Larry McCaffery interviews David Antin in McCaffery’s house in San Diego with some questions from Marjorie Perloff and Jerzy Kutnik as well as the occasional presence of Rae Armantrout. McCaffery begins the interview by asking Antin about why he chooses to write poetry rather than write prose. Antin explains his theories on fiction and what fiction tries to do and why it doesn’t work with the type of writing that he does. Antin explains his recent interest in Freud, using Freud’s examinations of dreams as the source for narrative. Antin explains the process and concept of his “talk poems.” Just after the 2:30 mark, the interview moves to a car with a discussion of various contemporary writers. Antin discusses his artistic collaborations with his wife Eleanor. Antin gives a long explanation of his view on Ron Silliman’s essay on sentences and then expounds further on a variety of literary critics. An edited version of the interview appears on pages 36 to 58 of Some Other Frequency: Interviews with Innovative American Authors, ed. Larry McCaffery, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996.
