Dorianne Laux and Joseph Millar: A Conversation About Poetry

Dorianne Laux, judge of the 2012 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, is the author of several collections of poetry, including Awake; What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; Smoke; Facts about the Moon, chosen by the poet Ai as winner of the Oregon Book Award and also a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; and The Book of Men. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been a Pushcart Prize winner. Laux has taught creative writing at the University of Oregon, Pacific University, and North Carolina State University; she has also led summer workshops at Esalen in Big Sur. She is the co-author, with Kim Addonizio of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with her husband, poet Joseph Millar.

Joseph Millar is the author of several poetry collections, including Blue Rust; Fortune; and Overtime, which was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Montalvo Arts Center, and Oregon Literary Arts. His poetry has been featured on Garrison Keillor’s National Public Radio program The Writer’s Almanac and won a Pushcart Prize. Millar, who has taught at Pacific University, the University of Oregon, and Oregon State University, lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, poet Dorianne Laux.