Word Works: Mary Ruefle on Imagination

“It is impossible for me to write about the imagination; it is like asking a fish to describe the sea,” begins poet and essayist Mary Ruefle in her latest work, On Imagination (Sarabande Books). In the book, Ruefle marshals Wittgenstein, Jane Goodall, Gertrude Stein, Jesus, and Emily Dickinson, alongside Ukrainian Easter egg dyeing traditions and teddy bear tea parties.
In her Word Works talk, Ruefle presents just such a curio cabinet of the human imagination’s boundless forms.
Senior Editor at Wave Books Heidi Broadhead leads an onstage Q&A following the talk.