that's, you know, maybe that's why I'm writing faster now. Really, it is the stimulation of that."

From interview section 8, "Correspondence and Revision (Letters vs. Email)"
0:25:05

"I want there to be some kind of possible perceptible connection, but I also want it to be surprising. I want it to kind of go somewhere that you didn't expect it to go, or that I didn't expect it to go. So, sometimes the first thing I come up with is too obvious and sometimes what I come up with is too random. It's like Goldilocks and the Three Bears."

From interview section 9, "Revision Priorites and Process"
0:31:26

"I know you can save things on your hard drive and give your hard drive to a library, but God knows what's on my hard drive. So, so far I've just--what I do now is, if there's anything that seems especially interesting or valuable, I'll print it out and keep it."

From interview section 10, "Finished Work and Correspondence (On Developing An Archive)"
0:38:14

"Which is really stupid because it's RAEA100900. I shouldn't say that anything my son said was stupid, but he was only about fourteen and I guess he thought that was--I feel like I'm James Bond or something with that email address."

From interview section 11, "Social Media and Introduction of Email"
0:41:57

"Well, I was never a great typist, so I was always making mistakes. So, it was always frustrating. Of course sometimes I hate my computer, too. I mean, it's not a question of the typing issue, but just--you know, we all hate our computers."

From interview section 12, "Infulence of Digital Tools on Daily Practice"
0:43:54

"I'd probably have to have a few lines before I thought it was worth reading them out loud."

From interview section 13, "Reading Aloud From Notebooks as Revision Process"
0:44:59

"I'm using some ancient poets like Lucretius, who wrote about science, you know. I mean, he wrote--the ancient Greeks like Lucretius knew about--or, not knew but hypothesized the existence of atoms and the void. So, I was just doing some research about him on the computer and then printing them out."

From interview section 14, "Internet Research And Generative Principles (Relationship Between Physics and Poetry)"
0:51:33

"I think that when you teach young people, you kind of, sort of stay in that world. You hear their expressions--I'm not saying I'm a digital native by a long shot--but you know, you sort of hear the way they talk and you get a bit of their mind set, and you know, you know their lingo. In a way that, I think, when I retire, I might miss that."

From interview section 15, "Digital Influence on Teaching"
0:56:11

"I've just recently wrote a poem that references Mileage.com."

From interview section 16, "Digital Influence on Poetics (Form and Content)"
0:58:24