Linda Pastan and Myra Sklarew

Linda Pastan has written over 13 books, including the recent poetry collections The Last Uncle, Queen of a Rainy Country, and Traveling Light. She has received the Dylan Thomas award, a Pushcart Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize from Poetry, the Poetry Society of America's Alice Fay di Castagnola Award, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. Her PM/AM: New and Selected Poems and Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968–1998 were finalists for the National Book Award, and The Imperfect Paradise was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. From 1991 to 1995 Pastan served as Poet Laureate of Maryland. She lives in Potomac, Maryland.Myra Sklarew, former president of the artist community Yaddo and professor emerita of literature at American University, is the author of three chapbooks and seven collections of poetry, including Harmless, Lithuania: New & Selected Poems, The Witness Trees, and the forthcoming chapbook, If You Want to Live Forever. Awards include the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award and the National Jewish Book Council Award in Poetry. Her poetry has been recorded for the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature, Library of Congress. Read poems by Linda Pastan here and here.Read poems by Myra Sklarew here. Pastan photo credit: Margaretta K. Mitchell. Sklarew photo credit: Danielle Sklarew.  Recorded On: Wednesday, November 14, 2012