Leave 'Em Wanting More, We Say: Jake Adam York on the Length of Poetry Readings

Over at the Kenyon Review blog, Jake Adam York tackles the ages old conundrum: how long is too long for a poetry reading? Has there ever been a poetry reading that was too short?

He doesn't really offer a "perfect length," but he would like to hear your thoughts.

From the post:

I’ve been on the road this week, sharing readings with my friend Brian Barker. A duo reading means that you have to answer, several times, the same question: Who reads first? But it also means you ask another question: How long should I read?

It’s the host who’s to answer this question, and the answer, I imagine, results from a secret negotiation between the host’s interest in the poet’s work and the host’s knowledge of his or her own community, their patience or interest or business.

If this week is any indication, the general answer to the second question is 20 minutes—or no longer than 20 minutes. So, the whole reading—including the waiting-for-people-to-come-in-late time and the offerings to the gods of institution and the introductions and the actual performance—runs maybe 50 minutes.

That this is about the length of a network TV drama (usually 44 minutes of actual show, once you count out the commercials) makes me wonder if poetry readings are somehow timed by television or other popular forms. (Though a CD can hold about 80 minutes of music, most rock albums clock in at less than 50, and even NPR’s longer programs tend to be curbed by the chiming of the hour.)

For some reason, whenever I’m asked this question (as the host), I think immediately of three readings.

Then, later:

The longer reading makes me think that maybe the length of a sitcom or radio program is too short sometimes, and I remember something a Shakespearean actor said once in an elocution workshop—that a play shouldn’t take more than two-and-a-half hours in performance, that maybe there is an upper limit to the attention span of an audience…

So, how long should a poetry reading be? I think it should be long enough to satisfy, long enough that you stop thinking about whether it’s enough, but so long that you wonder if it’s too much. But what is that for you?