Favorite Poems: Jonson and Tagore

Joshua Ferris and Aimee Nezhukumatathil

At the 2015 Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference this year, our team at tatestreet.org were excited to kick off a new collaboration between Tate Street, Robert Pinsky, and the Favorite Poem Project (favoritepoem.org). The FPP was created by Robert Pinsky during his time as Poet Laureate (1997-2000) of the United States to celebrate and document the role of poetry in the lives of Americans. Tate Street filmed a new and more informal branch of the FPP’s online collection of short video documentaries. These videos showcase individuals reading and speaking personally about their favorite poems. Robert Pinsky, the Favorite Poem Project and Tate Street selected a diverse group of readers from the writing conference—composed of editors, translators, educators, fiction writers, and poets—to participate at AWP 2015.

Read “On my First Son” by Ben Jonson.

Reader: Joshua Ferris is the bestselling author of three novels, Then We Came to the End, The Unnamed and To Rise Again at a Decent Hour. He was a finalist for the National Book Award, winner of the Barnes and Noble Discover Award and the PEN/Hemingway Award, and was named one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40”writers in 2010. His fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, and Best American Short Stories. He lives in New York.

Website: http://www.joshuaferris.com

Read “Over the Green and Yellow…” by Rabindranath Tagore.

Reader: Aimee Nezhukumatathil is the author of three collections of poetry, most recently, LUCKY FISH. Awards include the Pushcart Prize and an NEA grant for her poetry. She is professor of English at State University of New York-Fredonia.

Website: http://aimeenez.net
Twitter: @aimeenez