Al Filreis Blog

Poem about the Writers House

Bob Perelman is soon sending his new manuscript of poems to Roof Books and shared with me this poem, to be included in the new book, about the Writers House in response to WCW’s “Spring and All.” *** AL AND ALL   for Al Filreis By the path to the...

KWH/CPCW win “Draw Down the Lightning” grant

Here is an article about a new grant. At an energizing reception held at the University Meeting and Guest House, members of the 12 winning teams of the inaugural Draw Down the Lightning grants broke bread while sharing ideas, celebrating successes, and thinking about the challenges ahead—literally embodying the collaborative...

A 90-minute conversation with Gerry Fialka

On April 16 I was interviewed by Gerry Fialka for 90 minutes—about poetry, intersubjectivity, education, and medium-over-message. It’s a YouTube series called “InnerViews” and my conversation is episode 612.

In conversation with Nate Silver

Recently I had the pleasure of interviewing Nate Silver before an audience of several hundred people. Mostly we discussed Silver’s 2024 book, On the Edge: the Arts of Risking Everything. HERE is a link to an article written about the event. The concluding paragraph: ‘Silver’s openness to randomness was later...

Gertrude Stein in Morocco

I had the honor of convening a collaborative close reading with students at Ibn Zohr University in Morocco yesterday. Their teacher, Professor El Habib Louai, is a friend of contemporary poets and poetry teachers and critics—of PoemTalk and ModPo. He has been interested in the collaborative close reading method. Yesterday,...

Student generations

Family Weekend. Another moment for realizing how long I’ve been doing this work and how deep & sustained many of my relationships are. Here I am yesterday with Rachel, who was my student and advisee in the early 1990s, and Josh, her son, who is currently my student and my...

Thomas Devaney’s “Poem—for Al Filreis”

I was honored, on the occasion of my 50th birthday, to hear—and then later to read in print, in Jubilat—a poem by Tom Devaney dedicated to me. I like to think that it’s a wonderful poem regardless of my grateful feelings about its dedication and fine memories of the party...