Pen and Poet

Ashanti Anderson is a Black Queer Disabled poet, screenwriter, and playwright. She holds an MFA from the University of California at Riverside, and teaches at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her debut chapbook, Black Under, is the winner of the Spring 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition and published through Black Lawrence Press.

Andrea Carter Brown is author of no less than 4 collections of poetry: Domestic Karma, The Disheveled Bed, Brook and Rainbow, and most recently September 12, a collection of poems based on Brown's experience as a survivor of the September 11th attack. September 12 is published by The Word Works. Brown's work can also be found in anthologies such as Like Light and Entering the Real World. 

Matthew Brown is a queer, Afro-Latino poet from Albuquerque, New Mexico and author of Verbrennen as well as Among God and Other Drugs, both by Swimming with Elephants Publications. He is also a community health worker, actor, and spoken word artist. He was a 2013 Brave New Voices finalist, three time Southwest Shootout Poetry Champion, and 2015 Albuquerque Grand Slam Poetry Champion. Matthew Brown's books Among Gods and Other Drugs: https://www.amazon.com/Among-Other-Drugs-Matthew-Brown/dp/1950375064 Verbrennen: https://www.bkwrks.com/book/9780615954684 If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have questions, you can email at penandpoet@gmail.com.  To help support the show, you can visit the show's Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/penandpoetpodcast?fan_landing=true  Follow the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PenAndPoetPodcast

Sergeant George Linen Jr aka Fresh Linen is author of the poetry collection Before the Streetlights Come On. He has appeared on the TEDxUniversityofEssex stage, teaches at Airmen Leadership School, and is currently serving in the U.S. Air Force stationed in Germany.  Find Fresh Linen: https://freshlinencreates.com Before the Streetlights Come On book: https://freshlinencreates.com/buy-my-book/ols/products/bookmark-the-infamous-warning  A Breath of Fresh Air Poetry Scholarship: https://freshlinencreates.com/scholarship-winners  Fresh Linen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Geofreshlinen/ If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have questions, you can email at penandpoet@gmail.com.  To help support the show, you can visit the show's Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/penandpoetpodcast?fan_landing=true  Follow the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PenAndPoetPodcast

Matthew Marroquín is a Salvadorian-American slam poet, Education for Service Scholar, and student at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. Marroquín is a theatre and media performance student and author of Guanaco Binge, a collection of poetry published by Read or Green Books.  You can find Matthew Marroquín and all his information here: https://linktr.ee/vida_marroquin You can find his book and all the books from his publisher, Read or Green Books LLC here: https://readorgreenbooks.com/order-here If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have questions, you can email at penandpoet@gmail.com.  To help support the show, you can visit the show's Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/penandpoetpodcast?fan_landing=true  Follow the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PenAndPoetPodcast  

Melissa May is author of Up Is So Near and Sparklefat which was originally published by WordsDance Press. She has been featured on Button Poetry with at least one of her videos having over 900,000 views. If you'd like to be a guest on the show or have questions, you can email at penandpoet@gmail.com.  To help support the show, you can visit the show's Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/penandpoetpodcast?fan_landing=true  Follow the show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PenAndPoetPodcast

Bracha Goetz is a poet and author of 40 children's books written in rhyme poetry. Goetz graduated from Harvard with a BA in Psychology and Social Relations. She is also author of a memoir for grown ups called Searching for God in the Garage. You can find her work on Amazon.

Nolan P. Holloway Jr. is a poet from Atlanta Georgia and author of 3 collections of poetry including Life Between the Words. He is also cohost of a radio show called The Real Level Up and is a voice over artist with a background in business management. 

Tamara Kaye Sellman is a journalist by trade and a writer of prose and poetry. She's been nominated two times for the Pushcart Prize, the John S Burroughs Prize and is first place winner of the Dr O Marvin Lewis Essay Award. She's author of Intention Tremor, of which the proceeds will be donated to the Accelerated Cure Project.

Season 3 of Pen and Poet is being recorded as we speak and includes interviews with many contemporary poets including Tamara Kaye Sellman and Harvard Graduate and children's book author Bracha Goetz. The first episode drops August 19th!

Jennifer E. Hudgens is a poet out of Oklahoma and is working on her MFA at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of several books including “Girls Who Fell In Love With War” through Swimming with Elephants Publications and her latest “Bear” which is self published. She’s been published in numerous places including Literary Orphans and Rag Queen Periodical.

Bill Nevins is a New Mexican poet who is also an educator, social worker, journalist, and farmer. He is author of the book Heartbreak Ridge and other poems out with Swimming with Elephants Publications and his poetry can also be found in countless places like Central Avenue, The Rag, Maple Leaf Rag.

Chibbi is a poet, actor, singer, and make up artist currently residing in San Antonio TX. He is the author of two books at the moment, Where the Wild Things Grow and Otro/Patria. And he is the founder of Laredo Border Slam, which started in 2010.

Bassam was a rapper, then page poet, then spoken word artist from Toronto, and is now the National Director for speakNORTH, formerly Spoken Word Canada. They are the National Poetry Slam Champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in 2016 with the Guelph (pronounce Gwealth) Poetry Slam team, Canadian Individual Poetry Slam finalist in 2017, and has two books out by Swimming with Elephants Publications “disaster in die * an overdose sunrise” and “bliss in die / unbinging the underglow” and a collection through GenZ Publishing “_nil:/per.OS: seppuku|smiles & songs for sarah”, and a proud Auntie.

Mela Blust is the social media coordinator for Animal Heart Press, poetry reader for The Rise Up Review, and contributing editor for Barren Magazine. Her work can be found all over the place, not the least of which is The Bitter Oleander, Rust+Moth, Califragile, Setu Magazine, and Rhythm & Bones Lit. She has one book out so far called Skeleton Parade through APEP Publications.

John Roche is a New Mexico poet. His books include Road Ghosts, The Joe Poems, On Conesus, and Topicalities. He's also edited a number of anthologies, taught at the Rochester Institute of Technology and Michigan State, and holds an MA from the University College Dublin, Ireland.

Joshua Merritt is a spoken word poet whose love of the human experience, food metaphors, and grey areas propelled him into the poetry slam scene. He has shared his work in a few slams across the country, and currently calls Portland, Oregon home. You can find his work recorded here for the first time on this podcast, and may see forthcoming work at poetry venues around Portland.

For the last three years Cathy has performed slam poetry in New Mexico. She tied for second at the 2018 Southwest Shootout in the individual category and was the 2018 Lobo Slam Champion. Her work is published in Raven Chronicles and 3Elements Literary Review and is forthcoming in Roanoke Review, and Toe Good. Her poetry is inspired by the body of the land and by the landscape of her body. Find more work at rewritereread.wordpress.com. Find her zines at Bookworks or Astrozombies. If you are a poet and want to be on the show find me on Facebook, Twitter, or email me at rene.mullen@gmail.com. 

Jack Tapestry has been a slam poet for two decades. Tapestry came from Oklahoma City, resides in Albuquerque, and his poetry is amazingly gut wrenching and powerful. He’s also a comedian and over all performance master.  You can find Jack Tapestry on Youtube and at poetry and comedy events throughout Albuquerque.  Tapestry is also on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.   

Gina Marselle is not only a poet but a high school teacher, mother, wife, and photographer. You can find her work in many places like the Alibi, the Rag, Adobe Walls, among others. She’s author of the book of poetry called A Fire of Prayer: a Collection of Poetry and Photography. And her photography can be found, among other places, in A Fire of Prayer and also the book of poetry, September, by Katrina Guarascio (or Katrina Crespin, who we’ve had on the show already).

I sit and speak with Jules Nyquist, traditional and spoken word New Mexico poet, about her new book "Homesick, then", about life, loss, healing, family, and of course shares some of her poetry.  Jules Nyquist is the founder of Jules’ Poetry Playhouse, LLC, a place for poetry and play in Albuquerque, NM, which also is the umbrella for Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications.  In 2017, three books by women were published, with future tiles in 2018. Jules is a native Minnesotan and moved to Albuquerque on spring equinox 2011. Jules teaches creative writing and poetry classes and hosts poetry readings with visiting writers. She took her MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, VT. Her two books of poems, Behind the Volcanoes and Appetites (Beatlick Press), were finalists for the NM/AZ Book Awards.   Her latest book is Homesick, then which is a poetic memoir of the life and death of her parents and deals with caretaking issues and also domestic violence suffered by her grandmother. Jules’ poems have appeared in 5 AM, Salamander, Malpais Review, Adobe Walls, A View from the Loft, St. Paul Almanac, Long Islander News, Gray Sparrow, House Organ, Duke City Fix, Café Review and others. She is co-editor of the Poets Speak Anthology series by Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications and Beatlick Press.

Zachary Kluckman is an award winning poet. Named the 2015 and 2016 Slam Organizer of the Year, 2014 Slam Artist of the Year at the National Poetry Awards. They've been on national slam stages as an individual and as part of a group, including the Rumble Room team that went to Southern Fried Poetry Slam in 2017. At SoFried, Kluckman lead 3 newbies (me, Robin Reynolds, and Anna Martinez). A founding organizer the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program. Author of Per-City Poems, Animals in Our Flesh, Some of it is Muscle, and , one of the 4 poets in Rumble Room Volume 1, and has published at least 100 poems in various publications outside of these 4 collections.

Performance poet Rowie Shebala talks about her time on many final stages representing several different cities around the US, family, her life as a Native American in the Southwest, and as always, shares some of her poetry. 

Poet and managing editor for Swimming With Elephants Publishings Katrina Crespin talks about her life as a poet, an editor for an Albuquerque small press company, her growth as both a traditional and performance poet, and reads some of her poems.  You can find Katrina Crespin's work under her maiden name Katrina Guarascio at SwimmingWithElephants.com. Her works include 'my verse', 'The Fall of a Sparrow', and 'September: traces of letting go'.

Paulie Lipman is a performer, writer, and poet who’s been on national poetry slam finals stages, has been on the slam scene for 16 years, and recently published a chapbook with Swimming with Elephants Publications called “from below/denied the light.” Paulie is published in journals and some of their performances can be found on Youtube. Paulie is currently touring the US and taking bookings as of March 15, 2018. You can purchase “from below/denied the light” from Amazon here, find Paulie and some of their tour dates here, or find Paulie on Twitter and Instagram as well. 

Performance poet Mercedez Holtry talks about her two poetry collections, what it's like to be a Chicana poet, how she got involved in poetry slam, and of course, shares some of her art. You can find her books My Blood is Beautiful and, just release in February of 2018, her newest collection I Bloomed a Resistance from my Mouth at SwimmingWithElephants.com. 

Matthew Brown is a poet born and raised here in Albuquerque. Matthew is the author Verbrennen, a collection of poetry. He’s been on a number of slam teams and a few of his poems are on YouTube as he’s been on National Poetry Slam Finals stage, been part of top slam teams. Matthew’s poetry tends to lean toward exposing social, racial, and economic inequalities from a Hispanic, gay, and African American perspective. More recently Matthew has been looking inward...and we discuss a lot of that in this week's episode. And of course, poems!

Gigi Bella is an award winning poet, a musical theater actress, and teacher. She's represented Albuquerque, NM in national poetry slam competitions, is all over Youtube, and is author of "22", a book of poetry. You can find her book on Amazon. We talk about her poetry, the good the bad the ugly of moving from Albuquerque to New York, and about life. And of course, we hear some of her amazing poetry. Gigi is scheduled to tour this spring into summer of 2018. So be on the lookout for dates in your area.

Interview with Rich Boucher, a performance poet with roots in Albuquerque and New England. You can find his work on his Bandcamp page at richboucher.bandcamp.com as well as countless literary journals and magazines and anthologies. 

Interview with poet, writer, and artist Robin Reynolds. You can find many of her poems in Rumble Room on Amazon, her short story collection Cutting Your Losses on Amazon (might still be under her old name Robin Kalinich), and find her art along with many other artists work all over the Internet by searching Ink and Alchemy. Her artist platform has many followers and artists sharing their work and experiences. 

Kristian Ashley Macaron talks about her chapbook, Storm, about life, her writing style, and reads a few poems. Kristian's chapbook, Storm, is published by Swimming with Elephants Publications and found on their website, Amazon, or local Albuquerque bookstores.

Damien Flores is an Albuquerque poet who's been a part of many national poetry slam teams, hosts the Spoken Word Hour on 89.9 KUNM, and is author of Junkyard Dogs published by West End Press. We talk about his poetry and the fact that Damien has spent half his life performing poetry.

Anna Martinez is an erotic poet from Albuquerque, NM. Hear about Anna and listen to some of her poetry. You can find her work in the Rumble Room collection Volume 1 on Amazon.