An Interview with Nathaniel Mackey

Abstract

Born in Miami in 1947, Nathaniel Mackey grew up in Southern California. He attended Princeton and then Stanford, where he earned a Ph.D. in lit erature. In the late 1970s, after having taught at the University of Wiscon sin-Madison and USC, Mackey joined the faculty ofUC-Santa Cruz, where he works today. His first poetry publications were chapbooks, all of which were eventually collected in Eroding Witness, published in 1985.1 In this book, Mackey introduced the two poetic series that he has since continued to expand: of the (number 31 of which appeared in CR 41:4) and mu. Bedouin Hornbook followed in 1986. This was the first installment of Mackey s serial fiction, From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate. No further books appeared, however, until 1993, which saw the publication of no fewer than four. These were School of Udhra, a book of poetry; Djbot Baghostus's Run, the second installment o/From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate; a collection of his critical writings entitled Discrepant Engagement; and Moment's Notice, an an thology of jazz writings he edited with Art Lange. Most recently, he issued a compact disc called Strick: Song of the 16-25 (1995), on which he reads his poetry to the musical improvisations of Royal Hartigan and Hafez Modirzadeh. He is currently at work on another collection of poetry, whose parts, entitled Strick and Stra, continue the of the Andoumboulou through number 35; and he has completed Atet A.D.,