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In the Studio: Poet Fred D’Aguiar

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Fred D'Aguiar

09/01/2024 GMT

Poet Fred D’Aguiar

BBC World Service - In the Studio, Poet Fred D’Aguiar

Fred D’Aguiar on his collection For the Unnamed, inspired by a black jockey from 1852

The poet Fred D’Aguiar explains how he finishes his book about an unnamed black jockey who wins a huge race, finds a new subject, a series of poetic portraits, and begins again.

The poet, novelist and playwright Fred D’Aguiar was born in Britain, grew up in Guyana and now lives in Los Angeles. There he came across the story which became his most recent collection of poems, For the Unnamed. It was originally entitled For the Unnamed Black Jockey Who Rode the Winning Steed in the Race Between Pico’s Sarco and Sepulveda’s Black Swan in Los Angeles, in 1852. That tells us what we know: the horses’ names, who owned them, where and when the race was run, and that the winning jockey was black. His name, though, was not recorded. 

Fred D’Aguiar recovers and re-imagines his story, in several voices – including the horses. In this edition of In the Studio Julian May meets  D’Aguiar on the cusp. For The Unnamed is written and D’Aguiar explains how he is now preparing it for publication and his way of proof-reading. He is also feeling his way towards his next project, beginning a series of poetic studies of people he has known, people he has lost and people who inspire him. This is, tentatively, entitled Lives Studied.   

D'Aguiar reveals his processes, how he begins, rising very early, taking his dog, Dexter, for a walk, drinking a coffee, then setting to. He speaks quickly, so writes always in longhand with a pen, to slow thought down, to consider. He speaks too of his reading and influences, for instance Robert Lowell and his collection ‘Life Studies’. For D’Aguiar the practice of writing is integral to his existence - writing is living.


Presenter and Producer: Julian May

(Photo: Fred D'Aguiar. Credit: Courtesy of Fred D'Aguiar)

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