there were either joan of arc, sylvia plath, they seemed distressed in some way. i love those books. helen keller. there were not many women in that period. those books were informative. >> which book has sold the best? >> i think that "cleopatra" has sold more than the others combined. >> y de thing that happened? >> i do not know. i do not know. it is one of those interesting things. you never know what people are going to find in your work. you hope someone might read what you have written in the end and understand or even enjoy it. i am interested in the ideas of women in power, the remnants of the east and west, those teams have certainly hit a home. there's been a lot of interest in terms of female empowerment. a lot of men have come to readings and asked me to sign books for their daughters. going around and poisoning your relatives is not necessarily something you want to encourage, but there's certainly a sense of a smart, canny, smart woman. i think we're always interested in solving a mystery. the human mind works like that. this is a book that said our

it was joan of arc, sylvia plath, women in distress. i loved those little books. there were not very many women in that series. those books were formative. >> which book has sold the best? >> "cleopatra" has sold more than the others combined. i never had a book that sold in any way before. >> y do you think? >> it has a beautiful jacket? i do not know. it is one of those interesting things. you do not have any idea what people are going to find in your work. you sit in a room for years. you hope somebody might read what you have written and understand or enjoy it. i was interested in the lives of women in power, the resonance between east and west. i think those two teams have hit home. i think there has been a lot of interest in terms of female empowerment. i was touched by the men who have come to buy the book for their daughters. it is not a book about a role model. it is not something you want to encourage. there has been a sense of a smart. shrewd woman who does the improbable. the unveiling of mysteries. the human mind and loves to embrace that idea. this i

i was trying my best to become sylvia plath and leyna without killing myself. .. >> it's openness andlexibility , inclusiveness, good humor, and generosity, and in short, its humanity. these traits and this demeanor capture the core tone of -- the core tone of john ashbury's work. as you watch -- are they here? are we watching images of the collages or just images of me? you saw some? that's good. much better to watch collages than ann. as you watch images of his collages cycle through on the vast screens, you might get a sense of how a brilliant syntax and fluid diction suture exfoliating gee ag my of a -- geography of a palm and how things are founded unexpectedly yet pleasurable relation to evoke another precursor while the true compoundings come. the reel is not static just as the ashburian eye is not singular. the temple present unfurls in fields of a wave, a flowchart extending our imagination and the sense of wonder at what he once called in an often quoted phrase, "the perceived world's wide authority and tact." across some 35 books in writings that include translations and es