Words and Music Episode 8: Marguerite Young

In this episode, we explore the story of groundbreaking utopian writer Marguerite Young who lived from 1908 until 1995. Born in Indianapolis but living most of her life in Greenwich Village in New York City, Young should be better known beyond literary insiders.

Indiana author Susan Neville, who joins Jim Walker in this episode, and others are working to preserve Young’s legacy and keep her work in print. In 2022, Chatwin Books released Young’s collected poems. This is the first time a press has published a lifelong grouping of Young’s poems — previously out of print for decades. Dalkey Press will also put out a new edition of her hallucinatory masterpiece of a novel — Miss MacIntosh, My Darling — in 2023.Neville was able to spend time with Young after she returned to Indianapolis.

We’ll hear her share an excerpt from, Where the Landscape Moved Like Waves, an essay she wrote about her experience interviewing Young.In addition to the conversation with Susan and more excerpts from her essay, you’ll hear passages of Young’s writing read by Shauta Marsh.