Cheating at Scrabble Without the Internet: Stephin Merritt and Rives in Conversation

Two poets collide when Stephin Merritt and Rives visit Twenty Summers for a conversation about poetry, language, music, Scrabble, and a particularly early hour of the morning.

Rives was previously the host of “Ironic Iconic America” on Bravo and has spoken several times at the TED Conference. He is also the curator of the Museum of Four in the Morning, an online collection of cultural references to that time of day.

Stephin Merritt, better known as the frontman of the indie rock band the Magnetic Fields, is the author of 101 Two-Letter Words, a book of poems about each of the two-character words allowed in Scrabble. The Los Angeles Times calls the book “delightfully whimsical,” and Salon deems it “irresistible.” Join us to learn why and, possibly, to improve your Scrabble game.