Podcast appearances and mentions of Justin Phillip Reed

The earth trembles with a fury that could shake the gods. Øka, Abiku, Gentle, and Voska plunge into the Ukhliin Chasm to investigate the tremors and uncover Andake's deepest secrets for good. "The Second Stranger" is sponsored by Dmitry (https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines) and ExplainTrade (https://www.explaintrade.com/), a negotiation skills training consultancy; because you can't ask to roll persuasion in real life. Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Alex, Brooke Brite, @brownestnerd, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Finn, Hat, Isabel, Kanding, Lex Slater, Lyle and Peanut, Moonflower Tea, Nicholas, Purplemouse, Riley, Rose, Scruffasus, Spencer Critchfield, Summer Rose Folta, Sunny, and Targott. Content warnings for this episode: earthquakes, vast and unknowable depths, heights, falling, romance, flirting, references to sexual entanglements, body horror, monsters and monstrosity, memory loss, amnesia, loss of sapience, and destructive SFX. CREDITS: Title - “when i am alien” by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music) and Soundstripe (https://www.soundstripe.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Podcast editing - Connie Chang (https://twitter.com/ByConnieChang). Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/rTbPwxRsBe!

Today's poem is A Statement from No One, Incorporated by Justin Phillip Reed.

Øka engages in close combat. Voska plunges into grief. Dewey rescues Dusty. And Citlalli has a magical girl transformation. "The Second Stranger" is sponsored by Dmitry (https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines) and ExplainTrade (https://www.explaintrade.com/), a negotiation skills training consultancy; because you can't ask to roll persuasion in real life. Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Alex, Brooke Brite, @brownestnerd, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Finn, Hat, Isabel, Kanding, Lex Slater, Lyle and Peanut, Moonflower Tea, Nicholas, Purplemouse, Riley, Rose, Scruffasus, Summer Rose Folta, Sunny, and Targott. Content warnings for this episode: complex and complicated relationships, romance, references to sexual entanglements, fantasy violence, gore, fire, child endangerment, heights and falling, and destructive sound effects. CREDITS: Title - “Head of Medusa” by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music), Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/), and Soundstripe (https://www.soundstripe.com/).. Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Podcast editing - Connie Chang (https://twitter.com/ByConnieChang). Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/rTbPwxRsBe!

Øka has an identity crisis. Dewey gets the meet cute he deserves… again? Voska clashes with Mercy. And Citlalli gets hit — hard. "The Second Stranger" is sponsored by Dmitry (https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines) and ExplainTrade (https://www.explaintrade.com/), a negotiation skills training consultancy; because you can't ask to roll persuasion in real life. Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Alex, Brooke Brite, @brownestnerd, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Emma, Finn, Hat, Isabel, Kanding, Lex Slater, Lyle and Peanut, Matt Sweeney, Moonflower Tea, Nicholas, Purplemouse, Riley, Rose, Scruffasus, Summer Rose Folta, Sunny, and Targott. Content warnings for this episode: complex and complicated relationships, romance, flirting, references to sexual entanglements, fantasy violence, gore, monsters and monstrosity, death of loved ones, and psychological trauma. CREDITS: Title - “When I Am Queen” by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music), Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/), and Soundstripe (https://www.soundstripe.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Podcast editing - Connie Chang (https://twitter.com/ByConnieChang). Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/rTbPwxRsBe!

Books and Selected Other Work by Carl PhillipsPOETRYThen The War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022)Pale Colors in a Tall Field (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020)Star Map With Action Figures (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2019)Wild Is the Wind (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)Reconnaissance (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015)The Art of Daring (Graywolf Press, 2014)Silverchest (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)Double Shadow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012)Speak Low (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010)Quiver of Arrows: Selected Poems 1986–2006 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007)Riding Westward (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)The Rest of Love (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004)Rock Harbor (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002)The Tether (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001)Pastoral (Graywolf Press, 2000)From the Devotions (Graywolf Press, 1998)Cortège (Graywolf Press, 1995)In the Blood (Northeastern University Press, 1992)NONFICTIONMy Trade Is Mystery: Seven Meditations from a Life in Writing (Yale University Press, 2022)Coin of the Realm: Essays on the Art and Life of Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2004)TRANSLATIONSophocles's Philoctetes (Oxford University Press, 2003)SELECTED OTHER WORKFirsts: 100 Years of Yale Younger Poets, ed. Carl Phillips (Yale University Press, 2019)“What I See Is the Light Falling All Around Us,” T Magazine (2015)Cooking With Carl on InstagramAlso ReferencedBrooklyn Book FestivalHafizah JeterR. Erika DoyleAngelos MichalopoulosWashington University at St. LouisT MagazineOmnidawn PublishingLayli LongsoldierVictoria ChangAssociation of Writers and Writing ProgramsRoe v. WadeJulia ChildWhitney HoustonBreadloaf Writers ConferenceThe New York TimesMichael PalmerErnest HemingwayCarcanet BooksEmergence MagazineRobert Lowell, Life StudiesRon Charles and Carl Phillips Firing Line with William F Buckley Allen Ginsberg Rachel HadasPrageeta Sharma, Grief SequenceGeorge Eliot, MiddlemarchJohn UpdikeJ.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye and Nine StoriesCarly SimonThe Go-GosHadrianEmily DickinsonYale Younger PrizeEduardo C. CorralMuriel RukeyserJorie GrahamBrigit Pegeen KellyLinda Gregg, Too Bright To SeeFrank O'HaraGerard Manley HopkinsRobert HaydenDavid WojahnThom GunnPoetry MagazineWilliam Shakespeare, Sonnet 73Many thanks to Rickey Laurentiis, Erin Belieu, Dawn Lundy Martin, Justin Phillip Reed and the Association of Writing Programs Conference for granting me permission to record and share “Radiance Versus Ordinary Light: A Tribute to Carl Phillips,” March 28, 2019.Commonplace has no institutional or corporate affiliation and is made possible by you, our listeners! Support Commonplace by joining the Commonplace Book Club: https://www.patreon.com/commonplacepodcast

Øka rips a hole in reality. Gentle adopts a codename. Citlalli is devoured in more ways than one. And Jaran makes a very, very bad decision. "The Second Stranger" is sponsored by Dmitry (https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines) and ExplainTrade (https://www.explaintrade.com/), a negotiation skills training consultancy; because you can't ask to roll persuasion in real life. Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Alex, Azra, Brooke Brite, @brownestnerd, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Emma, Finn, Hat, Isabel, Kanding, Lex Slater, Moonflower Tea, Nicholas, Purplemouse, Rose, Scruffasus, Summer Rose Folta, Sunny, and Targott. Content warnings for this episode: romance, flirting, references to sexual entanglements, kidnapping, imprisonment, confinement, darkness, fantasy violence, gore, blood and bloodletting, cults and cult-like behavior, and death of loved ones. CREDITS: Title - “Minotaur” by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music), Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/), and Soundstripe (https://www.soundstripe.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Podcast editing - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/rTbPwxRsBe!

Cain wreaks vengeance. Øka attempts diplomacy. Vee learns to pray. And Manaia buys baked goods. "The Second Stranger" is sponsored by Dmitry (https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines) and ExplainTrade (https://www.explaintrade.com/), a negotiation skills training consultancy; because you can't ask to roll persuasion in real life. Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Azra, Bradley, Brooke Brite, @brownestnerd, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Hat, Lex Slater, Mauvelous, Mitzi, Moonflower Tea, Purplemouse, Samantha Chappell, Scruffasus, Summer Rose Folta, Sunny, and Targott. Content warnings for this episode: fantasy violence, detailed descriptions of gore, descriptions of houselessness, and references to food. CREDITS: Title - The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music), Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/), and Soundstripe (https://www.soundstripe.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Podcast editing - Marisa Ewing of Hemlock Creek Productions (https://twitter.com/sassy_composer). Join our Discord server at https://discord.gg/rTbPwxRsBe!

Seeking a canoe, the party treks to Shade-Cap where Øka gets harangued by their past, Dewey barters a photograph, Manaia loses a boot, and a mosquito stings Vee.   Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Abigail Rytel, Azra, Brooke Brite, Cassidy Barnes, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Lex Slater, Mauvelous, Mitzi, Moonflower Tea, Purplemouse, Risa, Roo, Samantha Chappell, Summer Rose Folta, and Sunny.   Content warnings for this episode: death of loved ones, bodies of water, descriptions of slimy things, bloodletting, non-graphic references to drug use and intoxication, non-graphic references to ticks and leeches, and a description of a mosquito bite.   CREDITS: Title - "The Man in Black" in The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music) and Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Sound mixing - Mike Graham (https://twitter.com/ohmikegraham).

Øka, Manaia, Dewey, and Vee travel to the Court of Ravens to investigate the Profane Undeath. Vee breaks into a rich elf's caravan. Dewey meets an old "friend." Pledge to our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/transplanarrpg) for early access to episodes, character journals, Connie's GM notes, and the chance for your OC to cameo in our campaign! Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Abigail Rytel, Azra, Brooke Brite, Cassidy Barnes, Charles, chillacres, Cora Eckert, Lex Slater, Mauvelous, Mitzi, Moonflower Tea, Purplemouse, Risa, Samantha Chappell, Summer Rose Folta, and Sunny. Content warnings for this episode: descriptions of food, climate disaster, apocalyptic events, a refugee crisis, family trauma, death of loved ones, terminal illness, coughing noises, and memory loss. CREDITS: Title - "I Have Wasted My Life” in The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music) and Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart). Sound mixing - Mike Graham (https://twitter.com/ohmikegraham).

Caroljean Gavin is a writer and editor whose work is forthcoming from Best Small Fictions 2021. Justin Phillip Reed is an American writer and amateur bass guitarist. Robert Olen Butler has published 18 novels and 6 collections of short stories, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize. (Transcript) Welcome to Micro, a podcast for shortContinue reading "Gavin x Reed x Butler" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caroljean Gavin is a writer and editor whose work is forthcoming from Best Small Fictions 2021. Justin Phillip Reed is an American writer and amateur bass guitarist. Robert Olen Butler has published 18 novels and 6 collections of short stories, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize. (Transcript) Welcome to Micro, a podcast for shortContinue reading "Gavin x Reed x Butler"

A forty day sojourn across the Badlands pits Øka, Manaia, Dewey, and Vee against a freak snowstorm, a refugee, an oblivious merchant, and a cultist claiming to have all the answers... Pledge to our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/transplanarrpg) for early access to episodes, character journals, Connie's GM notes, and the chance for your OC to cameo in our campaign! Special thanks to our Heroes and Paragons: Abigail Rytel, Azra, Brooke Brite, Cora, Charles, Lex, Purplemouse, and Sunny. Content warnings for this episode: fantasy violence, gore, blood and bloodletting, a refugee crisis, body dysmorphia, and mentions of eye gore, riots, and drug and alcohol use. CREDITS: Title - "It Singing Over the Glass Field Comes" in The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed. Music - C.I.S. Music (https://soundcloud.com/cis_music) and Fesliyan Studios (https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/). Album art - Sea Thomas (https://twitter.com/pisharpart).

In this episode, I spoke with KB about their zine “A New Relationship to Pain,” their relationship to poetry, the pandemic, working as a poet and educator, and more. KB is from Stop Six, Fort Worth, Texas. They are a Black queer nonbinary poet, educator, student affairs professional, and lover of most plants/people. They want to be your friend as well as your reminder to think in abundance. They have words published in Cincinnati Review, Puerto Del Sol, Palette Poetry, and other equally pretty places. Their chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022) won the 2020 Saguaro Poetry Prize and was written with support from workshops with Lambda Literary, In Surreal Life, The Watering Hole, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Speakeasy Project, and Winter Tangerine. They are currently a 2021 PEN America Emerging Writers fellow and an African American Leadership Institute - Austin fellow. When not on stage or in the page, they serve as Program Coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Founding Executive Director of Interfaces, Co-Founder/President of Embrace Austin, and educator in various settings. Follow them on Twitter or Instagram at @earthtokb and access their exclusive teaching, writing, and other content at patreon.com/earthtokb. They live in Austin, TX where they’re writing books & trying their best. KB’s Zine “a new relationship to pain” KB’s Instagram KB’s Twitter Poets, books, etc. mentioned in this episode: Jericho Brown’s The Tradition Taylor Byas's poetry  George Abraham’s "ars poetica in which every pronoun is a Free Palestine” (second poem on this page) Justin Phillip Reed’s "Leaves of Grass" Claudia Delfina Cardona’s “What Remains" Khalypso’s “You Really Seem to Think I’ll Miss You” The Sound of Waves Breaking is “DesertTexasT01” by Riabad Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Listen to excerpts from the 2020 #PDXBookFest, with writers including Anne Helen Petersen, Justin Phillip Reed, and Aimee Nezhukumatathil.

Congrats! You, us, we have made it through two whole seasons of this wacky little experiment to get poets to talk to us about poems. Can't think of more lovely way to close us out than with this conversation with the one and only Justin Phillip Reed on Reginald Shepherd's "Occurrences across the Chromatic Scale". Listen to us astonish, awe, swell, delight, and learn from, over, below this poem. Then be sure to go back and re-listen the very first episode. It's a treat! JUSTIN PHILLIP REED is an American poet, essayist, and amateur bass guitarist. His preoccupations include horror cinema, poetic form, morphological transgressions, and uses of the grotesque. He is the author of two poetry collections: The Malevolent Volume (2020) and Indecency (2018), both published by Coffee House Press. He participates in vague spirituality and alternative rock music cultures. He was born and raised in South Carolina and enjoys smelling like outside REGINALD SHEPHERD was born on April 10, 1963, in New York City and raised in tenements and housing projects in the Bronx. He received his BA from Bennington College in 1988 and MFA degrees from Brown University and the University of Iowa. His first collection, Some Are Drowning (1994), was chosen by Carolyn Forché for the Associated Writing Programs' Award in Poetry. His other collections are Fata Morgana (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007), winner of the Silver Medal of the 2007 Florida Book Awards; Otherhood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), a finalist for the 2004 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Wrong (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999); and Angel, Interrupted (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1996). He is also the author of Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry (Poets on Poetry Series, University of Michigan Press, 2007) and the editor of The Iowa Anthology of New American Poetries (University of Iowa Press, 2004) and of Lyric Postmodernisms (Counterpath Press, 2008). His work has been widely anthologized, and has appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry and two Pushcart Prize anthologies. His honors and awards include grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, the Florida Arts Council, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He lived in Pensacola, Florida. Shepherd died on September 10, 2008.

Hello beautifuls—we're nearing the end of our second season (one more episode to go!) and we're grateful you're here with us. This week we answer TWO audience questions about capital-P Poetry and reading rituals. Then, we get the chance to (virtually) chop it up with the one and only delight Justin Phillip Reed. JUSTIN PHILLIP REED is an American poet, essayist, and amateur bass guitarist. His preoccupations include horror cinema, poetic form, morphological transgressions, and uses of the grotesque. He is the author of two poetry collections: The Malevolent Volume (2020) and Indecency (2018), both published by Coffee House Press. He participates in vague spirituality and alternative rock music cultures. He was born and raised in South Carolina and enjoys smelling like outside. WHISKEY FROM THE BOTTLE: Whiskey from the bottle to your mouth.

after the world's longest hiatus, I'm back to talk about Coronavirus, Justin Phillip Reed, and creativity in the time of a pandemic. This weeks book shoutouts are: The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters The Malevolent Volume - Justin Phillip Reed Zami - Audre Lorde  --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

In this episode, a conversation with poet and essayist Justin Phillip Reed about his new poetry collection, The Malevolent Volume (2020). His debut collection, Indecency (2018) won the National Book Award for poetry. To learn more about Justin Phillip Reed, visit his website  Check out more interviews and bonus content at BlackMarketReads.com

Jeff and Rebecca talk about five candidates for the next installment of Book Nerd Movie Club and ask readers to vote for a winner. The candidates are: The English Patient Fried Green Tomatoes The Devil Wears Prada Field of Dreams The Remains of the Day This episode is sponsored by: The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed

Mary Kay and Louise talk about important literary things like, what’s going on in the literary world right now? What are the books of literary fiction that changed your life? And, what are you reading now? This episode is sponsored by Shelf Addiction podcast,Catapult, and The Malevolent Volume by Justin Phillip Reed, published by Coffee House Press. Subscribe to the podcast via RSS, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or Stitcher. BOOKS AND TEXTS DISCUSSED: "Book sales surge as self-isolating readers stock up on ‘bucket list’ novels"  in The Guardian What our contagion fables are REALLY about in The New Yorker, by Jill Lepore The Color Purple by Alice Walker "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker Beloved and Paradise by Toni Morrison Roots by Alex Haley Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer In Cold Blood by Truman Capote A Void (La Disparation) by Georges Perec The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Lawrence Sterne She Came to Stay (L'Invitee) by Simone de Beauvoir Ducks Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo "The Mermaid in the Tree" by Timothy Schaffert, in My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Meedited by Kate Bernheimer Wow, No Thank You and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby "Inventory" in Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier Unflattening by Nick Sousanis YOU CAN FIND YOUR HOSTS HERE: Louise @ www.didyoueverstoptothink.com and @chaletfan on Twitter. Mary Kay @ www.marykaymcbrayer.com, Twitter at @mkmcbrayer, and Instagram at @marykaymcbrayer.

Recorded by Justin Phillip Reed for Poem-a-Day, a series produced by the Academy of American Poets. Published on March 10, 2020. www.poets.org

REBROADCAST! In honor of Black History Month and because it's primary season and this incredible poem touches on presidential themes, we are rebroadcasting our episode about "How to Keep It Down / Throw It Off / Defer Until Asleep" by National Book Award winner Justin Phillip Reed. Content Warning: Suicidality Connor and Jack discuss a poem by this year's National Book Award winner for Poetry: Justin Phillip Reed. The poem, "How to Keep it Down / Throw It off / Defer Until Asleep," is from that award-winning collection, Indecency, published by Coffee House Press. We talk about the effects of the poem's shifting POV, the intersection of mental illness and white supremacy, and get to maybe two or three of the poem's nearly infinite layers on layers. Plus, Al Pacino makes a surprise cameo! Read the poem below. More on Justin Phillip Reed: www.justinphillipreed.com/ Check out his collection, Indecency, where this poem comes from: coffeehousepress.org/collections/po…ucts/indecency Find us on facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking
Find us on twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking
You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at closetalkingpoetry@gmail.com. How to Keep it Down / Throw It off / Defer Until Asleep by Justin Phillip Reed My stomach imagines itself as an injury. I steep ginger-mint tea in the inauguration memorabilia mug from Momma, monument-white but for Obama. Between self-harm and my hand, I’ve rigged a list of reliable illusions. This is the first gesture. I am a gentle fist. My body has been deboned of its irony. My life wants to be proven to. I didn’t check the list of Black church dead in Charleston for friend or cousin because this morning it was Thursday. Work was quiet after I asked a white girl if she could quit whispering—the hissing hit his reddest venous notes until a droning rain applauded. His ears ring full of answers to his own knocking when he’s home alone—i.e., almost always. Pacing the apartment for a nest in which to knuckle shut and wax unknown, he statues and envisions both spread hands rooting a brown expanse into the kitchen floor’s glaucous linoleum, and after, the image on Instagram with heightened contrast, hashtagged emblem etc, and producing this proof would require one of his hands, and what if— Nearby in the drying rack, a knife shines. Impetuous. And it occurs to you that this occurring to you is a thinner ice than most other Thurs- days, is skin quickly shucked off a winter’s lip. The hour itself murmurs open better yet back like a hang nail, as in persistent rawness and in the wrong direction. You hunker the mug sternumwise— it’s hot as a kind of heart meat but a blanched blues —and mother your torso around it like a matryoshka mold, chest sickled over the steaming vent that is the President’s head, though you pretend it isn’t.

Justin Phillip Reed imagines an inverted history of slavery. Produced by Katie Klocksin.

Content Warning: Suicidality Connor and Jack discuss a poem by this year's National Book Award winner for Poetry: Justin Phillip Reed. The poem, "How to Keep it Down / Throw It off / Defer Until Asleep," is from that award-winning collection, Indecency, published by Coffee House Press. We talk about the effects of the poem's shifting POV, the intersection of mental illness and white supremacy, and get to maybe two or three of the poem's nearly infinite layers on layers. Plus, Al Pacino makes a surprise cameo! Read the poem below. More on Justin Phillip Reed: http://www.justinphillipreed.com/ Check out his collection, Indecency, where this poem comes from: https://coffeehousepress.org/collections/poetry/products/indecency Find us on facebook at: facebook.com/closetalking
Find us on twitter at: twitter.com/closetalking
You can always send us an e-mail with thoughts on this or any of our previous podcasts, as well as suggestions for future shows, at closetalkingpoetry@gmail.com. How to Keep it Down / Throw It off / Defer Until Asleep by Justin Phillip Reed My stomach imagines itself as an injury. I steep ginger-mint tea in the inauguration memorabilia mug from Momma, monument-white but for Obama. Between self-harm and my hand, I’ve rigged a list of reliable illusions. This is the first gesture. I am a gentle fist. My body has been deboned of its irony. My life wants to be proven to. I didn’t check the list of Black church dead in Charleston for friend or cousin because this morning it was Thursday. Work was quiet after I asked a white girl if she could quit whispering—the hissing hit his reddest venous notes until a droning rain applauded. His ears ring full of answers to his own knocking when he’s home alone—i.e., almost always. Pacing the apartment for a nest in which to knuckle shut and wax unknown, he statues and envisions both spread hands rooting a brown expanse into the kitchen floor’s glaucous linoleum, and after, the image on Instagram with heightened contrast, hashtagged emblem etc, and producing this proof would require one of his hands, and what if— Nearby in the drying rack, a knife shines. Impetuous. And it occurs to you that this occurring to you is a thinner ice than most other Thurs- days, is skin quickly shucked off a winter’s lip. The hour itself murmurs open better yet back like a hang nail, as in persistent rawness and in the wrong direction. You hunker the mug sternumwise— it’s hot as a kind of heart meat but a blanched blues —and mother your torso around it like a matryoshka mold, chest sickled over the steaming vent that is the President’s head, though you pretend it isn’t.

Ross Gay reads from The Book of Delights; debut poets Justin Phillip Reed, Fatimah Asghar, José Olivarez, and Analicia Sotelo read from their collections; Cowboy Poetry; and more.

Justin Phillip Reed published his first collection of poetry (“Indecency,” Coffee House Press) earlier this year — and it won the National Book Award for poetry. “Indecency” is in large part a product of the 29-year old’s time in St. Louis. His work foregrounds his identity as a queer black man in America, and examines the complex social calculus he’s navigated as he earns literary accolades and is celebrated by traditionally white institutions.

National Book Award winning poet Justin Phillip Reed talks about growing up in the south, metal shows, The Deftones and why the character Ruby Rhod of "The Fifth Element" is Chris Tucker's career-defining role.

Poet Justin Phillip Reed discusses his debut poetry collection, Indecency with Greenlight staff alums, poets Angel Nafis and Jayson Smith. Together, they read their poems, discus poetic construction, and talk about blackness and white supremacy.