SOURCE: Doty, Mark, and Mark Wunderlich. “Interview with Mark Doty.” Cortland Review (December 1998): 1-2.

In the following interview, Doty discusses trends in recent American poetry, how events in his teens led him to pursue writing, and how being gay affects style and self-presentation.

[Wunderlich]: In an article you published in the Hungry Mind Review about your experience as a judge for the Lenore Marshall Prize, you discussed your hopes for the future of American Poetry. I'm wondering if you could talk a little more about that. Also, and this may be impossible to answer, but I'm curious to know what vision you have for the future of your own work? What are your current ambitions?

[Doty]: I wrote the article you mention after reading a great many collections of poetry publishing during 1996 and 97, and I wanted both to complain about a certain tepidness in much of the poetry...