Dean Rader
Artist Statement
My most recent collection of poems, Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry, is interested in three main concepts—aesthetics, identity, and America—and the degree to which these triangulate on both the personal and national levels. I am interested in why writers, artists, musicians, dancers, and filmmakers turn to art as a way to make sense of both history and the present. Wallace Stevens, arguably America’s most influential modern poet, writes that “Poetry is a response to the daily necessity of getting the world right.” We are living in vexing times; it seems especially important—in a form other than journalism—to get the world of human emotion and experience right.
While at Headlands
I am coming into the program at Headlands in a sort of good news/bad news scenario. The bad news is that I have no real agenda for my time here. The good news is that I have no real agenda for my time here.
2017 was a particularly exciting year for me; I saw the publication of two books of poems and some essays on painters and painting. So, while I have nothing that I am actively trying to finish, I am actively trying to figure out where to begin.
One of my books, Suture, is a collection of collaborative sonnets, written with the great poet Simone Muench. I enjoyed the process of collaboration immensely, so I am hoping for some element of inspiration/collaboration with some of the excellent artists at Headlands.
Selected Works
“America I Do Not Call Your Name Without Hope,” San Francisco Chronicle (2016)
“Paul Klee’s Winter Journey at the Beginning of Summer,” Kestrel (2012)
“Relational Self-Portrait,” Kenyon Review (2014)
“Self-Portrait as Wikipedia Entry,” Zyzzyva (2012)
“Still Live with Gratitude,” Narrative Magazine (2016)
“Self-Portrait in Charleston, Orlando,” Academy of American Poets, Poem-a-Day (2016)
“Elegy as Ecstasy: Rereading Motherwell,” Los Angeles Review of Books (2017)
Quiet Lightning Reading, Modern Eden Gallery
Copper Canyon Press Reading, Associated Writing Programs Conference