John Ashbery Critical Essay | Interview by John Ashbery with Paul Munn

Interview by John Ashbery with Paul Munn

SOURCE: An interview in New Orleans Review, Vol. XVII, No. 2, Summer, 1990, pp. 59-63.

In the following interview, Ashbery discusses influences on his work, his creative process, and his poetic philosophy.

[Munn]: Besides writing poetry, what are your current projects?

[Ashbery]: I was fortunate enough to get a Mac Arthur fellowship, which has relieved me of the necessity of earning a living for five years at least. But during this time it seems that have agreed to write a number of articles, essays, art reviews, and so on, all of which procrastinate about, and can't seem to do anything with the time I am procrastinating about these other things. Basically I have written more or less the same amount of poetry I normally would have if I had been working at a job. I'm trying to get out from under these other commitments, and when I do that I...
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