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Poetry
Ukrainian Studies May 27, 2023

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails

Translated by Amelia Glaser and Yulia Ilchuk

Halyna Kruk

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
"We act like children with our dead," Halyna Kruk writes as she struggles to come to terms with the horror unfolding around her: "confused, / as if none of us …

Poetry

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

Japanese Studies May 26, 2023

This Overflowing Light

Selected Poems. Translated by Janine Beichman.

Rin Ishigaki

Hosted by Takeshi Morisato
Born in central Tokyo in 1920, Rin Ishigaki was one of the most daring and gifted poets of Japan’s postwar cultural renaissance. She knew Japan before the war, during it …
Ukrainian Studies May 24, 2023

In the Hour of War

Poetry from Ukraine

Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Ukraine may be the only country on earth that owes its existence, at least in part, to a poet. Ever since the appearance of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar in 1840, poetry …
Poetry May 9, 2023

Monarch

Heather Bourbeau

Hosted by Megan Wildhood
Heather Bourbeau’s poetry and fiction appeared in 100 Word Story, Alaska Quarterly Review, The Kenyon Review, Meridian, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and SWWIM. She is the winner of La …
Human Rights May 3, 2023

Testimony

Found Poems from the Special Court for Sierra Leone

Shanee Stepakoff

Hosted by Rine Vieth
Content note: This episode contains discussions of violence, including rape and mutilation Derived from public testimonies at a UN-backed war crimes tribunal in Freetown, Testimony: Found Poems from the Special …
Poetry May 3, 2023

Artifice

Lavinia Singer

Hosted by Hal Coase
Artifice (Prototype, 2023), the debut collection by Lavinia Singer, is an exploration of the art of making. Its poems celebrate the artistry of craftsmanship: how works relate to beauty, and …
African American Studies May 1, 2023

Suddenly We

Evie Shockley

Hosted by Brittney Edmonds
In her new poetry collection Suddenly We (Wesleyan UP, 2023), Evie Shockley mobilizes visual art, sound, and multilayered language to chart routes towards openings for the collective dreaming of a more capacious …
Ukrainian Studies April 29, 2023

Babyn Yar

Ukrainian Poets Respond

Research Center Coordinator Ostap Kin

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
In 2021, the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the massacres of Jews at Babyn Yar. The present collection brings together for the first time the responses to the tragic …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast April 24, 2023

Please Make Me Pretty, I Don't Want to Die

Poems

Tawanda Mulalu

Hosted by Mark Klobas
Please Make Me Pretty, I Don't Want to Die (Princeton UP, 2022) explores tactility, sound, sensuality, and intimacy. Set across the four seasons of a year, these fresh and original …
Recall This Book April 20, 2023

Elizabeth Bradfield in Dark Times (JP)

Elizabeth Bradfield

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
For the RtB Books in Dark Times series back in 2021, John spoke with Elizabeth Bradfied, editor of Broadsided Press, poet, professor of creative writing at Brandeis, naturalist, photographer. Her …
Ukrainian Studies April 7, 2023

The Voices of Babyn Yar

Marianna Kiyanovska

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Today I talked to the translators of Marianna Kiyanovska's The Voices of Babyn Yar (HURI, 2022), Max Rosochinsky and  Oksana Maksymchuk. With this collection of stirring poems the award-winning Ukrainian poet honors the …
Recall This Book April 6, 2023

Poetry, Observation, and Form

A Discussion with Sassan Tabatabai

Sassan Tabatabai

Hosted by Elizabeth Ferry and John Plotz
"For me, there is something so solid and comforting in stone" says Sassan Tabatabai in our conversation, and in his poem "Firestones" the words roll, weigh and satisfyingly click together …
Literary Studies March 10, 2023

Botanical Poetics

Early Modern Plant Books and the Husbandry of Print

Jessica Rosenberg

Hosted by John Yargo
Today’s guest is Jessica Rosenberg, who is the author of a new book titled Botanical Poetics: Early Modern Plant Books and the Husbandry of Print (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022). An …
Italian Studies March 2, 2023

Veronica Franco in Dialogue

Marilyn Migiel

Hosted by Kate Driscoll
Since the late twentieth century, the Venetian courtesan Veronica Franco has been viewed as a triumphant proto-feminist icon: a woman who celebrated her sexuality, an outspoken champion of women and …
Ukrainian Studies February 17, 2023

Today is a Different War

Lyudmyla Khersonska

Hosted by Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed
Today is a Different War (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) is Lyudmyla Khersonska's striking portrayal of life from inside war-torn Ukraine. Masterfully translated into English by Olga Livshin, Andrew Janco, Maya Chhabra, and …
Jewish Studies January 30, 2023

Anthology of Religious Poetry from the Mexican Inquisition Trials of 16th-Century CryptoJews

Mark A. Schneegurt

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
A century after being expelled from Portugal, cryptoJews in Mexico, false converts to Christianity, could not speak of their beliefs for fear of becoming embroiled in the imprisonment, torture, and …
Poetry January 29, 2023

Hereafter

The Telling Life of Ellen O'Hara

Vona Groarke

Hosted by Hal Coase
Ellen O'Hara was a young immigrant from Ireland at the end of the nineteenth century who, with courage and resilience, made a life for herself in New York while financially …
African American Studies January 28, 2023

Soundworks

Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production

Anthony Reed

Hosted by Henry Ivry
In Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production (Duke UP, 2020), Anthony Reed argues that studying sound requires conceiving it as process and as work. Since the long Black Arts …
Nomads, Past and Present January 27, 2023

Words Like Daggers: The Political Poetry of the Negev Bedouin

Kobi Peled

Hosted by Maggie Freeman
For generations, the composition and recitation of poetry has been a key mode of expression among Bedouin populations in the Middle East, reflecting social norms, religious practices, relationships with the …
Jewish Studies January 12, 2023

The Religious Poetry of El'azar Ben Ya'aqov Ha-Bavli (Baghdad, 13th C.)

Wout J. van Bekkum

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
Wout J. van Bekkum's The Religious Poetry of El'azar Ben Ya'aqov Ha-Bavli (Baghdad, 13th C.) (Brill, 2022) is a comprehensive edition of Hebrew hymns composed by Eleazar the Babylonian, a prolific …