Tony Wolk is a writer and professor at Portland State University. He’s been riding his bike to work there since 1969. He specializes in Dante, Shakespeare, and Philip K. Dick, and his own writing follows a similarly diverse trajectory. In an interview celebrating the release of his flash fiction collection, Parables of You, publisher Dan DeWeese asked about the literary tradition he was working within. Wolk answered,
For this collection, Borges and Calvino, for sure. Other writers I love to read, everything they’ve ever published, include Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Haruki Murakami, and Molly Gloss. Then there’s Alice Munro, Willa Cather, William Stafford, Charles Darwin, Ted Kooser, Primo Levi, Stephen Jay Gould, and John Crowley. Mustn’t forget William Shakespeare. And then there’s Dante Alighieri.
–Tony Wolk, Real Fantasy: Tony Wolk and the Parable of You
By any standard that’s a pretty wide-ranging list with some curious bedfellows! What’s the through line between, Cather, Darwin, and Kooser? Well, it’s the personal intricacies of Wolk himself.
Poet Holly Wren Spaulding asks her students to create a Personal Canon–a collection of influences, quotations, and essential sources. In a sense this is what Wolk is doing with this offhand list.
Our Turn
Who is a vital part of your Personal Canon? Are there strange associations that make you who you are? Spend time this week in your notebook tracing the lines of connection, the poems you can’t forget, the books you always return to.
How does this collection make its way into your poetry? If you like, share one of your poems with us to illustrate.
Photo by David, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Kortney Garrison.
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Megan Willome says
I love a writer who is inspired by a diverse list of writers, from different genres and time periods. My list would include E.B. White and Madeliene L’Engle, especially because they wrote in different genres.
I read sci-fi on and off and have pretty much since I started reading. One of my favorites read last year was Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” (really, just time travel, no science). I’m starting N.K. Jemisin’s “The Fifth Season.”
Kortney Garrison says
Kindred is on my list. I had it out from the library, but had to return it before I got to it.
Love hearing about that White and L’Engle have influenced you–makes sense! We are just about to start Trumpet of the Swan. We’re going to listen to White read it to us. (Here’s a guide if you’d like to read along! https://readaloudrevival.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/RAR-Family-Book-Club-Guide-Trumpet-of-the-Swan.pdf)
Thanks for jumping in with this prompt. When I re-read it this morning, it seemed rather intimidating!
lynn__ says
I did a similar exercise previously, thinking about favorite poets of mine, and wrote this poem (which was published in Lyrical Iowa). I hope you don’t mind if I share an “old” poem of mine entitled: “for the love of poets”
i spy poe’s raven perched above edgar’s door
and wonder if angelou’s caged bird maya rise
i laugh at leer’s post-edwardian limericks
and will neruda forget pablo’s love poems
i hear splash of basho’s jumping frog and
gather silverstein’s shel(ls) with smiles
i nash on odgen’s clever coined words,
see. e. cummings through cat’s paw fog
i love emily’s Poems- like the dickens, while
robert’s snowy woods are frosting on my cake!
Kortney Garrison says
Old poems, new poems, in-process drafts–all are welcome!
Thanks for sharing this, lynn. Love the frosting on your cake!
Kortney Garrison says
My list this week includes Mary Oliver, Hopkins and Eliot, Wendell Berry, Steve Kowit, and Gregory Orr. I smile as I write that because it’s so odd to think of me claiming Eliot as an influence! But these were poets whose lines I could call to mind and that sticking ability says something powerful! Here’s a link to the lines I could recall: http://www.kortneygarrison.com/2018/05/30/the-rule-of-six/