BOMB Magazine recently published a correspondence between Frances Richard, author of The Phonemes from Les Figues, and Anne Waldman “about epic, community, forebears, and the attractions of negative capability”:

You have to imagine what it was like in the ’60s at 20 in a female body, wanting to write memorable poetry. The battlefield of Mars is where the lunatic, the lover, and the poet meet. Maybe that battlefield was Berkeley or New York City, or in the pages of little magazines. If anything, the battle is ultimately with one’s own demons and expectations and desires, of course.

Check out their full conversation in BOMB Magazine.