Stella Hayes : part two

How did you first engage with poetry?

Through my mother first. World literature and poetry from the Romantic movement—specifically from the first 40 years of 19th century known as The Russian Golden Age lead by Pushkin and Lermontov—were in her veins. She has a degree in Russian literature and language. She has an extraordinary poetic reservoir which she can recall instantly from memory. That’s how they used to do it back in the day—they memorized pages of poems, short stories, novellas and novels. And secondly, through poet Gary Light, a dear childhood friend who in his pocket always had a copy of Mandelstam, Blok or Pasternak. As teenagers, we would have parties in which he would read their work. He introduced me to the poets of the early 20th century, known as The Silver Age. And at last at USC under the tutelage of dear friend poet David St. John. I feel so lucky that I had a chance of a lifetime to be his student.