"'Proxies: Essays Near Knowing' brings a slowed-to-meaning lens to the remembered moments of a life. Blanchfield’s readers wander into his ordinary-extraordinary quotidian―the vulnerable longing of a singular voice expressing a peopled intelligence. Not since Hilton Als’ "White Girls" have I read anything as interrogative, unsettling, and brilliant." --Claudia Rankine, author of "Citizen."
About the author: Brian Blanchfield is the author of three books of poetry and prose: most recently, "Proxies: Essays Near Knowing" was published by Nightboat Books, in 2016. His two books of poetry are "Not Even Then" (UC Press, 2004) and "A Several World" (Nightboat, 2014), which received The James Laughlin Award and was longlisted for The National Book Award. He essays have appeared in Harper's, BOMB, Guernica, The Offing, Brick, and other publications. The recipient of a 2015-16 Howard Foundation fellowship and one of this year's guest editors of the PEN Poetry Series, he lives in Tucson, where among other things he hosts a poetry and music radio show, Speedway and Swan.
About the interlocutor: Srikanth Reddy is the author of two books of poetry--"Facts for Visitors" (University of California Press, 2004) and "Voyager" (University of California Press, 2011)--as well as a scholarly study, "Changing Subjects: Digressions in Modern American Poetry" (Oxford University Press, 2012). His poems have appeared in various journals, including APR, Grand Street, Fence, and Ploughshares, and his critical writing has been featured in publications such as the New Republic, Raritan, and American Literature. He has held fellowships from the Mellon Foundation, the Whiting Foundation (in the Humanities), and the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing. A graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the doctoral program in English at Harvard University, Reddy teaches in the creatve writing program at the University of Chicago.