Kaveh Akbar and Matthew Olzmann

“Restlessness tosses us from one thing to another,” says Carl Phillips. “Obsession is a focusing on a single thing… I think both restlessness and obsession go hand in hand with being an artist, but I also think they go hand in hand with being a human being who is truly alive.” This conversation between Matthew and Kaveh stands as a testament to that observation about the artistic temperament, encompassing discussions of Borges, Szymborska, program alumnus J. Estanislao Lopez, ox-poets vs. cat-poets vs. porcupine-poets, and speed chess. (Recorded in Nov. 2022, 53 minutes)