WE WERE DELIGHTED to be directed to an interview with the distinguished Irish poet and poetry teacher James J McAuley, conducted by Phyllis Silver in 1983 for a programme once again available on Spokane Public Radio.
Jim, to his friends, is thankfully still with us, but it’s been some time since we could hear him in such fine and stirring form, at the height of his intellectual and communicative powers.
Not only an accomplished and much admired poet but a formidable presence in Irish writing for decades, Jim was a living bridge, one might say, between Irish tradition and American possibility, and is fondly remembered on both sides of the pond as both a great champion of Irish writing in the North-West of the United States and as an enthusiastic supporter of many Irish poets and writers through the Eastern Washington University Summer Writing Program which he directed in Dublin for many years.
The interview, which comes in two parts, is therefore well worth a listen.
See Also: New and Selected Poems
