Maureen McLane is a poet and critic.

After her undergraduate studies in American history and literature, she studied English literature on a scholarship before earning, her Ph. D. at the University of Chicago.

In addition to academic publications on British romanticism, Maureen McLane has written a number of memoir and criticism.

One of them, My Poets, became a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award in autobiography.

And her most recent collection of poetry, This Blue, was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award.

Today, we have Maureen McLane, now professor of English at New York University, with us on the radio show. Good evening, Maureen.

Good evening!

Now, can you tell us when you first began to read poetry?

I would probably say, in my high school days.

Of course, there had been some other things in the environment in my childhood before high school, like nursery rhymes, hymns, my mother's playing piano and guitar, poems my father might come out with.