The City, Our City: Complexity, Tension, and Our Moment in History

How do we navigate complexity and tension in our daily lives? What happens when we hold complexity, rather than resolution, at the center of our understanding of cities, people, and art itself? In this episode of Backlit, poet and editor Wayne Miller joins me in exploring the city’s impact on individuals and society, inspired by his poetry collection The City, Our City. Balancing history and modernity, Wayne’s work examines how the city—real or imagined—shapes not only where we live, but who we become as individuals and as a society.

Topics discussed:

• Tension between city and small town/rural areas
• Tension between literature/art and violence
• What publishers looks for in a literary work
• Complexity and tension
• Complexity and simplicity
• Idealism and pragmatism
• Optimis ...