Richard Jackson is associate professor of English, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Acts of Mind was published in hardcover in April 1983.

 “There have been any number of books of interview with contemporary writers, but none precisely like this one. The author/editor has somehow managed to get these very different poets to follow his lead and (in many cases for the first time anywhere) to reveal much about their intellectual habits, assumptions, and preconceptions.  In almost every case he has been able to get these poets to talk more openly and freely than anyone else has ever done.” – George Garrett

 “The achievement of Jackson’s interviews is that his subjects seem to catch fire in the attempt to match the quality of his questioning; one is hard put to name a volume more necessary for shelves of contemporary poetry than this one.” – Choice

“These 30 interviews form an excellent short course on the name and nature of contemporary poetry.” – ALA Booklist