Archives West Finding Aid

This small collection contains one copy of Famous Potatoes: Southeast Idaho Poetry (1986), edited by Harald Wyndham as well as two DVDs: one contains readings of the poetry published in Famous Potatoes; the other contains interviews of those poets.

The following description of the DVD's contents is from Harald Wyndham:

"One DVD is a video recording of the reading held at Idaho State University on May 10, 1986, for the anthology "Famous Potatoes" published by Blue Scarab Press that year. . . . The tape is of interest because it includes readings by Rick Ardinger, Ford Swetnam, William Studebaker, Bruce Embree, Edson Fichter, Gerald Grimmett, Leslie Leek, Steven Puglisi and others.

"The other DVD includes two separate events. First is an interview done at the original Walrus and Carpenter Bookstore on South Main Street in Pocatello in 1994. The interview was videotaped by University of Idaho and produced by University of Idaho professor Alan Lifton, so that excerpts from it could be included in "Idaho Writes in Place" that aired on Idaho Public Television. This is the complete interview. The theme of it is "Idaho Fugitives," which came from an essay by M.K. (Keith) Browning in which he considered the vortex of writers centered in southeastern Idaho to be similar to the Southern school of writers. None of the participants endorsed this label, but that is where the title came from. Again featured in this interview are Ford Swetnam, Bruce Embree, Margarat Aho, Leslie Leek, Steven Puglisi, and myself.

"Following the Fugitives Interview is a videotape of a Retrospective that was done for the Pocatello writer and Idaho State University emeritus Edson Fichter after his death. The Retrospective was presented on February 18, 1995, at the ISU Museum of Natural History to a capacity audience and included presentations by wildlife biologists, birders, artists, and southeastern Idaho poets once more reading selections from Edson's work. Margaret Aho, Leslie Leek, William Studebaker, Mary Alice Shaw, Steven Puglisis are included.Ford Swetnam, William Studebaker, Bruce Embree, Edson Fichter, Gerald Grimmett, Leslie Leek, Steven Puglisi and others.. I was moderator (as publisher of Edson's book of poems and drawings, PAHSIMEROI) and also read a poem of Edson's."