Reading Writing Reading
Patrick James Dunagan

Publication Date: September 21st, 2025
240pp / paperback
ISBN 9781946583420

"Being a poet" for me always comes back to reading and writing—how those two basic activities interrelate and eventually define the activity of poetry. I'm never asserting too much of my own "perspective" in what I write; rather, I'm usually riffing off something I've read or heard, either in the air or in my head. Faulkner's explanation of it, "I listen to the voices," has served as a continuous touchstone for many years; it was an early doorway into writing poems. I believe we read in order to learn how to write.
–Patrick James Dunagan in conversation with Joe Safdie, Rain Taxi

ABOUT PATRICK JAMES DUNAGAN — Patrick James Dunagan holds an MA/MFA in Poetics from the now defunct New College of California, where he studied with David Meltzer, Tom Clark, and Joanne Kyger. He’s author of many poetry collections, including City Bird: Spotlight Series No. 24 (City Lights, 2024), Drops of Rain/Drops of Wine (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016), Sketch of the Artist (FMSBW, 2018), from Book of Kings (Bird and Beck- ett, 2015), das Gedichtete (Ugly Duckling, 2013), Gustonbook (Post Apollo, 2011) and After the Banished (Empty Bowl, 2022), as well as a book of criticism, The Duncan Era (Spuyten Duyvil, 2016). Additionally, he has served as editor for David Meltzer’s Rock Tao (Lithic, 2022) and Roots & Routes: Poetics at New College (Vernon, 2020). He reviews regularly for Rain Taxi, and works as a library assistant at Gleeson Library for the University of San Francisco. He has lived in San Francisco for over 20 years.