Welcome to GamFest Reads, September edition, I'm John Dickerson.

On this GamFest Reads, I talk with Ada Calhoun, a journalist and non-fiction author who

set out to finish a biography of her favorite poet, Frank O'Hara.

That Calhoun's father, the New Yorker Art Critic, Peter Sheldall, started decades ago.

Instead, she wrote almost a poet, Frank O'Hara, my father, and me, which is both an exploration

of the O'Hara she finds in taped interviews that her father did and a reflection on her own

fraught history with her celebrated father and the New York art world she grew up in

and the one she learns about on those tapes.

The book is out now from Grove Atlantic Press. Here's our conversation.

So, Ada, we're going to start with basic questions. Who was Frank O'Hara?

Frank O'Hara was a beloved mid-century poet. He was very much a part of the scene of painters

and poets in downtown New York in 1950s, 1960s. He was a central part of that scene,

but then he also was untimely ripped from this earth. Tell us a little bit about his death.

He died at 40 on Fire Island in a freak accident. He was hit by a dune buggy in the middle of the

night and, of course, Fire Island is known for having no cars, so I think he is maybe the only

vehicular death recorded over there. And now tell us who your father is.

His name is Peter Sheldall. He is the art critic for the New Yorker magazine,

and he has always been a massive Frank O'Hara fan and moved to New York City in part to become

as much like Frank O'Hara as possible. And why were you drawn to him?

To my father is a Frank O'Hara. Exactly. I was hoping that would work that way.

Exactly. So tell those who have not yet read the book, your father was writing a book about

O'Hara. He did not complete it and you picked up the task. And that's where we start the book.

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