LARB Radio Hour: Jeffrey Yang and the Mystique of Marfa

Poet Jeffrey Yang joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf to discuss "Hey, Marfa," his heralded new poetry collection.

By LARB Radio HourJanuary 25, 2019

Poet Jeffrey Yang joins co-hosts Eric Newman and Kate Wolf to discuss Hey, Marfa, his heralded new poetry collection. In poems that balance between intimacy and alienation, Hey, Marfa explores the unique history of the tiny town where art, history, and culture intersect in the vastness of the Texas desert. Yang talks about his writing practice, what it means to write from and about a place, and the figures he encountered in Marfa that continue to fascinate him.

Also, John Wray, author of Godsend, returns to recommend Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis's miraculous classic The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, which John describes as a post-modern tour de force that happened to be written in Brazil in the 1880s.