This week on The Write Question, Lauren speaks with poet Dara Barrois/Dixon (née Dara Wier) about the ethics of art-making and how her latest book of poetry, Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina (Wave Poetry), both elucidates and confounds those ethics—particularly as it’s read alongside Barrois/Dixon’s essay titled almost identically, “Why Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina” (Action, Spectacle).
With the same tender honesty found in all of Dara Barrois/Dixon’s (née Dara Wier) poetry, the poems in Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina are curious about the world we inhabit and the worlds we create. Barrois/Dixon brings profound attention to the things we love—be they animals, books, skyscapes, movies, poems, or other human beings—and to the stories that shape our worlds. Here, with emotional exactitude, is a collection of poems that is unafraid to express “love humor despair loving kindness love humor empathy/humor joy sympathy love kindness courage.”
About Dara:
Dara Barrois/Dixon (née Dara Wier) is the author of Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina (Wave Books, 2022). Other titles include In the Still of the Night (Wave Books, 2017), You Good Thing (Wave Books, 2014), Reverse Rapture (Verse Press, 2005), Hat on a Pond (Verse Press, 2002) and Voyages in English (Carnegie Mellon, 2001). She has received awards from the Lannan Foundation, American Poetry Review, and The Poetry Center Book Award. The Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council have generously supported her work. With James Tate, she rescued The Lost Epic of Arthur Davidson Ficke, published by Waiting for Godot Books. Poems can be found in Granta, Volt, Conduit, Incessant Pipe, Biscuit Hill, blush, can we have our ball back, Itinerant, American Poetry Review, Octopus, Gulf Coast, and The Nation. She’s been poet-in-residence at the University of Montana, University of Texas Austin, Emory University, and the University of Utah. She was the 2005 Louis Rubin Chair at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She lives and works in factory hollow in Western Massachusetts.
Dara Barrois/Dixon recommends:
Iggy Horse by Michael Earl Craig (Wave Poetry)
Pathetic Literature edited by Eileen Myles (Grove Atlantic)
The Ends of the World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, and Our Quest to Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions by Peter Brannen (Ecco Press)
The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon
Don't Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (Crown Publishing Group)
Lauren Korn recommends:
Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina and You Good Thing by Dara Barrois/Dixon (Wave Poetry)
“Why Tolstoy Killed Anna Karenina” by Dara Barrois/Dixon (Action, Spectacle)
AMANDA PARADISE: Resurrect Extinct Vibration and A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)tics by CAConrad (Wave Poetry)
Iggy Horse by Michael Earl Craig (Wave Poetry)
The Cloud Corporation by Timothy Donnelly (Wave Poetry)
Fort Not by Emily Skillings (The Song Cave)
In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987-2011 by Peter Gizzi (Wesleyan University Press)
The Government Lake and Dome of the Hidden Pavilion by James Tate (Ecco Press)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Jake Birch, co-producer and editor; and Chris Moyles, sound engineer. This episode is sponsored by Elk River Books in Livingston, Montana, offering new, used, and rare books—and frequent author readings in their line-up of events offered each season. A full events calendar and online shopping can be found at ElkRiverBooks.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss. Our music was written and recorded by John Floridis.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
