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Welcome to Off The Bricks poets and poetry lovers! Today we have an interview with Alessandra Lynch regarding her fifth book of poetry, Wish Ave, published by Alice James Books in 2024. She is the author of four other poetry collections: Pretty Tripwire, Daylily Called It a Dangerous Moment, It was a terrible cloud at twilight, and Sails the Wind Left Behind. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, The New England Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and other journals. Alessandra serves as Butler University's poet in residence where she teaches in the undergraduate and MFA programs. you can find her books and other information on her website. www.alessandralynch.com
Matthew Nienow reads “Every Gift Carries a Cost” from his poetry collection If Nothing, published by Alice James Books in January 2025.
When you look at people who are younger than you — particularly teenagers — does your mind ever take you back to yourself at their age? Taylor Johnson's poem “Pennsylvania Ave. SE” performs this feat of time travel, going from a glimpse of two boys on bicycles to a haunting sense memory of what was once so yearned for: to be seen, to be wanted, to be free.Taylor Johnson is proud of being from Washington, D.C. He has received fellowships and scholarships from CALLALOO, Cave Canem, Lambda Literary, VONA, Tin House, Vermont Studio Center, Yaddo, Conversation Literary Festival, Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, and Bread Loaf Environmental Writers' Conference, among others. In 2017, Johnson received the Larry Neal Writers' Award from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. His poems appear in The Baffler, Indiana Review, Scalawag, and The Paris Review, among other journals and literary magazines. His first book, Inheritance, was published in November 2020 by Alice James Books.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.We're pleased to offer Taylor Johnson's poem and invite you to subscribe to Pádraig's weekly Poetry Unbound Substack newsletter, read the Poetry Unbound book, or listen to past episodes of the podcast. We also have two books coming out in early 2025 — Kitchen Hymns (new poems from Pádraig) and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other (new essays by Pádraig). You can pre-order them wherever you buy books.
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired October 22nd, 2024) featuring award-winning poet Janet Kaplan who will explore the theme of “Chaos and Creativity” in her poetry. Her work has earned praise from poets and critics including Dan Beachy Quick and Adrienne Rich. Visit: Sharonisraelpoet.com. Visit: Janet Kaplan Ecotones. Janet Kaplan's full-length poetry books are Ecotones (2022; shortlisted for the Sexton Prize and published by The Black Spring Press Group Ltd., London), Dreamlife of a Philanthropist (2011 Sandeen Prizewinner from the University of Notre Dame Press), The Glazier's Country (2003 Poets Out Loud Prizewinner from Fordham University Press), and The Groundnote (1998, Alice James Books). Her collection & then is forthcoming from PB&J Books. Her honors include grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Bronx Council on the Arts, fellowships and residencies from the VCCA, Yaddo, Ucross, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her work has appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, (An Introduction to the Prose Poem, Firewheel Editions, 2007; Lit from Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James, Alice James Books, 2012; and Like Light: 25 Years of Poetry & Prose by Bright Hill Poets & Writers, 2017). She has served as Poet in Residence at Fordham University and as a member of the undergraduate and graduate creative writing faculty at Hofstra University, where she edited the digital literary magazine AMP. Praise for Ecotones:"The personal. The citational. The chronicle. All the “conquistadorial spillage….” In Ecotones, Janet Kaplan pieces these verging environs. The writing is transitional; contemplative. We are reminded everywhere of how edges touch, how language is code. The poet has flipped the surface of the page to better show us a map of our disconsolate displacements. “Motion is the translation of a body from the place it occupies to another place,” writes Euler; Janet Kaplan: “and I, bit player, confessor-chronicler, / will write it.” "- Edric Mesmer, author of Fawning and series editor of Among the NeighborsPraise for Dreamlife of a Philanthropist“…The poems here hover above their own titles, this dreamlife of the poem more important than the poem itself, a place in which thinking is not yet thought, intent not yet conclusive, not language even as a form of life, but language in the process of making that life possible. It isn't a mental life; it's too real for that easy confine. Let's just call it the necessary life – a life of serious play.” - Dan Beachy-Quick
Amy Woolard joins Kevin Young to read “Via Negativa,” by Charles Wright, and her own poem “Late Shift.” Woolard, whose debut poetry collection, “Neck of the Woods,” won the 2018 Alice James Award from Alice James Books. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Breadloaf Writers' Conference, she's also a civil-rights attorney and the chief program officer for the ACLU of Virginia.
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX broadcast (aired February 13th, 2024) featuring award-winning poets Carey Salerno and Stacy L. Spencer, who are on the show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Alice James Books, an important Press solely dedicated to poetry. Visit: Sharonisraelpoet.com. Visit Alice James Books Carey Salerno is the executive director and publisher of Alice James Books. She is the author of Shelter (2009) and Tributary (2021), and her poems, essays, and articles about her work as a publisher can be found in places like American Poetry Review, NPR, The New York Times. She has poems forthcoming in the Alaska Quarterly Review, Los Angeles Review, and ONLY POEMS. Salerno serves as the co-chair for LitNet: The Literary Network and occasionally teaches poetry and publishing arts at the University of Maine at Farmington. In 2021, she received the Golden Colophon Award for Independent Paradigm Publishing from CLMP for the leadership and contributions of Alice James Books in indie literature. Stacy L. Spencer is a poet, fiction writer, and nonprofit consultant. After attending the Interlochen Arts Academy where she studied with Jack Driscoll, she graduated from Amherst College and received her doctorate from the University of Michigan in American Studies. At Amherst she won the Collin Armstrong Poetry Prize. Her positions in New York City nonprofits, where she focused on fundraising, include Barnard College, The Public Theater, the Apollo Theater, and the Museum of the City of New York. She has also taught arts management at the Lubin School of Business at Pace University. Since 2016 Stacy has served on the board of Alice James Books. Her poems have appeared in Thimble Literary Magazine, Topical Poetry, and Detroit Lit Mag. Stacy is currently writing a novel.
The long awaited final episode is here and for it I present to you the lovely minds that contributed to the recently released “That's a Pretty Thing to Call It”. Learn from some of the writers as they reflect on their time spent with folks on the inside. To purchase “That's a Pretty Thing to Call It” click here. All proceeds from the book will go to support Dances for Solidarity, a project that acts in correspondence with the more than 200 people incarcerated in solitary confinement through its chapters in New York and Denver. Introducing The Speakers: Erin Wiley - Erin Wiley is a poet, creative writer and workshop facilitator who studied Anthropology and Peace & Social Justice at the University of Michigan. She spent many years facilitating open format creative writing workshops at various Michigan prisons through the Prison Creative Arts Project (PCAP), has worked in girls juvenile facilities and participated in theatre workshops at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility. Today, Erin lives in a remote part of Southern Chile as an adventure travel specialist, planning outdoor adventures for folks who wish to visit Patagonia. You can find her on instagram @superboamagic. Karla Robinson - Karla Robinson is a community based arts educator, conceptual artist, and poet, her multi-media work spans discipline and medium. Karla is the Poet in Residence at Sadie Nash Leadership Project and is a recipient of a Creatives Rebuild New York Artist Employment Program grant to start Document.Dream.Disrupt., a multi-generational, Bronx based boutique press dedicated to nurturing youth voices. Leigh Sugar - Leigh Sugar is a writer, educator, and mutli-disciplinary artist. She holds an MFA in poetry from NYU and an MPA in Criminal Justice Policy from John Jay College. She has taught writing to previously incarcerated scholars at CUNY's Institute for Justice and Opportunity, and facilitated writing workshops at various prisons in Michigan through the Prison Creative Arts Project. She has also taught poetry at NYU, Poetry Foundation, Hugo House, Justice Arts Coalition, and more. Her debut poetry collection, FREELAND, is forthcoming from Alice James Books (2025), and she created and edited the anthology "That's a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and poetry by artists teaching in carceral institutions" (New Village Press, 2023). A disabled and chronically ill artist, Leigh lives in Michigan with her pup Elmo. You can find her at leighksugar.com or on Instagram @lekasugar. Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Instagram Website
The queens help you start your new year off right: with some fierce, unapologetic, fabulous queer writers!Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.J Jennifer Espinoza's first full-length collection of poems, I Don't Want to Be Misunderstood, is available for pre-order at Alice James Books and will be released in 2024. You can read her poem "Birthday Suits" here.Read James L. White's "Making Love to Myself." The poem is included in White's book The Salt Ecstasies, published postmortem by Graywolf in 1982.You can follow Deon Robinson on Instagram: @djrthepoet and read more about him here. Check out Celeste Gainey (we read her incredible poem "In Our Nation's Capital" on the show) at her website: https://celestegainey.comElise D'Haene is Celeste's screenwriter, novelist, and professor partner, and you can read more about her here. Read Justin Chin's obit. And read his epic poem "Lick My Butt." Watch Chin read his poem "The Glitters" here (~2.5 min).Read Dennis Cooper's "After School, Street Football, Eighth Grade." You can watch Dennis Cooper interviewed on More Than a Mouthful: Queer Culture TV here.
The Drunken Odyssey with John King: A Podcast About the Writing Life
On today's show, John talks poet Brian Turner about learning to write the thing we need to write rather than the thing we want to write, the long conversations we have with those we love, and the processes of nature, including grief. His trio of new poetry volumes is out now from Alice James Books.
Brian Turner is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently: The Wild Delight of Wild Things (2023), The Goodbye World Poem (2023), and The Dead Peasant's Handbook (2023), all just published by Alice James Books. His other collections include Here, Bullet to Phantom Noise, and the memoir My Life as a Foreign Country. He is the editor of The Kiss and co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres anthologies. A musician, he has also written and recorded several albums with The Interplanetary Acoustic Team, including 11 11 (Me Smiling) and The Retro Legion's American Undertow. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Harper's, among other fine journals, and he was featured in the documentary film Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, which was nominated for an Academy Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, he has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets' Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation. He lives in Orlando, Florida, with his dog, Dene, the world's sweetest golden retriever. Find more on Brian here: https://brianturner.org/ Review the Rattlecast on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rattle-poetry/id1477377214 As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem about a museum for an abstract concept, using one of the forms Maryann read: ghazal, villanelle, call and response, or alliterative. Title it “The Museum of ______.” Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem about one of your fears. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
The SOREN LIT podcast provides interviews, readings, and art reviews from our latest writers and artists. The podcast is produced by SOREN LIT Founding Editor, Melodie J. Rodgers. SOREN LIT's published work and podcast episodes are also available on the official website: www.sorenlit.com Cynthia Manick. SOREN LIT. Fall 2023. Cynthia Manick is the author of No Sweet Without Brine (Amistad, 2023) which received 5 stars from Roxane Gay, editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism, Black Comics, and Superhero Poetry, winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry, and author of Blue Hallelujahs. She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among other foundations. For 10 years she curated Soul Sister Revue, a quarterly reading series that promoted poetry as storytelling and featured emerging poets, poet laureates, and Pulitzer prize winners. Manick's poem “Things I Carry into the World” was made into a film by Motionpoems and debuted on Tidal for National Poetry Month. A storyteller at literary festivals, libraries, and museums, her work has also featured in VOICES, an audio play by Aja Monet and Eve Ensler's V-Day, the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Brooklyn Rail, the Rumpus and other outlets. She currently serves on the editorial board of Alice James Books. She lives in Brooklyn, New York but travels widely for poetry. Cynthia Manick's Social Media Website: http://www.cynthiamanick.com/nswb Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cmanickpoet Twitter https://twitter.com/cmanick --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/melodie-rodgers/message
Join Chris in conversation with Brian Turner, author of 3 new Alice James Books titles, about passions, process, pitfalls, & Poetry! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tpq20/support
Today, Jane Wong reads from her new memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, and discusses transforming her collection of essays into a non-linear memoir, “Wongmom.com,” working in poetry and prose, “writing up to the present,” writing the hard stuff, tonal shifts, and more! Jane Wong is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books (2021) and Overpour from Action Books (2016). Her debut memoir, Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City, is forthcoming from Tin House in May, 2023. She holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. Her poems can be found in places such as Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019, Best American Poetry 2015, The New York Times, American Poetry Review, POETRY, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in places such as McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Common, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and This is the Place: Women Writing About Home. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, Harvard's Woodberry Poetry Room, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, Willapa Bay, the Jentel Foundation, SAFTA, Mineral School, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund, Loghaven, and others. The recipient of the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist Award for Washington artists, her first solo art show “After Preparing the Altar, the Ghosts Feast Feverishly” was exhibited at the Frye Art Museum in 2019. Her artwork will also be a part of “Nourish,” an exhibition at the Richmond Art Gallery in 2022. A scholar of Asian American poetry and poetics as well, you can explore "The Poetics of Haunting" project here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this week's episode of the Get Lit Minute, your weekly poetry podcast, we spotlight the life and work of Asian American poet, Sally Wen Mao. She is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection The Kingdom of Surfaces (Graywolf Press, 2023), and the debut fiction collection Ninetails (Penguin Books). She is also the author of two previous poetry collections, Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019), and Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014). SourceThis episode includes a reading of her poem, "The Belladonna of Sadness." check out more poems by her featured in our Get Lit Anthology."The Belladonna of Sadness"Spring in Hell and everything's blooming.I dreamt the worst was over but it wasn't.Suppose my punishment was fields of lilies sharper than razors, cutting up fields of lies.Suppose my punishment was purity, mined and blanched.They shunned me only because I knew I was stunning.Then the white plague came, and their pleas were like a river.Summer was orgiastic healing, snails snaking around wrists.In heat, garbage festooned the sidewalks.Old men leered at bodies they couldn't touchuntil they did. I shouldn't have laughed but I laughedat their flesh dozing into their spines, their bones crunching like snow.Once I was swollen and snowblind with grief, left for deadat the castle door. Then I robbed the castle and kissed my captor,my sadness, learned she was not a villain. To wake up in this verdant field,to watch the lilies flay the lambs. To enter paradise,a woman drinks a vial of amnesia. Found in only the palestflowers, the ones that smell like rotten meat. To summon the stinkyflower and access its truest aroma, you have to let its stigma show.You have to let the pollen sting your eyes until you close them.Support the show
Hi there, Today I am excited to be arts calling Joseph Fasano! About our guest: Joseph Fasano is the author of the novels The Swallows of Lunetto (Maudlin House, 2022) and The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry include The Crossing (2018), Vincent (2015), Inheritance (2014), and Fugue for Other Hands (2013). His honors include the Cider Press Review Book Award, the Rattle Poetry Prize, and a nomination for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award year." Fasano's writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, Measure, Tin House, The Adroit Journal, Verse Daily, PEN Poetry Series, American Literary Review, American Poetry Journal, and the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, among other publications. He is a Lecturer at Manhattanville College and a Professor of Creative Writing at Columbia University, and he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books. He is also the founder of the Poem for You Series, and his latest project is a "living poem" for his son that he is live-tweeting on Twitter at @stars_poem. http://josephfasano.net The Swallows of Lunetto, now available! https://shop.maudlinhouse.net/#the-swallows-of-lunetto Don't forget to stop by Joseph's Substack to continue developing a deeper understanding of poetry! https://josephfasano.substack.com Thanks for taking the time to join me on the show, Joseph! All the best! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro (cruzfolio.com). If you like the show: please consider reviewing the podcast and sharing it with those who love the arts, or are starting their creative journey! Your support truly makes a difference, so check out the new website artscalling.com for the latest episodes! Go make a dent: much love, j
The Library was saddened when we learned that the American poet Ilyse Kusnetz had died in 2016; two years before her death, she'd recorded a podcast with the Library. A new collection of work, Angel Bones, written while she was undergoing treatment for cancer, is about to be published by Alice James Books. The book has been overseen into publication by Kusnetz's husband Brian Turner, a poet, editor and memoirist himself. He's the author of the collections Here, Bullet and Phantom Noise and the memoir My Life as a Foreign Country. We spoke to Turner about Kusnetz and Angel Bones via Skype as he is living in Florida. He talks about her love of Scotland and its poetry, the anger contemporary politics caused her, and how her poems take you inside the process of treatment for cancer.
July 2022 Dante's Old South Christopher Moore is the New York Times best-selling author of 18 novels, including Lamb, A Dirty Job, Noir, and Razzmatazz. You can find his web site at chrismoore.com and follow him on Twitter at @theauthorguy. Lynne Kemen is a citizen of Upstate New York. Her chapbook, More Than a Handful, was published in 2020. She is published in Silver Birch Press, The Ravens Perch, Fresh Words Magazine, Spillwords, Topical Poetry, and Blue Mountain Review. Lynne stands on the Board of Bright Hill Press. She is an Editor for the Blue Mountain Review and a lifetime member of The Southern Collective Experience. Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet. Her work has been featured in The Nation, Poetry Magazine, the American Poetry Review, Southeast Review, The Rumpus, Poem-a-day at poets.org, and elsewhere. She is the author of I'm Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (Big Lucks 2019) and THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS (The Accomplices 2016). Her third collection, I Don't Want to Be Understood, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2024. She holds an MFA in poetry from UC Riverside, and currently teaches creative writing. Jennifer lives in California with her wife, poet/essayist Eileen Elizabeth, and their dog and cat. Here's the link to my book: https://bookshop.org/books/there-should-be-flowers/9781937865733 Special Thanks Goes to: Woodbridge Inn: www.woodbridgeinnjasper.com Autism Speaks: www.autismspeaks.org Mostly Mutts: www.mostlymutts.org Meadowbrook Inn: www.meadowbrook-inn.com The Red Phone Booth: www.redphonebooth.com The host, Clifford Brooks, The Draw of Broken Eyes & Whirling Metaphysics and Athena Departs are available everywhere books are sold. His chapbook, Exiles of Eden, is only available through my website. To find them all, please reach out to him at: cliffordbrooks@southerncollectiveexperience.com Check out his Teachable courses on thriving with autism and creative writing as a profession here: www.brooks-sessions.teachable.com
Katie Marya reads the poem “Exaltation” from her collection, Sugar Work, published in June 2022 by Alice James Books.
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet. Her work has been featured in Poetry Magazine, the American Poetry Review, Southeast Review, The Rumpus, Poem-a-day at poets.org, and elsewhere. She is the author of I'm Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (Big Lucks 2019) and THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS (The Accomplices 2016). She holds an MFA in poetry from UC Riverside and currently teaches creative writing. Jennifer lives in California with her wife, poet/essayist Eileen Elizabeth, and their dog and cat. Her third full-length collection I Don't Want to Be Understood is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2024. Joshuajenniferespinoza.com Twitter: @sadqueer4life Instagram: @sadqueer4life “Birthday Suits” was originally published in Poetry Magazine, April 2019. Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at: deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Find books from participating poets in our library's catalog. Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for this second year of our series is the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34, by Karol Szymanowski, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by generous donations from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission. Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Ep. 41 DuEwa interviewed Cynthia Manick - poet, curator, and editor of the new anthology THE FUTURE OF BLACK: Afrofuturism, Black Comics & Superhero Poetry. Visit Cynthia's website at www.cynthiamanick.com. LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE to NERDACITY @Anchor @ApplePodcasts @SpotifyPodcasts and others. LIKE & FOLLOW on Facebook.com/NerdacityPodcast INSTAGRAM @NerdacityPodcast TWITTER @NerdacityPod1 SUPPORT future episodes by donating at PayPal.com/DUEWAWORLD or Cash app $duewaworld Thanks for listening! BIO Cynthia Manick is the editor of The Future of Black: Afrofuturism and Black Comics Poetry (Blair Publishing, 2021), editor of Soul Sister Revue: A Poetry Compilation (Jamii Publishing, 2019) and author of Blue Hallelujahs (Black Lawrence Press, 2016). She has received fellowships from Cave Canem, Hedgebrook, MacDowell Colony, and Château de la Napoule among others. Winner of the Lascaux Prize in Collected Poetry and a performer at literary festivals, libraries, universities, and museums, Manick's work has appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-A-Day Series, Callaloo, Los Angeles Review of Books (LARB), The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere. She currently serves on the board of the International Women's Writing Guild and the editorial board of Alice James Books. Cynthia is the founder/curator of Soul Sister Revue Poetry Reading Series. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/duewafrazier/support
Shara McCallum, Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English at Penn State University, writer and poet, speaking with WVIA's Fiona Powell about her recent book titled, "No Ruined Stone," released in 2021 by Alice James Books. For more information: www.sharamccallum.com/
Hi there, Today I am incredibly excited to be arts calling Joseph Fasano! Joseph Fasano is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, where he now teaches. Beyond his Professorships at Columbia University and Manhattanville College, Fasano is passionate about developing inclusive learning communities outside the walls of academic institutions. As an educator, his mission is to help each student synthesize diverse fields of study to develop a unique and informed voice, a depth of attention, and a capacity to break free of reductive mindsets. Fasano is the author of the novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry are The Crossing (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its "lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments"; Vincent (2015), which Rain Taxi Review hailed as a "major literary achievement"; Inheritance (2014), a James Laughlin Award nominee; and Fugue for Other Hands (2013), which won the Cider Press Review Book Award and was nominated for the Poets' Prize, "awarded annually for the best book of verse published by a living American poet two years prior to the award." A winner of the RATTLE Poetry Prize, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series, a digital space offering recitations of listeners' favorite poems by request. His writing has appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Yale Review, The Southern Review, The Missouri Review, Boston Review, American Poets, Measure, Tin House, American Poetry Journal, The Adroit Journal, American Literary Review, Verse Daily, the PEN Poetry Series, the Academy of American Poets' poem-a-day program, and other publications. It has been widely anthologized and translated into many languages, including Spanish, Swedish, Lithuanian, Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian. He is also a songwriter, and his songs and performances can be found on his social media platforms. http://josephfasano.net/ Main Twitter: @Joseph_Fasano_ A Poem for my Son Twitter: @stars_poem Visit the Poem for You Community on Instagram! https://www.instagram.com/poem_for_you_series Thanks again for stopping by, Joseph: it was an absolute pleasure! All the best! -- Arts Calling is produced by Jaime Alejandro at cruzfolio.com. If you like the show: consider reviewing the podcast and sharing it with those who love the arts, your support truly makes a difference! Check out cruzfolio.com for more podcasts about the arts and original content! Make art. Much love, j
Our introduction to Alice Mattison was learning that she wrote a book entitled, The Kite and String, How To Write With Spontaneity and Control - And Live to Tell the Tale (Penguin Books). In pretty short order we were able to bring Alice onto the show and are so happy that we did. Not to mention, we breathed a sigh of relieve when we realized that we we're not gonna get sued for using the name Kites and Strings. Alice was a joy to talk with. The string part of her Kite and String involves the process of proofreading, editing and basically cleaning up after you're allowed you kite to run amuck so as to create. Catherine and Steve can get behind that whole-heartedly, and in this episode of Kites and Strings, also learn of how being a young mom, with young mom responsibilities, ironically helped Alice find the head-space and the time to write. And write she did. On top of her career teaching college-level students for 20+ years, Alice has made a career of writing. Although she claims to have come to writing late, she quickly make up time. Thus far, Alice has published seven novels, in addition to the aforementioned guide for writers, a book or poems and short stories and at least a dozen short stories that have been published in the New Yorker and similar publications. We learn too that there are at least two more publications on the horizon. Whew. Per Wikipedia, Alice Mattison's publications..."Conscience," (novel), Pegasus, 2018"The Kite and the String", (craft), Viking, 2016"When We Argued All Night", (novel), Harper Perennial, 2012."Nothing Is Quite Forgotten in Brooklyn" (novel) Harper Perennial, September, 2008."In Case We're Separated: Connected Stories" William Morrow/Harper Collins, October, 2005; "The Wedding of the Two-Headed Woman" (novel) William Morrow/HarperCollins, August, 2004. Paperback, Harper Perennial, 2005."The Book Borrower" (novel) 1999, William Morrow and Co. Paperback, Harper Perennial, 2000. Reissued, Harper Perennial, 2008; "Men Giving Money, Women Yelling" (intersecting stories), Morrow, 1997. Paperback, Quill, 1998; New York Times Notable Book, 1997."Hilda and Pearl" (novel) Morrow, 1995; large print edition, Thorndike Press, 1995. Paperback, Harper Perennial, 2001."The Flight of Andy Burns" (short stories), Morrow, 1993."Field of Stars" (novel) Morrow, 1992."Great Wits" (stories) Morrow, 1988. Paperback, Penguin Books,1990."Animals" (poems) Alice James Books, 1980.Alice's website: https://www.alicemattison.com/Kites and Strings Website: https://www.kitesandstrings.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kitesandstringspodcastTwitter: @KitesandstringsInstagram: @Kites_and_stringsemail: Kitesandstringspodcast@gmail.comKites and String's is produced and edited by Steve Ploum at Turning Stones Counseling, Inc.Our theme music is by Harrison Amer, and all other original music by purple planet music at https://www.purple-planet.com. Our logo-design is by Cole Monroe at Blue Stag Creative.
Corraling the myriad ways Sumita Chakraborty's poetry collection gets at the heart of grief all but flummoxed me. Its meaning is still washing over me. But I'll say that poet Rishi Dastidar did what I couldnt do when she wrote that it's “a book to hold close, an amulet that transmutes the intensities of grief into something uplifting, the attempt to keep hold of wonder.” We are thrilled to get to talk to her today about this luminous debut collection and many other things, if we're lucky.We were surprised to hear that Sumita's introduction to creative writing and literary studies was in college. In her 13 years at AGNI Magazine, she worked in many capacities, eventually serving as poetry editor. It was in these positions that became accustomed to every angle of poetry publication before venturing in as poet herself. Sumita's time at AGNI provided her this comforting(?) insight: no matter how talented and brilliant you are, your poems might still be rejected because of reasons beyond your control. We talk about her decision to publish her collection Arrow with Alice James Books, what it means to be a “sad girl poet” trying to be a “happy girl poet,” and how to honor and dismantle grief while somehow still managing to be playful. (Spoiler alert: she does it!) Honorable Mentions:Poet, Lucy Brach Breido Rachel Mennies's The Naomi Letters from BOACortney Lamar Charleston's Doppelgangbanger from HaymarketTaylor Johnson's Inheritance from Alice James BooksAlice Oswald's Nobody from W.W. Norton and CompanyBridget Kelly's Song from BOALucille Clifton's The Book of Light from Copper Canyon Press
Andrés Cerpa recollects how his father's early dementia was an increasing influence on his early years. As he grew, his father diminished. The burden of this was heavy on him — he stayed awake listening for information, and fell asleep at school. Older now, he looks at his younger self with tenderness and sadness. This poem gives attention to the experience of the growing presence of absence, and the ways that affects memory, family, and perspective.Andrés Cerpa is the author of Bicycle in a Ransacked City: An Elegy, and The Vault from Alice James Books. A recipient of fellowships from McDowell and Canto Mundo, his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Poem-a-Day, The Kenyon Review, The Rumpus, Puerto Rico en mi Corazón, The Breakbeat Poets Vol 4: LatiNext, The Nation, and elsewhere. He holds degrees from the University of Delaware and Rutgers University Newark.Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Joseph Fasano is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, where he now teaches. Fasano is the author of the novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry are The Crossing (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its "lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments"; Vincent (2015); and Fugue for Other Hands (2013), which won the Cider Press Review Book Award. A winner of the Rattle Poetry Prize, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series, a digital space offering recitations of listeners' favorite poems by request. He is also a songwriter, and his songs and performances can be found on his social media platforms. Find these books and more at: http://josephfasano.net/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem in second person. (One of the most famous poems written in second person: “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver.) Next Week's Prompt: A ballad is a music-based poem that tells a story. This form isn't especially complicated but it does have very specific requirements. Webexhibits.org has great instructions on how to write your own ballad. (If you google “webexhibits” and “ballad,” webexhibit.org's “Make Your Own Ballad” page will be the first hit.) “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Tennyson and “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer are examples of ballad poems. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.
Dear lovers and frenemies—we're marching along through the end of this season. Our latest offering is a lovely conversation with Jane Wong with whom we discuss food, framings and frontiers. Phew. JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, and more. WILD FIRE SEASON: An old fashioned with palo santo bitters and a singed orange rind.
Salami lovers, soup slurpers, and salad spinners—this week Jane Wong served up the one and only Gwendolyn Brooks. In this episode, you'll hear us eat up Brooks' "when you have forgotten sunday: the love story" JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, and more. GWENDOLYN BROOKS is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks's works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later, with several of her poems reflecting the civil rights activism of that period. Her body of work gave her, according to critic George E. Kent, “a unique position in American letters. Not only has she combined a strong commitment to racial identity and equality with a mastery of poetic techniques, but she has also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young Black militant writers of the 1960s.” (read the rest here)
Music by Ina Cariño. Ina Cariño is a poet, musician, and artist with an MFA in creative writing from North Carolina State University. Their poetry appears or is forthcoming in Poetry Magazine, Waxwing, New England Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. Ina is a Kundiman fellow, a Best of the Net finalist, a Pushcart Prize nominee, and a recipient of a fellowship from the Vermont Studio Center. They are the winner of the 2021 Alice James Award for their manuscript Feast, forthcoming from Alice James Books in March 2023. Most recently, Ina was selected as one of the four winners of the 2021 92Y Discovery Poetry Prize.
Jill McDonough's books of poems include Here All Night (Alice James, 2019), Reaper (Alice James, 2017), Where You Live (Salt, 2012), and Habeas Corpus (Salt, 2008). The recipient of three Pushcart prizes and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, NEA, NYPL, FAWC, and Stanford, her work appears in The Threepenny Review and Best American Poetry. She teaches in the MFA program at UMass-Boston and offers College Reading and Writing in Boston jails. Her website is jillmcdonough.com. Jill McDonough's American Treasure comes out in 2022 with Alice James Books. “What a Waste” was previously published in Green Mountains Review's print edition in 2018. Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at: deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Queer Poem-a-Day is directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Deerfield Public Library. Music for our series is from Excursions Op. 20, Movement 1, by Samuel Barber, performed by pianist Daniel Baer. Queer Poem-a-Day is supported by a generous donation from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library. Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language.
Taylor Johnson is listening, and they’re inviting you to listen too. The poet, whose first collection Inheritance was released into the world last year on Alice James Books, talks with our fearless hosts about how they’re listening for the sounds, colors, words, and structures they’re encountering, what they learn when they listen, and much much more. NOTE: Make sure you rate us on Apple Podcasts and write us a review!
Erica Wright is a poet, a crime novelist, and now a non-fiction writer, three genres of writing you don't normally associate together. But, here we are. Erica stopped by the Jam Bunker to talk with Brad about her latest book, SNAKE, which is part of Bloomsbury's Object Lessons series. She's also the poetry editor and a senior editor at Guernica Magazine as well as a former editorial board member for Alice James Books. Along with all the writing chat Erica and Brad also talked the horribleness of social media, making up stories in the woods, and growing up in very small towns. (And, ghosts. Definitely ghosts.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Poetry Vlog (TPV): A Poetry, Arts, & Social Justice Teaching Channel
Watch the YouTube episode here: (https://youtu.be/FsRWdc1b_z0) On this episode of The Poetry Vlog, poet and educator Jane Wong reads her original work and discusses how poetry can relate to our experiences of class, labor and community. -- About Jane: Jane Wong's poems can be found in places such as Best American Poetry 2015, American Poetry Review, POETRY, AGNI, Third Coast, New England Review, and others. Her essays have appeared in McSweeney's, Black Warrior Review, Ecotone, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, and This is the Place: Women Writing About Home. A Kundiman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships and residencies from the U.S. Fulbright Program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Willapa Bay AiR, Hedgebrook, the Jentel Foundation, SAFTA, and Mineral School. This July, she will be Sarabande's Writer-in-Residence at Blackacre. She is the author of Overpour from Action Books, and How to Not Be Afraid of Everything, which is forthcoming from Alice James Books. She is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Western Washington University. In 2017, she received the James W. Ray Distinguished Artist award for Washington artists. Website: (janewongwriter.com) // Instagram: (@paradeofcats) // ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com). Sign up for our newsletter on (thepoetryvlog.com) and get a free snail-mail welcome kit! ● The Spring 2020 Student Team: Gene Wang - Video Editor // Emily Oomen - Video Editor // Mimi Hoang - Illustrator // Cheryl Wu - Content Writer & Designer // Kristin Ruopp - Digital Marketing Coordinator // Season 3 of The Poetry Vlog is supported by The Simpson Center for the Humanities, with support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Jack Straw Cultural Center. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
The Poetry Vlog (TPV): A Poetry, Arts, & Social Justice Teaching Channel
Watch the YouTube episode here: (https://youtu.be/oYWmqDqVZwc) This week, poet Julie Carr reads from her most recent work and discusses poetry as it relates to installation art, the body in relation to performance and dance, the resurgence of the lyric, and the concept of blending the self. -- About Julie: Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Julie Carr lives in Denver with Tim Roberts and their three children. She is the author of seven books of poetry and two works of prose, with forthcoming works in both genres. Her poems and essays have appeared in such journals as The Nation, Boston Review, APR, New American Writing, Denver Quarterly, Volt, A Public Space, 1913, The Baffler and elsewhere. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including: The Best American Poetry (Sribner); Not for Mothers Only (Fence Books); Poets on Teaching (University of Iowa Press); Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (W.W. Norton); Lit from Inside: 40 Years of Poetry from Alice James Books; and &NOW Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing 2013, The Force of What's Possible: Writers on Accessibility & the Avant-Garde (Nightboat Books), Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of Eight Hybrid Literary Genres (Rose Metal Press), The Volta Book of Poets (Sidebrow Books) among others. Honors and awards include The Sawtooth Poetry Award, A National Poetry Series selection, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (2010-2011). A former dancer, she now collaborates regularly with dance-artist K.J. Holmes. With Tim Roberts she is the co-director of Counterpath, an independent literary press and a bookstore/gallery/performance space/community garden in Denver. She is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado in Boulder in the English department and the Intermedia Arts Writing and Performance Ph.D. where she teaches courses in poetry and poetics from the eighteenth century to the present. More on Julie: Website: (http://www.juliecarrpoet.com) // Real Life Installation: (https://www.reallifeaninstallation.com) // ● The Poetry Vlog is a YouTube Channel and Podcast dedicated to building social justice coalitions through poetry, pop culture, cultural studies, and related arts dialogues. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to join our fast-growing arts & scholarship community (youtube.com/c/thepoetryvlog?sub_confirmation=1). Connect with us on Instagram (instagram.com/thepoetryvlog), Twitter (twitter.com/thepoetryvlog), Facebook (facebook.com/thepoetryvlog), and our website (thepoetryvlog.com). Sign up for our newsletter on (thepoetryvlog.com) and get a free snail-mail welcome kit! ● --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
Erica Wright is the author of the poetry collections All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned (Black Lawrence Press) and Instructions for Killing the Jackal (Black Lawrence Press). Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor at Guernica Magazine as well as a former editorial board member of Alice James Books. Her debut crime novel, The Red Chameleon (Pegasus Books), was one of O: The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of the Summer in 2014. Her new novel, The Blue Kingfisher (Polis Books), will be released this fall, 2018.
Oh there you are, lovely. Last week, we chopped it up with worldwide sensation Danez Smith on reading for the National Book Awards, joy, and the violence necessary to achieve utopia. For this week's episode, they brought in Franny Choi's "Introduction to Quantum Theory" for us to discuss, and spoiler alert: it's a banger. DANEZ SMITH is a Black, Queer, Poz writer & performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of Don't Call Us Dead (Graywolf Press, 2017), winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award, and [insert] boy (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. They are the recipient of fellowships from the Poetry Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Montalvo Arts Center, Cave Canem, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Danez's work has been featured widely including on Buzzfeed, The New York Times, PBS NewsHour, Best American Poetry, Poetry Magazine, and on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Danez is a member of the Dark Noise Collective and is the co-host of VS with Franny Choi, a podcast sponsored by the Poetry Foundation and Postloudness. Danez's third collection, Homie, will be published by Graywolf in Spring 2020. FRANNY CHOI is a writer, performer, and educator. She is the author of Floating, Brilliant, Gone (Write Bloody, 2014) and the chapbook Death by Sex Machine (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2017). She has been a finalist for multiple national poetry slams, and her poems have appeared in Poetry Magazine, American Poetry Review, the New England Review, and elsewhere. She is a Kundiman Fellow, Senior News Editor for Hyphen, co-host of the podcast VS, and member of the Dark Noise Collective. Her second collection, Soft Science, is forthcoming from Alice James Books
Taije Silverman is an award-winning poet and faculty member in the University of Pennsylvania's Department of English where she teaches classes on poetry, creative nonfiction, and translation. Before coming to Penn, she taught at the University of Bologna in Italy, where she was a Fulbright Scholar, and at Emory University, where she was the Creative Writing Fellow. She's also received the Pushcart Prize and is on the editorial board of Alice James Books. Her poem “Where to Put It” was included in The Best American Poetry 2017, the second year in a row she had a poem in the collection. In this OMNIA podcast, she reads “Where to Put It" and another poem, "Tiresisas Too," and shares their backstories. Visit OMNIA for an extended Q&A with Taije Silverman: http://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/omnia-podcast-poetry-and-pulse-life-audio Produced by Penn Arts and Sciences • Recorded, edited, and narrated by Alex Schein • Music by Blue Dot Sessions Subscribe to the OMNIA Podcast on iTunes: apple.co/29rg0EZ
The Endarkenment (University of Pittsburgh Press) by McDaniel Heart First into the Forest (Alice James Books) by Gnall Bang Ditto (Manic D) by Tamblyn Poets Jeffrey McDaniel, Stacy Gnall, and Amber Tamblyn will read and sign their respective poetry collections. Jeffrey McDaniel is the author of four books, most recently The Endarkenment (University of Pittsburgh Press). His work has appeared in Best American Poetry 1994 and 2010. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in New York. Stacy Gnall is from Cleveland, Ohio. She earned her undergraduate degree at Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA at the University of Alabama, and she is currently pursuing her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. Her first collection of poetry, Heart First into the Forest, was published by Alice James Books. She lives in Los Angeles. Amber Tamblyn is a Venice, California native. She has been a writer and actress since the age of nine. She was nominated for an Emmy, Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award for her work in television and film. In 2005 Simon & Schuster published her debut collection of poetry Free Stallion. She is the producer of "The Drums Inside Your Chest," an annual poetry concert (thedrumsinsideyourchest.com) and the nonprofit, Write Now Poetry Society (writenowpoets.org). Her second book of poetry and prose Bang Ditto (Manic D. Press) was released last Fall. She writes for The Poetry Foundation and lives in NYC. THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 9, 2011.
Declension in the Village of Chung Luong (Ausable Press) and Brian Turner Here, Bullet (Alice James Books)Bruce Weigl is a poet who served in Vietnam. Brian Turner wrote poetry while serving in Iraq. Theirs is the poetry of war as written by on-site observers.