Rae Armantrout is an American poet generally associated with Language Poets. Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California but grew up in San Diego. She has published more than 10 books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies. Armantrout teaches at the University of California, San Diego, where she is Professor of Poetry and Poetics.

Armantrout was awarded the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for her collection of poetry Versed, published by the Wesleyan University Press. The book later earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Armantrout’s collection, Just Saying, was published in 2013. She is the recipient of numerous other awards for her poetry including an award from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2007 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

We met in Ottawa to discuss her poetry, William Carlos Williams, place, and how to be a literary tourist in San Diego. 

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