Podcasts by Poetry Off the Shelf
Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too.
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A Change of World, Episode 1: The Wilderness from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.839489
The first episode in a special series on the women’s movement
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A Change of World, Episode 4 : A Place of Permission from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.836874
In the '70s, poetry workshops run by women, for women, sprang up in cities around the country. They mirrored what was happening in the women’s movement, and they became communities unto themselves.
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Burning for Justice from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.796349
Exploring the work of the 2018 Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Martín Espada.
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Poetry Live to Tape from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.794391
When poets used tape recorders to compose not for the page, but for the audio environment.
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Poems Don't Need Their Papers from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.792822
For July 4, we talk about US immigration, Central American refugees, and poems across borders with Javier Zamora.
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The Past is Present from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.787845
Rereading the great modern Greek poet C.P. Cavafy.
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Drinking in Poetry from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.781867
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Prohibition in the U.S., we discuss drinking poems over a few cocktails.
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Some Love Poems for Your Sweetie from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.780319
Poems in time for Valentine's Day.
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A Change of World documentary: Poetry and the Women's Movement from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.778484
Meryl Streep narrates our hour-long radio documentary special about how the Women’s Movement changed poetry, and how women poets changed the culture.
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The Populist Soviet Poet from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.776734
The life and legacy of Vladimir Mayakovsky.
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The Language of Ramadan from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.774815
Two Muslim American poets discuss the intersections between poetry and Ramadan.
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Whitman and our Warming World from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.772955
On Whitman's bicentennial, a contemporary poet finds a Whitmanic kinship with wonder, language, and the environment.
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The Young People's Poet Laureate from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.770620
Naomi Shihab Nye talks about a trunk full of treasures, childhood in Palestine, and her grandson's poetic bone.
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After Fear and Raging from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.765872
Toi Derricotte on feeling part of something bigger.
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A Presence in the Sky from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.764226
Fanny Howe gives away the secret to being cavalier and brave.
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The Point of Poetry from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.762497
Matthew Zapruder on dreams, silence, and smoking with Brodsky.
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Dreams and Fathers from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.760977
Bruce Beasley on his writing process, and on how fathers might be like warm ice cubes.
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The Truth Sometimes Rhymes from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.759441
Jericho Brown wants to make rebellious art.
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The Eternal Present from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.757493
Biographer Jonathan Blunk on the life and longing of James Wright.
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The Fire This Time from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.751236
Gwendolyn Brooks, Elizabeth Alexander, and Haki Madhubuti on America’s perennial struggle to recognize that Black Lives Matter.
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Empire State of Mind from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.750150
Take a walk through post-WWI Paris in this recently reissued Modernist epic.
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Words in the Attic from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.746611
Joy Ladin on the failures of language, courage, and the trans parable of Jonah and the Whale.
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Better Broken Than Whole from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.745069
Will Harris on mixedness, intimacy, and the music of difficult poems.
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Start with One Thread from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.743510
Alexandria Hall on farm sounds, solo time, and the way into a difficult poem.
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Elegies for the Future from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.741619
Lilly Rosenberg Fellowship winner Khaty Xiong on intergenerational trauma, a chicken's neck, and the long wave of grief.
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Save Everything from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.698563
Kimiko Hahn on tie-dying on the stove, puns, and her father's things.
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The Light is Going Out from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.696858
Famous Polish poet Adam Zagajewski remembered by friend and Translator Clare Cavanagh.
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A Sea of Rhythm from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.694832
Translator Emily Drumsta geeks out about the poetic patterns in the work of Iraqi modernist Nazik al Mala'ika.
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Not My Face in the Mirror from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.692862
Vievee Francis (part 2) on beauty in a racist world.
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Heart of a Reporter from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.682828
Noor Hindi on home ownership, evictions court, and her father's grief.
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Bird in a Drawer from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.681108
Keats Conley on smelly ducks, spiders, and the limits of the human perspective.
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My Body, My Stones from 2022-02-21T10:53:03.676724
Poet and playwright Malcolm Tariq on listening, field trips with his brother, and the perils of dating while Black.
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The Big Hollow from 2022-01-25T07:03:09
Kaveh Akbar on human wondering, fat squirrels, and the best spouse in the world.
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A Little Wrong from 2022-01-10T23:50:03
Bianca Stone on family trauma, wrinkled towels, and the case against self-improvement.
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Poets We Lost in 2021 from 2021-12-21T15:25:03
Remembering the life, poetry, and activism of Janice Mirikitani, plus a few words on love by bell hooks.
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Drinking Poetry from 2021-12-06T04:23:04.886340
Jeff Gordinier and Rosie Schapp discuss poetry over a few cocktails.
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How to Be a Family of One from 2021-11-23T07:03:10
Steven Espada Dawson on possibility, toothpaste, and the grief of cosmic aloneness.
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A History with Holes from 2021-10-26T09:14:09
Clint Smith on being human, healing on a plantation, and the difference between Jefferson and Grant.
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My Drowning Home from 2021-10-13T15:18:08
Isabel Duarte-Gray on town gossip, folk remedies, and the music of Kentucky.
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Poems that Knock it out of the Park from 2021-10-08T19:32:58.734296
Poems about baseball, in time for the World Series.
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When Time is Kind from 2021-09-28T06:03:10
Poet and priest Spencer Reece on his cousin's murder, the AIDS epidemic, and bearing witness to a moment.
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Technically Roommates from 2021-09-14T06:03:09
Chen Chen on nourishment, homophobia, and breaking free of the fear of failure.
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Leaving and Loving Afghanistan from 2021-08-31T10:35:04
Zohra Saed on cooking, culture, and the volunteer-led rescue operation to get Afghans to safety.
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Dante for Today from 2021-08-10T06:54:02
Mary Jo Bang on her 15-year long translation effort to remake Dante’s Divine Comedy for the modern ear.
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My Imagined Incoherence from 2021-07-27T09:10:05
Tracy Fuad on Yelp reviews, mortality, and the weather in her mind.
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The Final Girl from 2021-07-13T07:30:09
torrin a. greathouse on public transport, horror, and the love of a chosen family.
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If They Should Come for Us from 2021-07-06T03:00:53.996805
Fatimah Asghar on telling the stories that need to be told, in poetry and on television.
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Parents in a Poem from 2021-06-29T06:30:08
Raymond Antrobus on forgiving his dad, becoming a father, and poetry dubs on late-night BBC.
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50 Years of The Lice from 2021-06-29T02:45:26.292244
A deep look into W.S. Merwin's influential book, which speaks to our moment 50 years after its publication.
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Patterns of Memory from 2021-06-15T14:50:05
Natasha Trethewey on writing a memoir about her mother’s life and murder.
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The Poetry and Music of Joy Harjo from 2021-06-01T03:15:29.796495
This year's Lilly Prize winner discusses the intersection of poetry and music, as well as the women's rights and Indigenous rights movements that much her poetry is borne out of.
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Salvation in the Dark from 2021-05-18T06:52:07
Vievee Francis on dark corners, an encounter with a bear, and the promise of the north.
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The Pulse of American Poetry from 2021-05-04T02:28:35.789567
A new anthology collects poems addressing our current political climate.
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Wild at the Root from 2021-04-20T08:13:02
Molly McCully Brown and Susannah Nevison on Gmail poems, pot roast, and the legacy of pain.
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A Room of Our Own from 2021-03-23T14:06:03
Cornelius Eady on Sterling Brown’s South: his porch, banter, and barbershop.
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Lowell as Teacher from 2021-03-06T00:51:52.973384
Robert Lowell’s former students look back on their poetry classes with an American master.
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The Landscape Within from 2021-02-23T07:37:03
C. Dale Young on sugar cane fields, his favorite saint, and the machinations of the mind.
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Is your sweetheart edible? from 2021-02-21T18:34:28.763212
The late Carolyn Kizer on the erotic side of love
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Mad at the Right People from 2021-01-26T23:39:46
Hafizah Geter on shelves full of Black writers, forgiveness, and knowing your history.
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You Get Proud by Practicing from 2021-01-12T13:53:09
Meg Day on the poetry and activism of the late Laura Hershey, lip reading in a masked world, and the joy of connection.
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Keep Going from 2021-01-12T13:49:20
A look back at the early days of the pandemic—eight poets about Zoom calls, the egg shortage, and being stranded abroad.
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Poverty’s History, Episode 2: Let the People Speak from 2020-12-15T07:03:42
How a Victorian and a Harlem Renaissance poet struggled with poverty and the publishing world—while facing racism and classism—to become widely read and legends to us. Featuring interviews with exp...
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Creatures of Giving from 2020-11-17T07:01:20
Lilly Rosenberg Fellowship winner Luther Hughes on crows, processing trauma, and the allure of the wind.
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A Practice of Care from 2020-10-20T13:48:58
EJ Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive.
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No Place Like Home from 2020-09-22T14:34:24
Camille Dungy on words, home, and motherhood in times of climate collapse.
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Heroes History Forgets from 2020-08-25T13:38:07
Remembering Irish poet Eavan Boland, with her friends Jody Allen Randolph and Paula Meehan.
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I Love You, Wanda from 2020-08-11T21:22:09
Terrance Hayes on Wanda Coleman.
Note from Terrance Hayes: “I cancelled this interview about Wanda Coleman’s work after signing the Poetry Foundation Petition. When the Foundation Presiden...
The Bureau Under Your Bed from 2020-07-21T06:02:07
Interrogating the government’s half century of surveillance of Black writers.
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I Come From Love from 2020-05-26T06:01:10
Nikky Finney on her father, her childhood, and the memories that made her.
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Phillis Reimagined from 2020-05-12T06:02:10
Honorée Fanonne Jeffers on listening to her ancestors.
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Poverty’s History, Episode 1: In the Beginning Was the Word from 2020-04-29T14:34:06
The first installment of a special series about the intersections between poetry and poverty.
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The Invention of the Self from 2020-04-14T06:01:08
Peter Murphy on a 16th-century poem that still speaks to us today.
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Our New Reality from 2020-03-31T06:01:11
Quarantined with kids, Zoom chats, and stranded abroad: eight poets on what life is like for them these days.
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Poems You Can Touch from 2020-03-17T13:51:41
Dorianne Laux on her favorite shirt, ugly California, and bringing her mother back to life.
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Fragments from the Future from 2020-01-21T07:00
Brenda Shaughnessy stares her fears in the face.
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Fragments from the Future from 2020-01-21T07:00
Brenda Shaughnessy stares her fears in the face.
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Poets We Lost This Year from 2019-12-18T06:00
Timothy Liu remembers the life and work of his friend Linda Gregg, plus readings by Marie Ponsot and W.S. Merwin.
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What Happened to House Calls? from 2019-08-13T05:00
The healthcare industry through the eyes of two doctor-poets.
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Lichen Doesn't Die from 2019-07-23T05:00
Forrest Gander talks about love, loss, and the remarkable properties of lichen.
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Speaking for the Country from 2019-06-18T05:00
A look into the various approaches to the U.S. poet laureate position.
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The Past Talks Back from 2019-05-21T05:00
Marilyn Nelson's poetic legacy, through the eyes of one of her many protégés, Tyehimba Jess.
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What You Have Heard is True from 2019-04-23T05:00
Carolyn Forché discusses her memoir of the same title, about her time in pre-civil war El Salvador in the late 1970s.
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The Poetry of Jean Valentine from 2019-03-19T17:29
Reading a trailblazing second-wave feminist poet.
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The Poet and the Riot from 2019-02-19T18:37
Shortly after Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote a poem about the power of riots.
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100 Years of Robert Duncan from 2019-01-22T06:00
A look into Duncan's poems on the centenary of his birth.
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Poets We Lost in 2018 from 2018-12-25T18:08:13
Remembering and listening to those who died this year.
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A Break from it All from 2018-11-20T06:00
Looking back in a meditative mood around Thanksgiving.
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The Poetry of Politics from 2018-11-13T06:00
Poetry's possible liberty or obligations in the wake of the US midterm elections.
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Poetry Rituals from 2018-10-16T18:00
Exploring exercises to be more present in your life and writing.
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Poems from the Inside from 2018-09-11T05:00
During the current nationwide prison strike, we look back at Etheridge Knight's influential poems he wrote while incarcerated.
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This Poet Never Gets Old from 2018-08-28T05:00
John Keats's life and body of work, then and now.
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The Robots are Coming to Class from 2018-08-14T05:00
Reading and exploring poetry along with students this school year.
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Retelling the American Story from 2018-07-31T05:00
Tracy K. Smith discusses her new book and her tenure as current US poet laureate.
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The Man is There ... in the Tape from 2018-07-18T05:00
Remembering Donald Hall and his advocacy for archival audio recordings of poets.
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Goooooaaaalllll! from 2018-06-19T05:00
Poems about soccer, aka football, aka the beautiful game, in time for the World Cup.
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Prosey Poems from 2018-05-22T05:00
Maureen McLane on semi-autobiographical epic poems, narrative melodrama, and the dissociation of sensibility.
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A Change of World, Episode 6: New Waves from 2018-04-25T05:00
The legacy of second-wave feminism through the lens of anthologies, and the ongoing pursuit of equality and inclusion.
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A Change of World, Episode 5: Poetry Gives Birth from 2018-04-10T05:00
How women poets made birth, motherhood, and parenting central preoccupations of contemporary poetry, just as it is in life.
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A Change of World, Episode 3: Shattering the Blue Velvet Chair from 2018-03-20T05:00
Our series dedicated to the women's movement continues with the changing cultural roles of the 1970s, when women poets refused to be marginalized or tokenized, and public poetry readings and writin...
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A Change of World, Episode 2: Books that Broke Down Barriers from 2018-03-13T05:00
The second episode of our special series exploring poetry and the women’s movement looks at several books in the 1960s and ‘70s that fought for a place for women.
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A Change of World, Episode 2: Books that Broke Down Barriers from 2018-03-13T05:00
The second episode of our special series exploring poetry and the women’s movement looks at several books in the 1960s and ‘70s that fought for a place for women.
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The Poet's Revenge from 2018-02-27T06:00
Shelley's famous poem “Ozymandias” is germane 200 years after its publication.
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The Poetics of Mass Murder from 2018-02-20T06:00
Poems responding to past gun violence, mass murders, and school shootings.
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Three Ways of Looking at a Rose from 2018-02-13T06:00
For Valentines's Day, three poems exploring the most common symbol in love poetry.
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Some Poems of Transcendent Surrender from 2017-12-26T06:00
Spencer Reece discusses classic and contemporary religious poems for this time of year.
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The New Woman of Her Day from 2017-12-12T06:00
Millay's legacy, upon the centennial of her first book, Renascence and Other Poems (1917).
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The Poet is Distracted from 2017-11-28T06:00
Distraction may actually be at the heart of poetry.
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From Sickness into Poetry from 2017-10-10T05:00
Meaghan O'Rourke discusses how the experience of illness has informed her poetry.
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Who Reads Poetry from 2017-09-26T05:00
Poetry magazine publishes a selection of their ‘View from Here’ essays in a new book, Who Reads Poetry.
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The Late Great John Ashbery from 2017-09-12T05:00
Ashbery's poems can be a new way of seeing and experiencing things, a "daydream from which there's no obvious exit," an ode to neglected emotions or the insignificant, an inside joke you may or may...
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Teaching Poetry in Times Like These from 2017-08-29T05:00
Our back-to-school episode covers alternative approaches to poetry, including student choice.
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“It's the Language, Stupid.” from 2017-08-15T05:00
Matthew Zapruder discusses the role of language and meaning in poetry and his book of criticism, Why Poetry.
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The New Young People's Poet Laureate from 2017-06-20T05:00
Margarita Engle on the subject of her poetry, and her message to young readers.
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The Radical Perception of Larry Eigner from 2017-05-16T05:00
An appreciation of an underrecognized poet's vision, lyricism, fragments, and humor
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The Poetry of Everyday Life from 2017-04-18T07:00
How we use poetry to find meaning and to bring disparate aspects of life together.
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The Achievements of Derek Walcott from 2017-03-22T06:00
Remembering the Nobel Laureate's poetry upon his death, and the commitment to the arts and humanties
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Walt Whitman's Divided America from 2017-02-21T07:00
As one of the U.S.'s greatest patriots and most trenchant critics of his time, Whitman never lost hope in his country.
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