Podcasts by New Books in Poetry
Interview with Poets about their New Books
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On John Milton's "Paradise Lost" from 2022-11-04T08:00
As a young student at Christ’s College Cambridge, John Milton announced to the world that he was going to write the greatest poem that the world has ever seen. He didn’t want to sit among the epic ...
ListenKelly Harris-DeBerry, "Freedom Knows My Name" (Xavier Review Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Freedom Knows My Name (Xavier Review Press, 2020), Kelly Harris-DeBerry creates the world anew from scraps of memories and rhythm. She bounces between the pages, as well as the accompanying audi...
ListenMatty Weingast, "The First Free Women: Poems of the Early Buddhist Nuns" (Shambhala, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
A radical and vivid rendering of poetry from the first Buddhist nuns that brings a new immediacy to their voices. The Therigatha ("Verses of the Elder Nuns") is the oldest collection of known writi...
ListenYehoshua November, "Two Worlds Exist" (Orison Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Yehoshua November's second poetry collection, Two Worlds Exist (Orison Books), movingly examines the harmonies and dissonances involved in practicing an ancient religious tradition in contemporary ...
ListenPamila Gupta, "Portuguese Decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: History and Ethnography" (Bloomsbury, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Pamila Gupta’s Portuguese Decolonization in the Indian Ocean World: History and Ethnography (Bloomsbury Academic Press, 2020), takes a unique approach to examining decolonization processes across L...
ListenChelsea Wagenaar, "The Spinning Place" (Southern Indiana Review Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Spinning Place (Southern Indiana Review Press, 2019), Chelsea Wagenaar explores the power of language—in terms of its possibilities and what it fails to express. As a being with a body in th...
ListenHonorée Fanonne Jeffers, "The Age of Phillis" (Wesleyan UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jennifer J. Davis speaks with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma, about The Age of Phillis (Wesleyan UP, 2020), Jeffers’s latest collection of poems centere...
ListenSarah M. Sala, "Devil's Lake" (Tolsun Books, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Devil's Lake (Tolsun Books, 2020), the debut collection by Sarah Sala, is an amalgam of American life. The poems move deftly within a world that is equal parts dangerous, celebratory, subdued, mode...
ListenBrian Greene, "Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe" (Random House, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Brian Greene is a Professor of Mathematics and Physics at Columbia University in the City of New York, where he is the Director of the Institute for Strings, Cosmology, and Astroparticle Physics, a...
ListenKathryn H. Ross, "Black Was Not a Label" (Pronto, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kathryn H. Ross has found a balance. Between past and present. Between self and ancestors. Between self-discovery and continuous growth. In her hybrid collection, Black Was Not a Label, Ross invite...
ListenSteve Zeitlin, "The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awareness" (Cornell UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
This is a book of encounters. Part memoir, part essay, and partly a guide to maximizing your capacity for fulfillment and expression, The Poetry of Everyday Life: Storytelling and the Art of Awaren...
ListenLeslie M. Harris, "Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies" (U Georgia Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Slavery and the University: Histories and Legacies (University of Georgia Press, 2019), edited by Leslie M. Harris, James T. Campbell, and Alfred L. Brophy, is the first edited collection of schola...
ListenArchana Venkatesan, "Endless Song: Tiruvaymoli" (Penguin, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Endless Song (Oxford University Press, 2019) is Dr. Archana Venkatesan’s exquisite translation of the Tiruvaymoli (sacred utterance), a brilliant 1102-verse ninth century tamil poem celebrating the...
ListenSarah Adleman, "The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes" (Tolsun, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The Houston Chronicle’s review of Sarah Adleman’s The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes (Tolsun 2019) praises that the book “dissects the feelings that have been a part of her since her mo...
ListenGreat Books: Maureen McLane on Wordsworth's Poetry from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The British romantic poet William Wordsworth is best known for his moving evocations of nature, his celebration of childhood, and his quest to find a shared humanity in his poetry. He’s also widely...
ListenOctavia Cade, "Mary Shelley Makes a Monster" (Aqueduct Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Octavia Cade's brilliant collection of poetry Mary Shelley Makes a Monster (Aqueduct Press, 2019), the famous author of Frankenstein crafts a creature out of ink, mirrors, and the remnants of he...
ListenGreat Books: Amir Eshel on Paul Celan's Poetry from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paul Celan's poetry marks the end of European modernism: he is the last poet of the era where the poetic "I" could center a subjective vision of the world through language. Celan bears witness to t...
ListenCarl W. Ernst, “Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr” (Northwestern UP, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“I am the Real,” is the ecstatic statement often associated with the early Sufi poet Mansur al-Hallaj. In popular narratives about Hallaj this declaration of absolute unity with God is what led to ...
ListenEliza Griswold, "If Men, Then" (FSG, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Eliza Griswold writes in Snow in Rome, "we hate being human,/depleted by absence." In her latest poetry collection, If Men, Then (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020), Griswold grapples with a world th...
ListenFranny Choi, "Soft Science" (Alice James Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Franny Choi’s book-length collection of poetry, Soft Science (Alice James Books 2019), explores queer, Asian American femininity through the lens of robots, cyborgs, and artificial intelligence. As...
ListenPhillipa Chong, “Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times” (Princeton UP, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How does the world of book reviews work? In Inside the Critics’ Circle: Book Reviewing in Uncertain Times (Princeton University Press, 2020), Phillipa Chong, assistant professor in sociology at McM...
ListenGreat Books: Glenn Wallis on Gibran's "The Prophet" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kahlil Gibran’s 1923 The Prophet is book that’s changed people’s lives. It is a deceptively simple book, but it contains a radical insight. “Of what can I speak save of that which is even now movin...
ListenBecca Klaver, "Ready for the World" (Black Lawrence Press, 2020) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Becca Klaver writes in the poem 'Hooliganism Was the Charge,' It offered reassurance which said, “You are not alone; I can hear you.” Her forthcoming collection, Ready for the World (Black Lawrence...
ListenJoyce Ashuntantang, "A Basket of Flaming Ashes" (African Books Collective, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Joyce Ashuntantang talks about her experiences as a traveler and a poet, from her childhood Cameroon to her years studying in Great Britain and the United States. Ashuntantang is a professor of Eng...
ListenEmily Skaja, "Brute" (Graywolf Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Winner of the Walt Whitman Award, Emily Skaja’s Brute (Graywolf Press, 2019) is a stunning collection of poetry that navigates the dark corridors of trauma found at the end of an abusive relationsh...
ListenKathryn Conrad on University Press Publishing from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As you may know, university presses publish a lot of good books. In fact, they publish thousands of them every year. They are different from most trade books in that most of them are what you might...
ListenTamara J. Madison, "Threed, This Road Not Damascus" (Trio House, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tamara J. Madison, both on the page and in voice, is magical. In her most recent collection, Threed, This Road Not Damascus (Trio House, 2019), she seamlessly bridges the gap between past and prese...
ListenJason Bayani, "Locus" (Omnidawn Publishing, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
"Poetry gave me back a way to find my culture, my history,” says Jason Bayani while discussion his new book Locus (Omnidawn Publishing 2019), which blends memoir and poetry into a stunning explorat...
ListenDeborah L. Davitt, "The Gates of Never" (Finishing Line Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Drawing on the author’s deep knowledge of classical literature, Deborah L. Davitt’s book of poetry The Gates of Never (Finishing Line Press, 2018) explores the intersections of myth, science, and h...
ListenLady Dane Figueroa Edidi, "For Black Trans Girls Who Gotta Cuss A Mother F*cker Out When Snatching An Edge Ain’t Enough" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Inspired by Ntozake Shange’s for colored girls who considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf Lady Dane Figueroa Edidi has written her own beautiful choreo drama titled For Black Trans Girls Who G...
Listenjayy dodd, "The Black Condition Ft. Narcissus" (Nightboat Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
If the prompt is “respond to a myth of Narcissus using thoughtful, meditative poems,” then jayy dodd gave us a beautiful answer. In The Black Condition Ft. Narcissus (Nightboat Books, 2019), jayy ...
ListenDean Anthony Brink, “Japanese Poetry and its Publics: From Colonial Taiwan to Fukushima” (Routledge, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Is classical Japanese poetry something to be enjoyed in private, an object of study for scholars, or an item of public life teeming with hints about how to understand and deal with our past and our...
ListenJohn Sibley Williams, "As One Fire Consumes Another" (Orison Books, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
John Sibley Williams’ As One Fire Consumes Another (Orison Books, 2019) presents a familiar world full of burnings carried out on both the grand and intimate scale. The newspaper-like columns of pr...
ListenSally Wen Mao, "Oculus" (Graywolf Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019), Sally Wen Mao explores exile not just as a matter of distance and displacement, but as a migration through time and a reckoning with technology. The title poem fol...
ListenJ Mase III, "And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment, and Inappropriate Jokes About Death" from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his own description of his book, And Then I Got Fired: One Transqueer’s Reflections on Grief, Unemployment, & Inappropriate Jokes About Death, J Mase III writes, “Feel free to scream directly in...
ListenAdriana X. Jacobs, "Strange Cocktail: Translation and the Making of Modern Hebrew Poetry" (U Michigan Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Strange Cocktail: Translation and the Making of Modern Hebrew Poetry(University of Michigan Press, 2018), Adriana X. Jacobs offers a translation-centered reading of twentieth-century modern Hebr...
ListenFrances Donovan, "Mad Quick Hand of the Seashore" (Reaching Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Grey Held writes of Frances Donovan's book, Mad Quick Hand of the Seashore (Reaching Press 2018 ), "there is hunting for love, there is basking in love, there is longing." This collection offers al...
ListenSara Tantlinger, "The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes" (StrangeHouse Books, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes (StrangeHouse Books, 2018), Sara Tantlinger intertwines fact and speculation to examine inner workings of H.H. Holmes, a man who committed g...
ListenIsobel O’Hare, "all this can be yours" (University of Hell Press, 2019) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Isobel O’Hare’s all this can be yours (University of Hell Press, 2019) presents a series of erasures crafted from celebrity sexual assault apologies. These poems offer fierce explorations of the tr...
ListenMegan Burns, "Basic Programming" (Lavender Ink, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Basic Programming ( Lavender Ink, 2018), the latest collection by Megan Burns, is an exercise in balance. Between grief and healing. Between humanness and technology. Between examination and accept...
ListenIvy Johnson, "Born Again" (The Operating System, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The poetry and prose in Ivy Johnson’s Born Again (The Operating System, 2018) beautifully dives into the ecstatic expression of religious experience. With its confessional style, this collection gi...
ListenEmily Jungmin Yoon, "A Cruelty Special to Our Species" (Ecco Books, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her first full-length collection, A Cruelty Special to Our Species (Ecco Books, 2018), Emily Jungmin Yoon examines forms of violence against women. At its core these poems delves into the lives ...
ListenNivedita Lakhera, “Pillow of Dreams” (Nivedita Lakhera, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Pillow of Dreams (Nivedita Lakhera, 2017) is an intensely emotional and inspirational collection of poetry and art by Dr. Nivedita Lakhera. She experienced a stroke, divorce, and then a heartbreak ...
ListenVernon Keeve III, “Southern Migrant Mixtape” (Nomadic Press, 2018) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this episode, we speak with Vernon Keeve III about his book Southern Migrant Mixtape (Nomadic Press, 2018), a collection published by Nomadic Press. Memoir comes in many forms, be it poetry or ...
ListenNick Admussen, “Recite and Refuse: Contemporary Chinese Prose Poetry” (U Hawaii Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Published by the University of Hawaii Press in 2016, Nick Admussen’s exciting new book Recite and Refuse: Contemporary Chinese Prose Poetry explores the development of twentieth-century prose poetr...
ListenInterview with Australian Poets Leni Shilton and Renee Pettitt-Schipp from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In this special episode of New Books in Australian and New Zealand Studies, we are joined by two fantastic Australian poets. In her new poetic narrative, Walking with Camels: The Story of Bertha S...
ListenChristopher Grobe, “The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV” (NYU Press, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Christopher Grobe’s The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV (New York University Press, 2017) traces the ways the performance of confession permeated and tra...
ListenLiam Cole Young, “List Cultures: Knowledge and Poetics from Mesopotamia to Buzzfeed” (Amsterdam UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The list is the origin of culture. At least, that’s according to Umberto Eco, whose words open Liam Cole Young‘s new book, List Cultures: Knowledge and Poetics from Mesopotamia to Buzzfeed (Amster...
ListenDaniel Kane, “Do You Have a Band?”: Poetry and Punk Rock in New York City” (Columbia UP, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Often, poetry and punk rock are seen as distinct activities that occur in different locations with separate audiences. Many would also ascribe to them varying levels of cultural and political capit...
ListenRahuldeep Singh Gill, “Drinking From Love’s Cup: Surrender and Sacrifice in the Vars of Bhai Gurdas Bhalla” (Oxford UP, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There is a long tradition of the study of Sikhism in Western academia. However, historiographical accounts still lack a clear vision of the early formation of the tradition. Rahuldeep Singh Gill, A...
ListenPatricia Spears Jones, “A Lucent Fire: New and Collected Poems” (White Pines Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Jackson Poetry Prize Winner Speaks Patricia Spears Jones has been writing poetry since she was twenty and then she was “good.” Today, the prolific poet is the winner of one of the most prestigious...
ListenBrad Gooch, “Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love” (Harper, 2017) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Ever since their composition in the 13th century the poems of the Persian writer Rumi have enthralled millions of readers around the world. In Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love (Ha...
ListenLeia Penina Wilson, “i built a boat with all the towels in your closet” (Red Hen Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There’s a phrase that sometimes comes up among those of us who love poetry. Its called the “heresy of paraphrase.” It’s from a book published in 1947 by Cleanth Brooks titled The Well Wrought Urn, ...
ListenMaria G. Rewakowicz, “Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets” (Academic Studies Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets (Academic Studies Press, 2014), Maria G. Rewakowicz explores a unique collaboration of the poets residing in the United States ...
ListenAshaki Jackson, “Language Lesson” (Miel Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
How do we mourn those we’ve lost? What are the rituals and rites that allow us to understand our loss? To feel the measure of it? To heal, if we need healing? To reach closure, if we need closure? ...
ListenTerence Degnan, “Still Something Rattles” (Sock Monkey Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
I had the pleasure of interviewing poet, Terence Degnan while he sat on a bench in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. For those unfamiliar, we refer to Sunset not as a park, but as a still slowly-morphing sect...
ListenMargaret Bashaar “Some Other Stupid Fruit: A Problematic Feminist Narrative” (Agape Editions, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What is the best way to be a feminist? What is the best way to be a poet, a musician, or a painter? As a woman, what is the best way to be a friend to other women? The very idea that these water m...
ListenAnthony Cappo, “My Bedside Radio” (Deadly Chaps Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The “coming of age narrative” will never lose its allure because we are constantly drawn back to the moments that shaped us into the adults we are today. Nostalgia, many argue, is the most powerfu...
ListenAmanda Deutch, “Pull Yourself Together: The Gena Rowlands Poems” (Dancing Girl Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Pull Yourself Together: The Gena Rowlands Poems (Dancing Girl Press, 2106), Amanda Deutch reminds us of the current and historic importance of the muse. Something draws writers the page, painter...
ListenJonathan Brooks Platt, “Greetings, Pushkin! Stalinist Cultural Politics and the Russian National Bard” (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Greetings, Pushkin! Stalinist Cultural Politics and the Russian National Bard (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016) by Jonathan Brooks Platt explores the national celebrations around the centennia...
ListenJuly Westhale “The Cavalcade” (Finishing Line Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Where personal history and shared history intersect, we are left with the figures of memory and myth. These poems seek to reclaim the portions of personal history where we were mere spectators of o...
ListenNoah Stetzer, “I Could See Needing a Knife” (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
I am not going to lie to you, dear reader, this collection will require you to be fully present. With each layer of the speaker that is revealed, you will shed a layer of yourself. This revealing w...
ListenAshaki Jackson, “Surveillance” (Writ Large Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Now in its fifth printing of a very short life, Ashaki Jackson’s Surveillance examines the relationship between acts of violence, the witnessing of violence, the witnessing of the witnessing of vio...
ListenHeidi Czerwiec, “Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cycle” (Gazing Grain Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With a genre-bending hybridity that Czerwiec is well-known for, Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cycle (Gazing Grain Press, 2016) takes the structure of a heroic crown of sonnets and retrofits it for ...
ListenRoy Guzman, “Restored Mural for Orlando/Mural Restaurado Para Orlando” (Queerodactyl Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
After the enormity of our loss had been calculated, Guzman started writing. Drawn to the page to process his grief and to understand in the best way poets know how, through their art. This chapbook...
ListenKate Partridge, “Intended American Dictionary” (Miel Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
We commonly think of Walt Whitman as the great American poet, the gray-bearded bard who captures the democratic music of our country with, as he called it, his “barbaric yawp.” And, sure enough, Wh...
ListenKristen Case, “Abdication: Emily Dickinson’s Failures of Self” (Essay Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Emily Dickinson is no ordinary poet. Her intelligent and profound work inspires a fierce attachment in those who love it. I know this first-hand. My wife began reading Dickinson soon after we first...
ListenAmy Wright, “Cracker Sonnets” (BrickRoad Poetry Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
My grandmother, who’s now ninety-eight, lived most of her life in a little town in Southwestern Ohio called Waynesville. The town has reinvented itself in the last few years as a destination for an...
ListenFox Frazier-Foley and Erin Elizabeth Smith, “Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity” (Sundress Publications, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Readers gather around: Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity (Sundress Publications, 2016) is an anthology for a new era. As Cathy Park Hong states at the end of her New ...
ListenJanice A. Lowe, “LEAVING CLE: Poems of Nomadic Dispersal” (Miami University Press, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
“Poems of Nomadic Dispersal” This latter phrase in the title of Janice A. Lowe‘s new book–LEAVING CLE: Poems of Nomadic Dispersal (Miami University Press, 2016)– has hung around me, following me t...
ListenRodrigo Toscano, “Explosion Rocks Springfield” (Fence Books, 2016) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What is explosion? What does language look like when it mimics a gas leak, a bang, or rubble? What does language look like when it orbits other sounds, mediums, and musicality? How can it then reac...
ListenPaul Rouzer, “On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems” (U. of Washington Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Paul Rouzer‘s new book offers a Buddhist reading of a famous collection of poems and the author associated with them, both of which were called Hanshan, or Cold Mountain. On Cold Mountain: A Buddhi...
ListenSimon Critchley, “ABC of Impossibility” (Univocal Publishing, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
From its opening fragment on “Fragments” to its “Possibly dolorous tropical lyrical coda,” Simon Critchley‘s new book is a pleasure to hold in the hand and the mind. ABC of Impossibility (Univocal...
ListenTina Escaja, “Free Fall/Caida libre” (Fomite Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Tina Escaja‘s, Free Fall/Caida libre, translated by Mark Eisner (Fomite Press, 2015), is an exceptional example of poetry in translation as artistic collaboration. Poetry exists outside of the marg...
ListenJames Franco, “Directing Herbert White” (Graywolf Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Every poet has their obsessions and for James Franco they are childhood, gender, sex, innocence, and the work place he knows best: the film industry. Within these poetic frames we’re introduced to ...
ListenMary Meriam, Lillian Faderman, Amy Lowell, “Lady of the Moon” (Headmistress Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Lady of the Moon (Headmistress Press, 2015), the reader is graced not only with the poetry of Amy Lowell, but with sonnets in response and a scholarly essay on the poet’s life, love, and work. A...
ListenMarisa Crawford, “Big Brown Bag” (Gazing Grain Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Winner of the Gazing Grain 2015 Chapbook contest, BIG BROWN BAGby Marisa Crawford is our final Chapbookapalooza installment. And what a way to end a glorious month of celebrating this small form. ...
ListenAnders Carlson-Wee, “Dynamite” (Bull City Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dynamite (Bull City Press, 2015) is transit distilled. Anders Carlson-Wee‘s poems employ movement as mechanism and movement as reverence in a journey that most dream of making yet few ever do. On ...
ListenLynn Strongin, “The Burn Poems” (Headmistress Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Denise Levertov called Lynn Strongin a “true poet,” she recognized an awareness that transcended the young poet’s age. This very human awareness can come with suffering. Inflicted with Polio a...
ListenAlexis Rhone Fancher, “State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies” (KYSO Flash Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Alexis Rhone Fancher‘s State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies (KYSO Flash Press, 2015) is not an “easy” collection. This is not a group of poems that you can take on the train for mere entertainment or...
ListenHope Wabuke, “Movement No. 1: Trains” (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The poem fragments in Hope Wabuke‘s Movement No. 1: Trains (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) function more as meditations than portions of a whole. They meditate on movement’s power over the body and mind...
ListenLauren Gordon, “Fiddle is Flood” (Blood Pudding Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In her macabre pastoral landscape Fiddle is Flood (Blood Pudding Press, 2015), Lauren Gordon conjures up a persona far-reaching enough to grapple with loss, grief, and the shock of intense change. ...
ListenTim Tomlinson, “Yolanda: An Oral History in Verse” (Finishing Line Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Think of a place you have visited and to which you feel a connection. Now think of that place in utter ruin and devastation mere months later. You feel a pull, a pull to return, to help, and to mak...
ListenMetta Sama, “le animal and other creatures” (Miel Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As pleasing to the eye as it is to the ear the contents of Meta Sama‘s le animal and other creatures (Miel Press, 2015) remind us that creativity takes many forms and seeks many tributaries out to...
ListenSuzanne Bottelli, “The Feltville Formation” (Finishing Line Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When I first read Suzanne Bottelli‘s The Feltville Formation (Finishing Line Press, 2015), I was struck by the quietude and steadiness of the poems. Often in tercets, the stanzas stand like columns...
ListenRoss White, “How We Came Upon the Colony” (Unicorn Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
With air-tight verse and talent for the surreal, Ross White invokes a sibling version of our world in his new collection How We Came Upon the Colony (Unicorn Press, 2014). By tilting our view sligh...
ListenRyo Yamaguchi, “The Refusal of Suitors” (Noemi Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Does form make the poem? Robert Frost claimed that writing free verse poetry was “like playing tennis without a net.” Ryo Yamaguchi‘s poetry challenges the notion of imposing our will and wonders ...
ListenMariahadessa Ekere Tallie, “Dear Continuum: Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation” (Grand Concourse Press, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Poetry is far more than crafting verse. Poetry is a way of thought and a way of being. It seeps into every aspect of a poet’s life only to reveal that it is the life that seeped into poetry. In a s...
ListenKarina Borowicz, “Proof” (Codhill Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Karina Borowicz‘s collection Proof (Codhill Press, 2014) in three parts is a slow emerging, a crawling toward understanding. In a way that only the patience of adulthood looking back on adolescence...
ListenBrett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick, eds. “Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation” (Viking, 2015) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Four years in the making, Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick have released an anthology into the hands of a new generation of readers, writers, and listeners. Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets ...
ListenDaniel Tiffany, “My Silver Planet: A Secret History of Poetry and Kitsch” (John Hopkins UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Mass-produced, fake, sentimental, easily digestible: when we think of kitsch these elements often come to mind. Furthermore, kitsch is almost always associated with material culture, but in Daniel ...
ListenRachel Mennies, “The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards” (Texas Tech UP, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
To read this collection is to enter into a world of dimly lit rooms with candle light shimmering off errant metallic surfaces. It is mystical, it is brutal, and it unflinchingly stares down a histo...
ListenRountable on the Poetry of Xu Lizhi from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When Xu Lizhi committed suicide on September 30, 2014, he left a substantial body of work for his brief 24 years. In his poetry, he displayed an awareness that haunted him and now haunts us. He was...
ListenAilish Hopper, “Dark Sky Society” (New Issues Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
I won’t say Ailish Hopper‘s collection Dark~Sky Society (New Issues Press, 2014) is “about” anything because that would do it a disservice. These poems are human. They move like legs on a street, l...
ListenBecca J.R. Lachman, “A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford” (Woodley Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
About twenty years ago, I heard William Stafford read his poetry for about twenty minutes. For a young aspiring writer like I was then, he was mesmerizing, a mix of poetic energy and grandfatherly ...
ListenAimee Nezhukumatathil and Ross Gay, “Lace and Pyrite” (Organic Weapon Arts Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Ross Gay Lace & Pyrite Organic Weapon Arts Press, 2014 Two gardens, 500 miles apart, managed to be in conversation with one another over the span o...
ListenRachel Moritz, “Many Forms in Water” (above/ground press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Rachel Moritz Many Forms in Water above/ground press, 2014 Born of a connection to Theodor Schwenk’s 1965 text Sensitive Chaos: The Creation of Flowing Forms in Water and ...
ListenNikki Wallschlaeger “I Would Be the Happiest Bird” (Horseless Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Nikki Wallschlaeger I Would Be the Happiest Bird Horseless Press, 2014 It is transient, it is migratory, it embarks from the restlessness of youth and family and lands in ...
ListenDaniel Borzutzky, “Bedtime Stories for the End of the World!” (Bloof Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Daniel Borzutzky Bedtime Stories for the End of the World Bloof Books, 2014 This is a collection in which the synaptic leaps have their own synaptic leaps. In direct confr...
ListenAmber Atiya, “the fierce bums of doo wop” (Argos Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Amber Atiya the fierce bums of doo wop Argos Books, 2014 Densely-packed prosody and firecracker content fill the pages of this stunning, debut collection. It is a native N...
ListenAshley Inguanta “For the Woman Alone” (Ampersand Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Ashley Inguanta For the Woman Alone Ampersand Books, 2014 More artistic creation than poetry collection, more journal than sketchbook: For the Woman Alone resists category...
ListenKen Pobo “When the Light Turns Green” from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Ken Pobo When the Light Turns Green Spruce Alley Press, 2014 A garden is not always a garden: our metaphors speak of our experiences and musings. Pobo shows the reader how...
ListenLaura Foley, “Joy Street” (Headmistress Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Laura Foley Joy Street Headmistress Press, 2014 Within Joy Street are access panels to the poet’s mind. She has a stunning way of bringing a reader to a place and time and...
ListenLisa Gluskin Stonestreet, “The Greenhouse” (Bull City Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet The Greenhouse Bull City Press, 2014 In a collection that subverts sentiment even as it delves into the rich inner life of human sentimentality, S...
ListenLeslie McGrath, “By the Windpipe” (ELJ Publications, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Leslie McGrath By the Windpipe ELJ Publications, 2014 A poetry of the mind, a poetry of form, a poetry of sound? McGrath’s verse resists a container– it springs up organic...
ListenYu Han Chao, “One Woman Fruit Stand” (Imaginary Friend Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Yu Han Chao One Woman Fruit Stand Imaginary Friend Press, 2014 Stunning and startling imagery carry this collection of fruit, bearing, and creation through to the final li...
ListenDan Brady “Cabin Fever/Fossil Record” (Flying Guillotine Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Dan Brady Cabin Fever/Fossil Record Flying Guillotine Press, 2014 Modeled after Eugene Leroy’s layered paintings, these poems assemble and dissemble themselves right befor...
ListenMegan Moriarty “From the Dictionary of Living Things” from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Megan Moriarty From the Dictionary of Living Things Finishing Line Press, 2014 Part dictionary, part guide to living, and part historical record of content, From the Dicti...
ListenLyric Hunter “Swallower” (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Chapbookapalooza, 2014 Lyric Hunter Swallower Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014 Mastering a bi-lingual prosody, these poems confront the idea of “city” and our romanticizing of containers. They show a...
ListenLeah Umansky, “Don Dreams and I Dream” (Kattywompus Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
At Chapbookapalooza, our headliner goes first. And here she is with a stunning collection of poetry that subverts pop culture by placing it in direct conversation with everything it hints at but i...
ListenDarryl Whetter, “Origins” (Palimpsest Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In his new book of poems, Origins (Palimpsest Press, 2012), the Canadian writer Darryl Whetter uses metaphor to excavate the links between pre-historic life, extinction, evolution and modern-day se...
ListenDorothea Lasky, “Rome” (Liveright, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dorothea Lasky‘s Rome (Liveright, 2014) is a collection that will catch you off guard. Lasky lures the reader in with familiar language and imagery only to have them suddenly realize they’ve been b...
ListenKerry James Evans, “Bangalore” (Copper Canyon Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Bangalore (Copper Canyon Press 2013) by Kerry James Evans calls out to its reader from an urgency that is its own place and time. He has inhabited many spaces, geographically and socially. His poem...
ListenKamilah Aisha Moon, “She Has A Name” (Four Way Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
She Has A Name (Four Way Books 2014) by Kamilah Aisha Moon is a startling collection that dares to intimately address the way a family transforms when caring for an Autistic child. Deemed a “biomyt...
ListenEliza Griswold, “I am a Beggar of the World” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In my dream, I am the president. When I awake, I am a beggar of the world. The landay represents an oral tradition of a mostly illiterate people. It is a dirge, a calling out to, that is specific...
ListenCedar Sigo, “Language Arts” (Wave Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Language Arts (Wave Books 2014) by Cedar Sigo is a departure and then reintroduction to form on avant garde’s terms. In addition to disparate explosions of imagery, Cedar trains the ear for surpris...
ListenKevin Prufer “Churches” (Four Way Books, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kevin Prufer is a rare poet who manages to layer narratives and weave metrical variations seamlessly into his work, all while placing it on the page in an organic and “effortless” way. This is espe...
ListenVenus Thrash, “The Fateful Apple” (Urban Poets and Lyricists, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
To read Venus Thrash‘s The Fateful Apple (Urban Poets and Lyricists, 2014) is to venture into two assertions of self-hood. The first is a raucous, boundary-setting with the world and the second is...
ListenJason Koo, “America’s Favorite Poem” (C and R Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Jason Koo‘s new collection, America’s Favorite Poem (C&R Press, 2014), we see a poet placing himself on the timeline of his art. This timeline covers an ethnic, geographic, and artistic lineage ...
ListenMark Wunderlich, “The Earth Avails” (Graywolf Press, 2014) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In The Earth Avails (Graywolf Press), Mark Wunderlich presents a world unfamiliar to most of us: rural life. While many poets are enamored by the impact of the Internet and the smartphone upon the ...
ListenKenneth Goldsmith, “Seven American Deaths and Disasters” (powerHouse Books, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kenneth Goldsmith‘s latest book Seven American Deaths and Disasters (powerHouse Books, 2013), a title taken from the series of Warhol paintings by the same name, is a classic book of defamiliarizat...
ListenDavid Biespiel, “Charming Gardeners” (University of Washington Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
David Biespiel‘s Charming Gardeners (University of Washington Press, 2013) is unlike any book I’ve read in a long time. Filled with epistolary poems, his book – despite being populated by the poet’...
ListenDon Share, “Wishbone” (Black Sparrow, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Like great critics, the poetry of great editors is often overlooked, but I don’t see how this can be the case with Don Share, whose work is too good to be ignored. A brilliant combination of the pu...
ListenAnge Mlinko, “Marvelous Things Overheard” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Marvelous Things Overheard (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), Ange Mlinko‘s poems exhibit a sonically rich landscape articulated by a beautiful voice that is so measured and covert that history ...
ListenStephanie Strickland, “Dragon Logic” (Ahsahta Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
At the age of five, poet Stephanie Strickland and her sister received a book from their grandmother that included a poem by John Farrar called “Serious Omission.” I know that there are dragons St...
ListenMary Ruefle, “Trances of the Blast” (Wave Books, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Mary Ruefle‘s newest book of poems Trances of the Blast (Wave Books, 2013) is brilliant. Her poems have the confidence of a poet who is utterly fearless, but wise enough to never come out and brag ...
ListenElizabeth Winder, “Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953” (Harper, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
It is a struggle sometimes in biography to find new ways to write about subjects about whom many biographies have been written. This is particularly pronounced in the case of iconic figures of the ...
ListenWilliam Logan, “Madame X” (Penguin Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
William Logan is often thought of as a critic first and a poet second, so his verse doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. In Logan’s poetry we don’t find the spooky discursiveness or the ba...
ListenPaul Killebrew “Ethical Consciousness” (Canarium Books, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Paul Killebrew‘s latest book of poems, Ethical Consciousness (Canarium Books, 2013), the speaker inhabits the everyday structures of our lives, but responds to those structures in an entirely un...
ListenMichael Robbins, “Alien vs. Predator” (Penguin Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Michael Robbins, author of Alien vs. Predator (Penguin Books, 2012), has gotten a lot of attention for his book of poems because of his relentless mashing together of pop-cultural references with l...
ListenDana Gioia, “Pity the Beautiful” (Graywolf Press, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Dana Gioia‘s deference to poetic tradition and artistic beauty is intolerable to those who taste the venom of ideology in every linguistic expression of experience. But what ideology is present in ...
ListenLisa Olstein, “Little Stranger” (Copper Canyon Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Little Stranger (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), Lisa Olstein‘s poems are concerned with the tension between the public and the personal and how the former bullies its way into the latter. Olstein’s...
ListenStephen Burt “Belmont” (Graywolf Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Belmont (Graywolf Press, 2013) is a book of poems written by both a grownup and a child and each seem quite aware of the other. This split-consciousness, if you will, hangs around most of the poems...
ListenKaty Didden, “The Glacier’s Wake” (Pleiades Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
The poems in Katy Didden‘s debut The Glacier’s Wake (Pleiades Press, 2013) are civilized and dignified and so are their surfaces: sophisticated soundscapes, pitch-perfect diction, a humane voice. A...
ListenJames Longenbach, “The Virtues of Poetry” (Graywolf Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
James Longenbach‘s The Virtues of Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2013) is not interested in the vices or failures found in some poems, so his concerns are not necessarily moral ones, but instead, as the t...
ListenJoshua Edwards, “Imperial Nostalgias” (Ugly Duckling Press, 2013) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Joshua Edwards‘ new book and its title, Imperial Nostalgias (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), hint at a yearning for a lost world all of us helped to destroy or at the very least forgot. While tipping ...
ListenErica Wright, “Instructions for Killing the Jackal” (Black Lawrence Press, 2011) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
As I waded into Erica Wright‘s first books of poems, I immediately became not only aware of my gender, but the event that is female, woman, girl, and child. In fact, gender – that construction site...
ListenKevin Goodan, “Upper Level Disturbances” (Center for Literary Publishing, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Kevin Goodan‘s latest book of poems, Upper Level Disturbances (Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, 2012), directly challenges modern society in at least one respect: the po...
ListenMatthew Pennock, “Sudden Dog” (Alice James Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
In Sudden Dog, the voice we encounter is a moody one to say the least. We find a poet who at times seems to believe the entire human project is stupid – and I mean all of it. While at other times w...
ListenSamuel Amadon, “The Hartford Book: Poems” (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
To read Samuel Amadon‘s latest book of poems, The Hartford Book (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012), is to know for the rest of your life what it feels like to be punched in the nose. ...
ListenLucas Klein (trans.), “Xi Chuan’s Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems” (New Directions, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
First things first: this is a book of amazing, beautiful poetry, and you should read it. In translating Xi Chuan’s Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems (New Directions, 2012), Lucas Klein has giv...
ListenBruce Rusk, “Critics and Commentators: The ‘Book of Poems’ as Classic and Literature” (Harvard UP, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
What makes something a poem? What defines “poetry,” and how has that changed over space and time? Critics and Commentators: The ‘Book of Poems’ as Classic and Literature (Harvard University Press, ...
ListenCurtis Crisler, “Pulling Scabs” (Aquarius Press, 2009) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Curtis L. Crisler is a prolific poet, novelist, and mix-genre author who writes about the American experience. In his work, Crisler turns a particularly keen eye toward the Midwest, masculinity, an...
ListenCosima Bruno, “Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry through Translation” (Brill, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
Cosima Bruno‘s new book asks us to consider a deceptively simple question: what is the relationship between a poem and its translation? In the course of Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry throug...
ListenNancy Hargrove, “T.S. Eliot’s Parisian Year” (University of Florida Press, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
When it comes to writers and artists, biography plays a provocative role–yielding insight into both artistic influences and origins. This is especially true with the modernists, in particular T.S. ...
ListenMakalani Bandele, “Hellfightin'” (Willow Books, 2012) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
There is no better description of poet Makalani Bandele‘s debut book Hellfightin’ (Willow Books, 2012) than the one found on his comprehensive website: “Derived from the nickname the French Army g...
ListenHelen Vendler on Emily Dickinson from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
[Re-posted with permission from Jenny Attiyeh’s ThoughtCast] When Helen Vendler was only 13, the future poetry critic and Harvard professor memorized several of Emily Dickinson’s more famous poems....
ListenNikky Finney, “Head Off and Split: Poems” (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2010) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393
UPDATE: Nikky Finney’s Head Off and Split has been named a finalist for a National Book Award. Congratulations, Nikky, from the folks at New Books in African American Studies and the New Books ...
ListenNikky Finney, “Head Off and Split: Poems” (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2010) from 2011-07-06T14:38:45
UPDATE: Nikky Finney’s Head Off and Split has been named a finalist for a National Book Award. Congratulations, Nikky, from the folks at New Books in African American Studies and the New Books ...
ListenNikky Finney, “Head Off and Split: Poems” (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2010) from 2011-07-06T14:38:45
UPDATE: Nikky Finney’s Head Off and Split has been named a finalist for a National Book Award. Congratulations, Nikky, from the folks at New Books in African American Studies and the New Books ...
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