Poetry

Poetry

episodes

Interviews with poets and scholars of poetry about their new books.

Millicent Borges Accardi, "Quarantine Highway" (Flowersong Press, 2022)

March 12, 2024

Quarantine Highway

Millicent Borges Accardi
Hosted by Megan Wildhood

Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland), and…

Karen Rigby, "Fabulosa" (JackLeg Press, 2024)

February 6, 2024

Fabulosa

Karen Rigby
Hosted by Megan Wildhood

After her prize-winning debut, Karen Rigby returns with a beguiling ars poetica and tribute to the dazzling. From Dior to Olympic figure skating, Brue…

Cynthia Marie Hoffman, "Exploding Head" (Persea Books, 2024)

January 9, 2024

Exploding Head

Cynthia Marie Hoffman
Hosted by Megan Wildhood

Exploding Head (Persea Books, 2024) chronicles a woman’s childhood onset and adult journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which manifest…

Jessica Romney, "Lyric Poetry and Social Identity in Archaic Greece" (U Michigan Press, 2020)

January 8, 2024

Lyric Poetry and Social Identity in Archaic Greece

Jessica Romney
Hosted by Reyes Bertolin

Jessica Romney's book Lyric Poetry and Social Identity in Archaic Greece (U Michigan Press, 2020) examines how Greek men presented themselves and thei…

Adi Wolfson, "I Am Your Father" (Pardes Press, 2019)

December 27, 2023

I Am Your Father

Adi Wolfson
Hosted by Yakir Englander

The poems in the book I Am Your Father (Pardes Press, 2019) were written during a period of great confusion and pain, culminating in the moment when …

Ran Oron, "He Could See a Bird Outside if He Looked Through His Window" (Persimmon Books, 2023)

December 24, 2023

He Could See a Bird Outside if He Looked Through His Window

Ran Oron
Hosted by Yakir Englander

From his home in Connecticut, Ran Oron observed and drew a pair of ospreys, a couple of birds of prey that return each year to the same nest. With…

Elizabeth Hoover, "The Archive Is All in Present Tense" (Barrow Street Press, 2022)

December 2, 2023

The Archive Is All in Present Tense

Elizabeth Hoover
Hosted by Megan Wildhood

The Archive Is All in Present Tense (Barrow Street Press, 2022) attempts to capture the feeling of archival research, which, despite being an attempt …

Ian Probstein, trans., "Centuries Encircle Me with Fire: Selected Poems of Osip Mandelstam" (Academic Studies Press, 2022)

November 29, 2023

Centuries Encircle Me with Fire

Ian Probstein, trans.
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Osip Mandelstam (1891-1938) is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's most influential poets. This collection, compiled, translated, and ed…

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 3

November 20, 2023

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 3

Michael Schoenfeldt
Hosted by Zachary Davis

Part 3 starts with a discussion of general reading strategies to help you discover the poetic techniques and insights of any individual sonnet. It con…

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 2

November 13, 2023

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 2

Michael Schoenfeldt
Hosted by Zachary Davis
Listen:

Part 2 focuses closely on the two major “characters” to whom the sonnets are addressed: a beautiful young man, and a woman described as black. You’ll …

Seamus Heaney’s Afterlives: A Discussion with Joseph Nugent and Vera Kreilkamp

November 8, 2023

Seamus Heaney’s Afterlives

Joseph Nugent and Vera Kreilkamp
Hosted by John Yargo

In 1995, Seamus Heaney was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. During his speech, he explained that the adequacy of lyric poetry spoke to the “‘tem…

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 1

November 6, 2023

Shakespeare's Sonnets Part 1

Michael Schoenfeldt
Hosted by Zachary Davis
Listen:

The sonnet — a 14-line poem with a strict rhyme scheme, conventionally associated with love — was one of the most popular poetic forms in late Elizabe…

Katherine Gaffney, "Fool in a Blue House" (U Tampa Press, 2023)

November 6, 2023

Fool in a Blue House

Katherine Gaffney
Hosted by Megan Wildhood
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Katherine Gaffney completed her MFA at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently working on her PhD at the University of Souther…

Ann C. Bracken, "Crash: A Memoir of Overmedication and Recovery" (Charing Cross Press, 2022)

October 31, 2023

Crash

Ann C Bracken
Hosted by Megan Wildhood
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Ann Bracken has published three poetry collections, The Altar of Innocence, No Barking in the Hallways: Poems from the Classroom, Once You’re Inside: …

Christopher Spaide, "Closure?" The Common Magazine (May 2023)

October 27, 2023

Closure?

Christopher Spaide
Hosted by Emily Everett

Christopher Spaide speaks to managing editor Emily Everett about his poem “Closure?,” which appears in The Common’s most recent issue. Chris talks ab…

Caitlin Cowan, "Happy Everything" (Cornerstone Press, 2024)

October 10, 2023

Happy Everything

Caitlin Cowan
Hosted by Megan Wildhood
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Caitlin Cowan is the author of Happy Everything, forthcoming in February 2024 from Cornerstone Press. Caitlin holds a PhD in English from the Universi…

Christopher Merrill, "On the Road to Lviv" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023)

October 7, 2023

On the Road to Lviv

Christopher Merrill

Prismatic and polysemous, On the Road to Lviv (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) invites us on an odyssey across Ukraine in the hour of war. "This chronicle/ To…

Eileen Myles, "Pathetic Literature" (Grove Press, 2022)

October 5, 2023

Pathetic Literature

Eileen Myles
Hosted by Hal Coase
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“Literature is pathetic.” So claims Eileen Myles in their provocative and robust introduction to Pathetic Literature (Grove Press, 2022), a breathtaki…

Jane Hirshfield, "The Asking: New and Selected Poems" (Knopf, 2023)

September 19, 2023

The Asking

Jane Hirshfield

When poet Jane Hirshfield first arrived at Tassajara Monastery nearly fifty years ago, a Zen teacher told her that it was a good idea to have a questi…

Alyssa Noelle Coelho, "The Alchemy of the Beast" (Saved by Story, 2023)

September 15, 2023

The Alchemy of the Beast

Alyssa Noelle Coelho
Hosted by Megan Wildhood
Listen:

"I wept as time stopped, and I wept as time refused to cease." Grieving her faith, her love, and her identity, twenty-one-year-old Scarlett V. Leone…