Woodrat Podcast – Via Negativa

Rachel Rawlins and I discuss the books we read out loud in 2013: Sweeney Astray, Ten Poems About Sheep, a mess of Icelandic sagas and some other stuff.

The second half of my epic bull session wide-ranging conversation with British novelist, philosopher and blogger Will Buckingham (listen to Part 1). Will talks about how he got into Buddhism and why he eventually drifted away from it; how he turned his doctoral thesis about the literary qualities of Emmanuel Levinas’ writings into a work … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 46: A philosophical lunch with Will Buckingham (Part 2)"

On my visit to the U.K. last spring, I arranged to meet with the novelist and philosopher Will Buckingham in a restaurant near the Birmingham train station on my way from Aberystwyth to London. I’m a long-time reader of his blog ThinkBuddha (and more recently of his personal blog) and a fan of his first … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 45: A philosophical lunch with Will Buckingham (Part 1 of 2)"

Even though my friend the poet and novelist Marly Youmans lives just five hours away from me in upstate New York, we went all the way to Wales to record this podcast. How’s that for dedication? We start out at a tea house on the grounds of Powis Castle, where we’re joined by another novelist … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 43: Marly Youmans in Wales"

Brew yourself a nice cuppa and join Fiona Robyn, Kaspalita and me for a conversation about writing, religion, spirituality, science, small stones and more. We met on May 7 in Aberystwyth, Wales; Fiona and Kaspa subsequetly tied the knot on June 18th, and starting on July 1 they will again curate a month-long river of … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 42: Tea with Fiona and Kaspalita"

The conclusion of our May 5 walk around Clive’s neighborhood in rural Wales, near Aberystwyth. (It should stand on its own, but do listen to Part 1 if you haven’t already.) I’m grateful to Clive for taking the time to show me around in the midst of frantic preparations for the launch of his retrospective … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 41: A walk with Clive Hicks-Jenkins (Part 2)"

Join me for a walk with the Welsh artist Clive Hicks-Jenkins and his dog Jack. Clive and his partner Peter Wakelin live a few miles from Aberystwyth in a beautiful old place called Ty Isaf, which I’d been reading about on his Artlog for a couple years now, and was lucky enough to visit — … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 40: A walk with Clive Hicks-Jenkins (Part 1)"

William Trowbridge was the last of the four poets Kristin Berkey-Abbott and I read for National Poetry Month (here are my review and hers). We called him up last Monday to talk about Fool and foolishness, humorous versus serious poetry, and why the Midwest produces so many poets, among other things, and got him to … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 39: William Trowbridge"

Poet, playwright, translator and teacher Ren Powell returns to the Woodrat Podcast to talk about her new collection of poetry (and North American debut) Mercy Island, religion in Norway, her shifting perspective on poetry animation, and other topics. She’s the third author in Via Negativa’s informal Poetry Month book club. Ren recently consolidated her web … Continue reading "Woodrat Podcast 38: Ren Powell redux"