In a little known interview taken a few hours before Carver’s reading in the English Lounge at the EPB (English Philosophy Building) on the night of April 15, 1978, the writer admits: “A year ago I thought I’d never write another poem. I don’t know exactly what it is, but since I’ve been in Iowa City I’ve written an entire book.”
Carver, Raymond; Gentry, Marshall Bruce; Stull, William L. Conversations with Raymond Carver. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 1990: http://bit.ly/1HsG91J