Poet & Novelist Jay Parini

Cultural Mixtapes

On today’s inaugural episode we have poet, novelist, biographer, screenwriter, and Professor at Middlebury College, Jay Parini. Throughout his illustrious career, Parini has authored several biographies on writers including Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, and Gore Vidal. His novel about Leo Tolstoy, The Last Station, was adapted into an award winning movie in 2009 starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren. His most recent book, Borges and Me is about an excursion with Jorge Luis Borges in Scotland. It was published in 2020. We spoke over zoom in late June, and touched on everything from faith to politics to war. Jay Parini’s insights are grounded in close readings and meditations on poetry, philosophy, and religious texts, and they provide a refreshing way of thinking about the polarized world we live in. Our conversation weaved between the artistic and political, and was filled with little nuggets of writing tips that stemmed from his 50 year teaching career. To read more about Parini's vast body of work visit his website: http://jayparini.com Writers & Musicians Mentioned - Critical Revolutionaries by Terry Eagleton - W.H. Auden - Robert Frost - Gerard Manley Hopkins - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Wilfred Owen - Siegfried Sassoon - Philip Levine - Louise Glück - Mary Oliver - Bob Dylan - James Taylor - Jackson Browne - Neil Young Music: Ludwig van Beethoven Sonata No. 26 in E-flat Major (Op. 81a) Fryderyk Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor (Op. 35)