'Like the Universe,' With Jenny Browne

Elizabeth Austen
06/20/2009

In the early 20th century, Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa wrote from the perspective of dozens of heteronymns — distinct personalities that resided within him. Literary producer Elizabeth Austen tells us how his comfort with that plurality of identity figures in the poem "Like the Universe," by Jenny Browne.

Browne's most recent collection is "The Second Reason" (University of Tampa Press, 2007). Her previous collections are "At Once" (Univ. of Tampa Press, 2003) and the chapbook, "Glass" (Pecan Grove Press, 2000). She lives in downtown San Antonio with her family and teaches at Trinity University.

Recorded at Open Books, January 13, 2009 by John O'Brien.