Stephen Dunn Archive

An Angel Choir, Titans of Industry, and a Writers’ Festival: Western New York’s Chautauqua Institution

Author: | Categories: Critical Essays No comments
When I arrive in early June to teach at the Writer’s Festival, the Chautauqua Institution is a ghost town. The lake laps against the shoreline and the proliferation of white wicker chairs on the historic Athenaeum hotel veranda are mostly empty.

Sincerely Yours

Author: | Categories: Writing No comments
Because I’d just read “The Bridge,” which I only half-understood, rendering it sacrosanct to my wide-eyed freshman mind, I’d taken Hart Crane at his word when he wrote in an essay that “Sincerity is essential to all real poetry.” Rilke said it earlier in his own letter-turned-rule-book for all young