Archive Catalog 1954-2004

Nancy Packer: November 9, 1978
30 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Fiction writer Nancy Packer began teaching at Stanford University in 1968, alongside her colleagues Wallace Stegner and Richard Scowcroft. Here she reads "Early Morning, Lonely Ride" and "Lee's Lieutenants" from Small Moments and Other Stories. Frances Mayes introduces Packer, at SFSU.

Ron Padgett: October 31, 1974
34 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Ron Padgett's recent books include Great Balls of Fire and Antlers in the Treetops. Here he reads "A Man Saw a Ball of Gold," "Nothing in That Drawer," "The Farmer's Head," "June 17, 1942," "The Magnificent Pilgrims," "The Unfinished," "Louisiana Perch," "Poema del City," "Don't Forget," "Ode to Stupidity," "Orange Man," "Mon Ami," and "Tell Us, Josephine." Kathleen Fraser introduces Padgett and Peter Schjeldahl, at SFSU.

Ron Padgett: February 17, 1985
32 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Ron Padgett, the author of over twenty collections of poetry, has collaborated with many writers, including Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard, and Tom Clark. Here Padgett reads "At Apollinaire's Tomb." Jim Hartz introduces Padgett and Lyn Hejinian, at SFSU.

Ron Padgett: March 4, 2001
(see Group Readings, Homage to Joe Brainard)

Charlotte Painter: May 4, 1977
40 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Charlotte Painter reads "Withstanding Neglect" and, from Dear Life, "Confession from the Malaga Madhouse." Kathleen Fraser introduces Painter and Marilyn Hacker, at SFSU.

Charlotte Painter: March 18, 1982
50 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Charlotte Painter reads "Dream Child," "Lament," "Mother Rat," and an excerpt from her memoir, Dear Life. Frances Mayes introduces Painter, Leo Litwak, and Michael Rubin, at SFSU.

Grace Paley: March 9, 1977
50 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Renowned fiction writer Grace Paley reads three short stories: "Wants," "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute," and "Living." Lewis MacAdams introduces Paley and Tillie Olsen, at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Grace Paley: March 9, 1995
46 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Grace Paley reads the stories "In the Garden" and "The Story Here," followed by selections from Long Walks and Intimate Talks and the poems "Responsibility of Society and the Poet" and "In the Bus." Michelle Carter introduces Paley, at First Unitarian Church.

Grace Paley: May 7, 1996
Lannan Literary Video Series
60 minutes, VHS, $19.95
Grace Paley, born in 1922 in the Bronx, New York, is a poet and short story writer. Her three books of stories, The Little Disturbances of Man, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, and Later the Same Day, were published together in The Collected Stories. A Lannan Literary Award recipient, Grace Paley read three stories, "Friends, " Love," and "Mother." Ms. Paley talked with poet Carol Muske Dukes.

Michael Palmer with Margaret Jenkins Dance Company: December 1, 1976
70 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Michael Palmer and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company perform together in "Videosongs & Variations" and "Story," two pieces combining words and dance, in the Barbary Coast Room, SFSU.

Michael Palmer: November 29, 1978
45 minutes, VHS, $25.00
From C's Songs, poet Michael Palmer reads "For Apollinaire." From the manuscript to Notes For Echo Lake, he reads "November Talks," "Portrait Now Before Then," "False Portrait of Hanna H.," and an excerpt from "Notes for Echo Lake." From Without Music, he reads "Chamber Music for Woman's Voice," "Ninth Symmetrical Poem," "Dance of the Bees," "Tenth Symmetrical Poem," "Without Music," and "Crossing the Hill." Mary Oppen also appears on the program, at SFSU.

Michael Palmer: October 11, 1984
43 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Michael Palmer reads "Dance of the Bees (September)," "The Meadow," "Waltz of the Elements," "Tenth Symmetrical Poem," "Crossing the Hill," and "The Flower of Capital" from Without Music. From First Figure, he reads "Dearest Reader," "Prelude," "Lies of the Poem," "The Theory of the Flower," "The Village of Reason," "Book of the Yellow Castle," "This Time," "Six Illustrations," "Yes in a Circle," and "View from an Apartment." Susan Howe also appears on the program, at SFSU.

Michael Palmer: September 28, 1995
34 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Michael Palmer's many poetry books include Blake's Newton, Notes for Echo Lake, and At Passages. As part of the California Writers Series, The Poetry Center presents Palmer reading and in conversation with Norma Cole. Together they read "A Library Book." Palmer then reads selections from Autobiography. Aaron Shurin introduces Palmer and Cole, at First Unitarian Church.

Stefania Pandolfo: May 17, 2001
70 minutes, VHS, $25.00
An anthropologist at UC Berkeley specialized in the cultures of Morocco, Stefania Pandolfo reads "Loss," "The Knot of the Soul," "The Dream," and "The Staircase" from her book Impasse of the Angels: Scenes from a Moroccan Space of Memory; she also reads part from a new work in progress. Steve Dickison introduces Pandolfo and Leslie Scalapino, at The Unitarian Center.

Pat Parker: February 7, 1986
38 minutes, VHS, $25.00
The spring season, 1986, opened with a salute to Black History Month, featuring poets Pat Parker and Audre Lorde. Parker reads "Maybe I Should Have Been a Teacher," "Legacy," two untitled pieces, "One Thanksgiving Day," "My Brother," "Let me come to you naked...," "From Deep Within," "Aftermath," "My Lady Ain't No Lady," and "For Audre." Frances Phillips introduces Parker and Lorde, at The Women's Building.

Tom Parkinson: May 15, 1974
(see Group Readings, "Poets of the Forties")

Alexei Parschikov: February 11, 1993
32 minutes, VHS, $25.00
In a Writing and Community Series event entitled "Russians Writing," The Poetry Center presents poets Alexei Parschikov and Ivan Burkin reading and in conversation with translator Olga Carlysle. Alexei Parschikov, one of the initiators of Moscow's 'metametaphorism' movement is the author of the Russian books August on the Dnieper and Figures of Intuition. He reads the poems "Glass Towers," "Lions," "Cats," "Flight," and a Russian translation of Michael Palmer's "Sun." Michael Palmer and Rosemary Catacalos make the introductions; Julie Gesin reads translations, at SF Public Library, Richmond Branch.

Linda Pastan: October 16, 1980
40 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Linda Pastan "Drift," "Rachel," "A Real Story," "In the Old Guerilla War," "A Short History of Judaic Thought in the 20th Century," "Pass Fail," "Marks," "Consolations," "Egg," "Butter," "Soup," "Meditation By the Stove," and "McGuffey's First Eclectic Reader." Frances Mayes introduces Pastan and Leonard Michaels, at SFSU.

Walter Pavlich: October 22, 1992
31 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Walter Pavlich has been a prison teacher, firefighter, director of a housing office, nursing home janitor, and college instructor. Here he reads from his collections Ongoing Portraits and Running Near the End of the World. Rosemary Catacalos introduces Pavlich and Sandra McPherson, J. Paul Leonard Library, SFSU.

Miodrag Pavlovic: September 28, 1981
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
The Poetry Center presents a symposium on contemporary Yugoslavian writing. Poet Miodrag Pavlovic reads "The Idol," "Deluge," "Threat," "The Head," "Beginning of the Ritual," "The Moving of the River," "Apparition," "The Beginning of the Poem," and "The Chorus of Dogs In Knossos." Frances Mayes introduces Pavlovic the co-readers, Valimir Viskovic and Dane Zajc, at SFSU.

Octavio Paz: October 18, 1988
Lannan Literary Video Series
60 minutes, VHS, $19.95
Octavio Paz, (1914-1998) born in Mexico, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1990. He reads from The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz 1957-1987, in Spanish, with his translator Eliot Weinberger, who reads the English versions of the poems. Mr. Paz was interviewed in English by poet Lewis McAdams and in Spanish by Professor Enrico Santi.

Ted Pearson: April 7, 1983
48 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Ted Pearson reads "Soundings (i, iii, v, vii, ix, xi, xiii, and xv)," "The Grit," "Southern Exposure," "Ellipsis," and "Refractions." James Hartz introduces Pearson and Beverly Dahlen, at SFSU.

Jenny Penberthy: December 4, 1997
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Editor and scholar Jenny Penberthy delivers the 12th Annual George Oppen Memorial Lecture on Twentieth Century Poetics. In her talk entitled "A Little Too Little: Rereading Lorine Niedecker," Penberthy describes Niedecker's ambivalent connection with the Objectivist tradition, a movement that includes such luminaries as George Oppen, Louis Zukoksky, Carl Rakosi, and Charles Reznikoff. Marking Laura Moriarity's last event as The Poetry Center's archivist, Norma Cole introduces Moriarty, who by way of introducing Penberthy, reads Neidecker's poem, "Poet's Work," at First Unitarian Church.

Michael Peppe: November 16, 1995
65 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Composer, writer, and performance artist Michael Peppe is perhaps best known as the inventor of Behaviormusik, an idiom of performance "based on the concept that all possible behavior-audible and inaudible-is musically composable." Peppe performs at The Poetry Center in an event co-sponsored by the SFSU Music Department and Meet the Composer/California, at SFSU.

Bob Perelman: May 2, 1979
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Bob Perelman reads "China," "A Short Suite for Rae Armantrout," and sections from a long prose poem, "a.k.a.," which later came out as a chapbook from Tuumba Press. Tom Mandel introduces Perelman and Fanny Howe, in the Barbary Coast Room, SFSU.

Bob Perelman: April 5, 1984
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Bob Perelman reads his collection To the Reader, a book designed and printed at Tuumba Press by Lyn Hejinian, in it's entirety.

Victor Perera: February 29, 1996
27 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Victor Perera's books include The Conversion and Rites: A Guatemalan Boyhood. In an event co-sponsored with SFSU Jewish Studies and La Raza Studies, Perera reads from his most recent book, The Cross and the Pear Tree: A Sephardic Journey. After the reading, he talks about the Jewish experience in Latin America. Rosemary Catacalos introduces Perera and Marjorie Agosin, at The Poetry Center.

Loida Maritza Perez: April 15, 1999
30 minutes, VHS, $25.00
As part of the occasional Writing and Community series, Loida Maritza Perez reads excerpts from her debut novel, Geographies of Home. Jewelle Gomez introduces Perez and Darryl Babe Wilson, at Modern Times Bookstore.

Anne S. Perlman: May 15, 1975
35 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Anne S. Permlman reads "Messages," "Continuum," "Summer Adjustments," "Family Reunion," "Baleen," "Regional Geography," "Running the Rapids, For David," "Another Kind of Water From the Harbor," "From the Headland," "Suicide," "Keep Still," "Back to Tijuana," "The Dance of Nines," "Selling Off the Garden," "Childbirth," "An Encounter On Dunkery Beacon," "The Moray," and "Survival." Susan Griffin and Tamara O'Brien also read from their works, at SFSU.

Anne S. Perlman: September 10, 1987
30 minutes, VHS, $25.00
In a "Poetry at the Gallery" event, Anne S. Perlman reads "High Places on the Food Chain," "Aliens on Exmoor," "An Old Concern for Territory," "Sharers," "Lascaux," "End Paper," "The News," "The Rape of Helga," "From the Headland," "What Counted," "The Specialist," "Counting House," "Running the Rapids," "Keep Still," "Carcassone," "Cathedral," and "Family Reunion." Frances Phillips introduces Perlman and William Dickey, at The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

Marjorie Perloff: April 13, 1985
80 minutes, VHS, $25.00
As part of the Women Working in Literature conference, Kathleen Fraser moderates a panel discussion entitled "New Issues." Marjorie Perloff, Elizabeth Abel, and Thulani Davis are the panelists.

Marjorie Perloff: November 12, 1989
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Marjorie Perloff delivers the 5th annual George Oppen Memorial Lecture on Twentieth Century Poetics. Her talk is entitled "Against Transparency: From the Great Crystal to the 'heartlessness' of words." Michael Davidson introduces Perloff, at San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery.

Nancy Peters: February 14, 1985
45 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Nancy Peters reads "An Incantation for February," "The Hour of White Ladders," "The Forest of Broceliande," "Ballad of a Lady in a Tower," "Between Reason and Unreason Are the Mad," "Northwest Passage," "Out West," "Canticle for Califia," "Ascent," "How I Love all That Lives," "The Romanticist," "Ship of Seers," and "Mexico City, Central Moon." Jim Hartz introduces Peters and Philip Lamantia, at SFSU.

Robert Peters: December 5, 1974
23 minutes, VHS, $25.00
At the time of this reading, poet Robert Peters had just returned from the "writers colony" Yaddo, where he worked on a very long series of poems on the Shaker language experience in America. He reads poems from the collection, The Gift to be Simple: Shaker Poems. Barbara Wright introduces Peters, Carol Bergé, and Paul Mariah, at SFSU.

Robert Peters: March 4, 1980
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Robert Peters reads parodies of Robert Creeley and Gary Snyder from The Great American Poetry Bake-Off. He also reads excerpts from his essays on Allen Ginsberg, Dan Gerber, and James Tate. He outlines the poetics of the fifth-century Persian poet, Harum Abu Hateem Al Farksin, and concludes the reading with poems from The Gift to be Simple: Shaker Poems. Frances Mayes introduces Peters and Carl Dennis, at SFSU.

Harry Mark Petrakis: April 2, 1992
87 minutes, VHS, $25.00
In an event co-sponsored with the Center for Modern Greek Studies and in cooperation with Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, The Poetry Center presents scholar and fiction writer Harry Mark Petrakis. He was Visiting Professor, Nikos Kazantzakis Chair, Center for Modern Greek Studies at SFSU. He reads "Neighborhoods of My Father's Parish" and "The Journal of a Wife Beater." Thanasis Maskaleris introduces Petrakis, at Holy Trinity Church.

Caryl Phillips: March 7, 1995
Lannan Literary Video Series
60 minutes, VHS, $19.95
Caryl Phillips was born in St. Kitts, West Indies, and has published five works of fiction, including Cambridge and Higher Ground. He read from Crossing the River, which was a finalist for the Brooker Prize. A writer-in-residence at Amherst College, Mr. Phillips received a Lannan Literary Award for Fiction in 1994. He talked with essayist and novelist Pico Iyer.

Dennis Phillips: October 3, 1985
29 minutes, VHS, $25.00
At the time of this reading, Kajun Press in San Francisco had published Dennis Phillips's poetry collection, The Hero Is Nothing. He reads from that book and also from A World. Frances Phillips introduces Phillips and Dodie Bellamy, at SFSU.

Dennis Phillips: February 17, 1994
87 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Dennis Phillips's books of poetry include Arena, A World, The Hero is Nothing, and 20 Questions. He teaches at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and is a longtime resident of Los Angeles. Aaron Shurin introduces Phillips and Jean Day, at J. Paul Leonard Library, SFSU.

Frances Phillips: October 9, 1980
30 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Frances Phillips reads "Conversations on the N Car," "Poison Oak," "Gallops Like Folding an Envelope," "Ponies," "Curried to Wear the Frosty Light," "Maddie Hooligan," "Messenger," "Salt," "The Clouds Are Everything," "Sleeping In," and "Trespassing." Bernard Gershenson introduces Phillips and Ira Sadoff, at SFSU.

David Plante: February 16, 1989
22 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Visiting from England, novelist David Plante reads "The House of Women," "He Stopped Believing in God," "He Imagined God as Darkness," "After His Parents Died," "For a Year He Was a Student," "His Joy Was to be Aware of Darkness," "After Years Inside His Church," "He Leans Against the Outside Wall," "As He Went Towards the Woods," and "What is This Mass." Robert Glück introduces Plante and Jimmy Santiago Baca, in The Blakeslee Room, SFSU.

David Polk: March 26, 1974
25 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poets David Polk, Charlie Walsh, and William Benton visit SFSU from Portland, Oregon. David Polk reads "American Hot Honey," "At The American Museum," "All These Offices Made Hot," "At Home," "The White Shoes," "The Missing City: For Sally," and "With Her: A Chronicle of a Romancing," at SFSU.

Mary Helen Ponce: February 9, 1995
21 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Mary Helen Ponce is the author of Taking Control, The Wedding, and Raising Albuquerque. She has taught creative writing and Chicana literature at CSU Northridge, UC Santa Barbara, and University of New Mexico. As part of the California Writers Series, she reads "La Nancy" and "Catechism" from Hoyt Street: An Autobiography. Rose Catacalos introduces Ponce and Gerald Haslam, at The Poetry Center.

Elena Poniatowska: November 5, 1992
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
The Poetry Center and Intersection for the Arts present Elana Poniatowska, one of Mexico's leading literary and intellectual figures. Her books include Massacre in Mexico, an account of the 1986 Mexican student movement, and the novels Dear Diego and Until We Meet Again. She was the first woman to win Mexico's prestigious National Journalism Award. Poniatowska's reading is in English, at Intersection for the Arts.

Dorothy Porter: October 9, 1997
48 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Australian writer Dorothy Porter reads from her National Book Council Banjo Award-winning erotic murder mystery in verse, The Monkey's Mask. Jewelle Gomez introduces Porter, at The Poetry Center.

Paul Portugés: September 26, 1985
32 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet and screenwriter Paul Portugés reads many poems from Paper Song, including "City of Angels '74," "San Cristobal de las Casas '71," "Persimmon Hill, Santa Barbara '78," "San Francisco '76," "Ryokan," "Breakup," and "Amin's Dream." Frances Phillips introduces Portugés and Joy Harjo, at SFSU.

Marty Pottenger: February 11, 1999
30 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet and performance artist Marty Pottenger reads first from Construction Stories and then from City Water Tunnel No. 3, a project developed in collaboration with Local 147 of the Tunnel Workers Union and the Department of Environmental Protection. Jewelle Gomez introduces Pottenger and Karen Swenson, at The Poetry Center.

Holly Prado: April 4, 1974
35 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Holly Prado reads "January 30th: Larger Than Other Plants," "The Turtle," "The Tropics," "Pennies," "Ancestors-Their Heavy Shirts," "Under My Clothes," "Flags," "Island," "The Night You Got Back From the Mountains," "Back From San Francisco," "For Roger and the Long Drive," and "The Astrologer Tells Me Two More Years of Chaos Ahead." Kathleen Fraser introduces Prado, Beverly Dahlen, and Flora Arnstein, at SFSU.

Minnie Bruce Pratt: February 13, 1992
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet and writer Minnie Bruce Pratt begins and ends this reading with excerpts from her essay "Poetry in Time of War." In the meantime, she reads poems from her collections to date, including Crime Against Nature, which won both the 1989 Lamont Poetry Award and the American Library Association's Gay and Lesbian Book Award. Rosemary Catacalos introduces Minnie Bruce Pratt, at the Eye Gallery.

Larry Price: March 24, 1983
58 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Poet Larry Price's books include Crude Thinking, No (World Version), and Proof. Here he joins Bay Area poet Jean Day for an afternoon reading, at SFSU.

Manuel Puig: October 30, 1981
60 minutes, VHS, $25.00
Famed Latin American novelist Manuel Puig discusses his childhood in Argentina and his vocation as a novelist. Frances Mayes introduces Puig, at SFSU.


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