Chapter 12: Reading in the Stacks: Raising Poet-librarians in the Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo

An autoethnographic and ethnographic account of working at The Poetry Collection at the University at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), I recount how working in a closed-stacks poetry collection as a young poet shaped my work as a poet and librarian. Building on previous accounts of the Poetry Collection by Curator Emeritus Michael Basinski, Curator James Maynard, and Assistant Curator Alison Fraser, and on personal interviews with other employees and former employees, such as performance artist Ric Royer and poet-librarians Nava Fader and Dee Dee Kramer, I portray how being surrounded by poetry at the Poetry Collection influenced poet-librarians who were employed there.