Podcasts about poets

Marty Ross-Dolen joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation discovering the story while writing, inviting the speculative and magical elements into a narrative, rediscovering lost relatives, advocating for our vision and for our books, scaffolding fragmented forms, being raised by a mother in protracted mourning, incorporating letters, photographs, and erasure poetry, when people tell you what your book is supposed to be, living with an inherited sense of grief, unspoken family pacts, when structure is a surprise, and her new memoir Always There, Always Gone: A Daughter's Search for Truth.   Also in this episode:  --being raised in silence around a tragedy -telling 3 stories at once -memoir as erasure   Books mentioned in this episode: -Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas -Another Bullshit Night in Suck City by Nick Flynn -Ghostbread by Sonja Livingston -Disconto for My Father by Harrison Kandelaria Fletcher -Fearless Confessions by Sue William SIlverman   Marty Ross-Dolen is a graduate of Wellesley College and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and is a retired child and adolescent psychiatrist. She holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Prior to her time at VCFA, she participated in graduate-level workshops at The Ohio State University. Her essays have appeared in North Dakota Quarterly, Redivider, Lilith, Willow Review, and the Brevity Blog, among others. Her essay entitled “Diphtheria” was named a notable essay in The Best American Essays series. She teaches writing and lives in Columbus, Ohio. Connect with Marty: Website: www.martyrossdolen.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/martyrossdolen Get the book: https://a.co/d/5HtWU4s https://www.thurberhouse.org/adult-writers-studio – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Alyson Shelton and Lynn Shattuck join Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about writing about sibling loss, creating an essay anthology as means to advocate for grief, taking care of ourselves while crafting work about loss, helping people tell their stories, laughter and making space for the rest of our lives, coping with rejection, creating a mosaic with essays, feeling empowered, self-acceptance building community, independently publishing as an act of defiance, and their new anthology The Loss of a Lifetime: Advice from Grieving Siblings.   Also in this episode:  -owning out stories -rejecting shame -how no can send us in new directions   Books mentioned in this episode: -Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Viktor Hansen and Amy Newmark -Encyclopedia of an Ordinary LIfe by Amy Krause Rosenthal -The Heart and Other Monsters by Rose Anderon Always a Sibling by Annie Sklaver Orenstein ALYSON SHELTON is an award winning screenwriter and essayist. Her writing is widely published at outlets including The New York Times, Ms. and The Rumpus. She's anthologized in Comics Lit Vol. 1 (Accomplishing Innovation Press), No Contact: 28 Writers on Family Estrangement (Catapult 2026), Root Cause: Stories of Health, Harm and Reclaiming Our Humanity (Editor: Jeannine Ouellette) and The Loss of a Lifetime: Advice from Grieving Siblings (Contributor and Co-Editor). She's best known for her Instagram Live series inspired by George Ella Lyon's poem, Where I'm From where she's hosted close to 200 writers. The poem also provides the spine for her memoir in progress.@byalysonshelton on Instagram, Threads, Youtube. www.alysonshelton.com   Lynn has been publishing essays on the topic of sibling loss for more than a decade. She was a paid columnist at Elephant Journal for ten years; several of her essays on the topic of grief and sibling loss have gone viral. Lynn co-founded the website lossofalifetime.com, a hub of resources for those who've experienced sibling loss. She also co-edited the essay collection, The Loss of a Lifetime: Grieving Siblings Share Stories of Love, Loss and Hope; the book is expected to be available in June, 2025 https://www.instagram.com/lynn_shattuck/   Connect with Alyson: Alyson Shelton on The Body Myth podcast: https://ronitplank.com/2022/03/22/the-body-myth-from-childhood-gymnastics-to-puberty-to-motherhood-a-body-judgment-story-ft-alyson-shelton/ Website: www.alysonshelton.com   Connect with Lynn: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lynn_shattuck/   Get the book: https://www.lossofalifetime.com/book www.lossofalifetime.com – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

In this episode of Crack the Book, we take a look at Week Fourteen of Ted Gioia's Humanities Course, covering Virgil's The Aeneid (Books 1–2), Ovid's Metamorphoses (Book 1), and selections from The Portable Roman Reader. The focus is on key texts from Roman literature, their historical context, and their connections to earlier Greek works, providing an overview of their content and significance.Key Discussion Points: Virgil's The Aeneid (Robert Fagles' Translation): Written between 29–19 BCE, The Aeneid serves as Rome's foundational epic, modeled on Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Book 1 opens with Aeneas, a Trojan survivor, shipwrecked on Carthage's shore due to Juno's interference, meeting Queen Dido, an exile from Tyre. Book 2 recounts Troy's fall, including the Trojan Horse stratagem and Aeneas' escape with his father Anchises and son Ascanius, losing his wife Creusa. The text emphasizes Aeneas' pietas (duty to gods, family, state). Divine rivalries, notably Juno's grudge from the Judgment of Paris and Venus' protection of Aeneas, drive the narrative. The Fagles translation includes maps and a glossary for accessibility. Ovid's Metamorphoses (David Raeburn's Translation): Composed around 8 CE, Metamorphoses is a 15-book poem chronicling transformations from creation to Ovid's era. Book 1 covers the creation of the cosmos from Chaos, the division into four elements (fire, water, earth, air), and humanity's decline from the Golden to Iron Age. It includes a flood narrative with Deucalion and Pyrrha and the story of Io, transformed into a cow by Jupiter to evade Juno. The Raeburn edition organizes vignettes with titled sections for clarity. The Portable Roman Reader (Basil Davenport, Ed.): Published in 1951, this anthology includes poetry from Rome's Republic, Augustan, and later Empire periods. Catullus (c. 60s–50s BCE) offers direct, personal verses, translated by Byron. Horace (65–8 BCE) writes complex, philosophical odes, less accessible due to style. Martial (c. 38–104 CE) provides epigrams on public life, including two elegies for a deceased young girl. Davenport's notes contextualize each era, and the anthology features prose by Livy, Caesar, and Tacitus for future study. Contextual Notes: The texts reflect Rome's engagement with Greek literary traditions, adapting gods' names (e.g., Hera to Juno) and themes. The course's schedule prioritizes rapid coverage to identify key works and connections.Takeaways:I loved this week so much! It felt great to come "home" to Rome. I've got specific ideas about how to approach each of these books, but in my opinion they are all worth the time for certain people. The music was gorgeous, arias and overtures from Puccini and Verdi! You must listen...check out my link below. And the cave paintings were worth examining as well, especially the handprints from Indonesia. See that link below, too.This is a year-long challenge! Join me next week for WHATEVER IS NEXTLINKSTed Gioia/The Honest Broker's 12-Month Immersive Humanities Course (paywalled!)My Amazon Book List (NOT an affiliate link)Spotify Play List of Puccini and Verdi without wordsCave...

Springfield, Ohio, student poets share powerful verses on nature, love, and mental health in this moving WYSO Youth Radio episode from the School of Innovation.

Poets From the Neighborhood - Ep. #493

Here's a segment from our series, Bay Poets. This one reminds us how Bay Area communities are intertwined with our family and friends in Los Angeles. Poet soledad con carne gives us a vision in the form of a poem with their piece “Pochequis Christ.” 

Hi Guys!! Welcome back. Today, I sat down with Professor Ashish Bhatia. Ashish Bhatia is a Clinical Associate Professor of Management & Entrepreneurship at NYU Stern, where he's pioneering a bold new vision for entrepreneurial education. He's been featured in Harvard Business Review, TechCrunch, and has shared insights on major platforms like MSNBC and Bloomberg. Beyond the headlines, Professor Bhatia is also the founding force behind one of NYU's most innovative academic programs — the Business, Technology, and Entrepreneurship degree, or BTE. Under his leadership, BTE became the most selective program at Stern in just three years, thanks to a unique, four-year curriculum that blends action and reflection, creativity and strategy — the art and science of building ventures that matter. In 2022, his commitment to teaching earned him a spot on Poets & Quants' list of the Top 50 Business School Professors. hisprogram, along with lessons he learned by living with an entrepreneur (his wife!). Enjoy!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Original Daughter by Jemimah Wei by Poets & Writers

Big Chief by Jon Hickey by Poets & Writers

Old School Indian by Aaron John Curtis by Poets & Writers

Make Your Way Home by Carrie R. Moore by Poets & Writers

Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation by Sarah Yahm by Poets & Writers

Peter Wolf is bringing rock ‘n' roll to You Are What You Read this week with his all-new memoir, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses. Peter Wolf is best known as the lead vocalist of The J. Geils Band. In 1970 the band was signed by Jerry Wexler for Atlantic Records where they went on to release nine influential albums and earned a reputation as one of rock's most exciting live acts. In 1979 they were signed by EMI America topping the charts world-wide with their hit songs “Freeze Frame,” “Love Stinks,” and “Centerfold.” Peter began his career as a solo artist in 1984 with his album, Lights Out. He collaborated with Aretha Franklin, Merle Haggard, John Lee Hooker, and Mick Jagger, among others. His album Sleepless was voted one of the top five hundred albums of all time by Rolling Stone. He currently tours with his band ‘The Midnight Travelers' and will be releasing his ninth solo album in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Maureen Stanton joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her writing beginnings in fiction and using the scenic and immersive to move readers, falling in love with creative nonfiction, revisiting and recreating a love story, discovering the question behind her book, facing the blank page, bad first drafts, writing an illness narrative, placing an essay in Modern Love, authenticity on the page, the long winding path to publishing, not thinking your book will ever get published, working on multiple projects while querying, how love evolves, and her new memoir The Murmur of Everything Moving.   Also in this episode: -the fog of grief -killing our darlings -submitting to writing contests   Books mentioned in this episode: -Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott -Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt -The Liar's Club by Mary Karr -This Boys Life by Tobias Wolff  -Argonauts by Maggie Nelson -Barbarian Days by William Finnegan   Maureen Stanton is the author of The Murmur of Everything Moving: A Memoir, winner of the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence; Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood, winner of the Maine Literary Award for memoir and a People Magazine "Best Books Pick"; and Killer Stuff and Tons of Money: An Insider's Look at the World of Flea Markets, Antiques, and Collecting, winner of the Massachusetts Book Award in nonfiction and a Parade Magazine "12 Great Summer Books" selection. Her nonfiction has been widely published, including in The New York Times, Fourth Genre, Creative Nonfiction, Longreads, New England Review, Florida Review, River Teeth, The Sun and many others. Her essays have received the Iowa Review prize, The Sewanee Review prize, Pushcart Prizes, the American Literary Review award, and the Thomas J. Hruska award from Passages North. She's been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Maine Arts Commission, the MacDowell Colony, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. She teaches creative writing at the University of Massachusetts Lowell and lives in Maine.    Connect with Maureen: Website: https://www.maureenstantonwriter.com LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/maureenstanton41 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maureenstanton41 Threads: https://www.threads.com/@maureenstanton41 LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/maureen-stanton-6693ab11  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maureen.p.stanton Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/maureenstanton.bsky.social   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

A poem about speaking up, in times when doing so feels harder than ever. Here's Camellia Boutros reading an excerpt of her piece, “A Silent Poem بروح” 

To celebrate Pride Month, Thom Francis shines the spotlight three incredible local LGBT poets and their work – Elizabeth Gordon, Nancy Klepsch, and Tim Verhaegen. Pride Month is dedicated to celebrating and commemorating lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) pride. Pride Month began after the Stonewall riots, a series of gay liberation protests in 1969, and has since spread worldwide. Modern-day Pride Month both honors the movement for LGBT rights and celebrates LGBT culture. The first poet up is Elizabeth Gordon who read her poem "The 12th Round" at the Brass Tacks poetry and spoken word open mic on August 21, 2018 at The Low Beat. We then hear from poet, open mic host, and retired educator Nancy Klepsch. She read her poem “We All Pray for Different Reasons" at the Up The River journal launch on April 12, 2015 at McGeary's. Our final poet this week is Tim Verhaegen reading his piece "Swans" when he was the featured reader at the Poets Speak Loud series on Monday, October 26, 2015.

Today, on the Hudson Mohawk Magazine, First, Mark Dunlea reports on the NY For All action where advocates shut down Albany streets by the state capitol for close to four hours. Then, Andrea Cunliffe interviews Jona L Favreau who is a June 24th primary candidate for the Troy City Council's District 5, Working Family Party line Later on, with birds busy with nesting and nourishing, we revisit a story from Meg Kelly on modifying a home for bird safety After that, Juan Pantaleon speaks with Will Johnson & Blake Whitbeck for the Albany Comedy Corner. Finally, Thom Francis showcases a pride edition of Talking with Poets. Co-hosts: Sina Basila Hickey Engineer: Jalaya Reid

Now, a poem about how we win by showing up, and standing with one another. Here's Japanese-American poet, Lauren Ito, reading her poem, 'Arrival as We.'

Tune into this podcast to know how the culture of poetry and performance art is flourishing in Melbourne, with South Asian artists performing poetry (shayari), ghazals, music, and storytelling in Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi.

The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast June submitted poems episode features four wonderful contributions read by the poets. Different forms and themes are featured. The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast explores the art of poetry through interviews with poets and artists including Safia Elhillo, A.E. Stallings, Dana Gioia, Yanyi, Olivia Gatwood, Lisa Marie Simmons and more. Subscribe today.Listen to the poems using your favorite podcast player and then read each below:Hello Portland by Lauren ParkerLike the Ocean by Sarah AbbettBiomythography by Wendy M. ThompsonFake Food at the Japanese Market by Robbi Nester

Poets From the Neighborhood - Ep. #492

Leah Paulos of Press Shop PR joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about 2 things writers can do right now to help launch their book successfully, how to find your targeted readers and effectively reach them through media, the dedicated focus required to promote a book,tapping into your storytelling chops to help you with marketing, tools for positioning your book with media and journalists, the lead time we need to promote our books and when to pitch, selling journalists on covering your book, finding the story and the audience for your book, the cost of publicity, your job as your own publicist, being proactive, and the classes she offers at Book Publicity School.   Also in this episode: -using spreadsheets -building a media contact list -working with in-house publicity teams   Books mentioned in this episode: -The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker -The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korellitz -Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall   Leah Paulos is the Founder and Director of Publicity at Press Shop PR and Book Publicity School, and has worked at the intersection of books and media for over 25 years. Twice named a top PR firm by the Observer, Press Shop PR has worked on many notable books and #1 bestsellers including MARCH by Rep. John Lewis and ON TYRANNY by Timothy Snyder, as well as books by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Neil deGrasse Tyson, James Kirchick, and Pulitzer-finalists Samuel Freedman and Louise Aronson. Leah has spoken on book publicity at Columbia School of Journalism, CUNY Graduate Center, and as part of her regular workshop series, Book Publicity for Literary Agents.  Book publicity 101 Leah began her career as a magazine editor at a NYC-focused glossy magazine in 1998. She later worked as an editor at Conde Nast and as a freelance writer for dozens of national magazines. She made the shift to book publicity in 2006 and launched Press Shop in 2012. She graduated from Cornell University and now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two sons.   bookpublicityschool.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/leahpaulos/ https://www.facebook.com/PressShopPR/ https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090936998502 https://x.com/PressShopPR   www.PressShopPR.com www.BookPublicitySchool.com – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

On this episode... Business-obsessed friends, body modification trends and what is your definition of success?For early add free access to all episodes and bonus bits:1 - Apple Podcasts - Click here or Tap Try Free on the Apple Podcasts app for a three day free trial.2 - Via Patreon by clicking herehttps://www.patreon.com/aintgotaclue/Follow AGAC on...Tik Tok- https://www.tiktok.com/@aintgotacluepodYouTube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYz3U9CDm_xhBpmRWN3I9TwInstagram- https://instagram.com/aintgotacluepodMentioned in this episode:Live show is live!Go watch it at https://www.patreon.com/c/aintgotaclue

Jill Damatac joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up undocumented in the US and how she ultimately self-deported, weaving Filipino food, mythology, history, and culture in her narrative, opting for a hybridized memoir to mitigate the fear of talking about her experience, American exceptionalism, internalized doubt and unworthiness, contextualizing the self within a broader set of stories, when fear is a defining container for our lives, being willing to announce our lived experience via memoir, wanting to shrug off the yoke of shame, offering the reader a kaleidoscopic view, and her new memoir Dirty Kitchen A Memoir of Food and Family.   Also in this episode:  -sifting through hybridized aspects of a memoir -knowing where to cut and where to expand  -shame around trauma writing   Books mentioned in this episode: Another Country by James Baldwin Bodywork by Melissa Febos How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr   Jill Damatac is a writer and filmmaker born in the Philippines, raised in the US, and now a UK citizen, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her film and photography work has been featured on the BBC and in Time, and at film festivals worldwide; her short documentary film Blood and Ink (Dugo at Tinta), about the Indigenous Filipino tattooist Apo Whang Od, was an official selection at the Academy Award–qualifying DOC NYC and won Best Documentary at Ireland's Kerry Film Festival. Jill holds an MSt in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge and an MA in Documentary Film from the University of the Arts London.    Connect with Jill: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilldamatac/ Website: https://www.jilldamatac.com/ Get the book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dirty-Kitchen/Jill-Damatac/9781668084632   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Thom Francis introduces us to Erin Lynn, a Queens-based poet who was one of the poets who read at Mojo's Cafe in Troy as part of an afternoon of poetry and spoken word. The Hudson Valley Writers Guild sponsored the event featuring writers from online zines Trailer Park Quarterly and Hobo Camp Review on October 5, 2024. — On a beautiful fall day in Troy, NY, poets and writers gathered at Mojo's Cafe for an incredible afternoon of poetry and spoken word from contributors of online zines Trailer Park Quarterly and Hobo Camp Review. Host Mary Panza also welcomed local poets Melissa Anderson and Steven Minchin to the stage to share their work at the annual Hudson Valley Writers Guild sponsored event. Today we are going to hear from Queens-based poet Erin Lynn. Hobo Camp Review editor James Duncan introduced her to the audience. Erin holds a PhD in Poetry from The University of Connecticut, an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University, and an MA in Irish Literature from Queen's University, Belfast. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as Narrative, The Nashville Review, and Lunch Ticket. She won the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize for her 2023 chapbook, Forgive Our Kind, with Cordella Press. She co-curates Poor Mouth Poetry in the Bronx and is Assistant Professor of First Year Writing at St. John's University. Erin lives in Astoria, New York with her family.

We don't have many guests return to the show six times. Jess Walter is now one of them. Barbara DeMarco-Barrett has interviewed him three times — for his novels Beautiful Ruins and The Financial Lives of the Poets, as well as his story collection We Live in Water. He's been on with Marrie Stone for The Cold Millions and the story collection The Angel of Rome. There are a few reasons we're always eager to talk to him. First, he's always trying something different — short stories, novels, historical fiction, mystery, humor. And no matter what he's up to, his works are universally terrific. But he's also a fantastic teacher. We bill the show as a free MFA program from the masters, and Jess is a thoughtful and articulate master. Like explaining why his hilarious short story, Cheston!, never makes the cut for his collections. Jess is the author of eight novels and two story collections. His latest, So Far Gone, is out June 10th and published by Harper. It is very much born of this time and this country. It takes place in Trump's America, back to the familiar territory of Spokane, Washington. It's laugh out loud funny and poignant and tragic and all the things Jess is known for. He joins Marrie to talk about it. For more information on Writers on Writing and to become a supporter, visit our Patreon page. For a one-time donation, visit Ko-fi. You can find hundreds of past interviews on our website. You can help out the show and indie bookstores by buying books at our bookstore on bookshop.org. It's stocked with titles by our guest authors, as well as our personal favorites. And on Spotify, you'll find an album's worth of typewriter music like what you hear on the show. It's perfect for writing. Look for the artist, Just My Type. Email the show at writersonwritingpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from our listeners! (Recorded on May 23, 2025) Host: Barbara DeMarco-Barrett Host: Marrie Stone Music: Travis Barrett (Stream his music on Spotify, Apple Music, Etc.)

Poets From the Neighborhood - Ep. #491

Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861) was one of the most prolific and accomplished poets of the Victorian age, an inspiration to Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allan Poe, and countless others. And yet, her life was full of cloistered misery, as her father insisted that she should never marry. And then, the clouds lifted, and a letter arrived. It was from the poet Robert Browning (1812-1889), admiring her from afar, declaring his love. How did these two poets find each other? What kind of life did they share afterwards? And what dark secrets had led to her father's restrictions…and how might that have affected his daughter's poetry? Host Jacke Wilson takes a look at the story of the Brownings. This episode originally ran as episode 95 on May 29, 2017. It is presented here without commercial interruption. Additional listening: 415 "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti 130 The Poet and the Painter - The Great Love Affair of Anna Akhmatova and Amedeo Modigliani 138 Why Poetry? (with Matthew Zapruder) Music Credits: “Handel – Entrance to the Queen of Sheba” by Advent Chamber Orchestra (From the Free Music Archive / CC by SA). “Monkeys Spinning Monkeys” and “Piano Between” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ruthie Ackerman joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about maternal ambivalence and coming from a long line of women who abandoned their children, taking motherhood on from different angles, feeling ashamed of shame, illuminating what we need to about ourselves, listening to our inner voice, breaking cycles, focusing our work on the memoirist's journey and search for understanding, when family members read our memoir, a close look at the trajectory of her book deal, finding another angle to a story, honing in on the universal question our memoir is asking, when the book needs to be something very different from what you imagined, The Ignite Writers Collective, and her memoir The Mother Code.   Also in this episode:  -rejecting binaries -writing about others' illnesses and differences -when publishing is not an easy path   Books mentioned in this episode: Bodywork by Melissa Febos Avalanche: a love story by Julia Leigh Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women by Lyz Lenz The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness by Catherine Cho   An award-winning journalist, Ruthie's writing has been published in Vogue, Glamour, O Magazine, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Salon, Slate, Newsweek, and more. Her Modern Love essay for the New York Times became the launching point for her forthcoming memoir, The Mother Code. Ruthie started The Ignite Writers Collective in 2019 and since then has become an in-demand book coach and developmental editor. Her client wins include a USA Today bestseller, book deals with Big 5 publishers, representation by buzzy book agents, and essays in prestigious outlets. She has a Master's in Journalism from New York University and lives in Brooklyn with her family.   Connect with Ruthie: Website: https://www.ruthieackerman.com/ Instagram: @ruackerman LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthieackerman/ Workshops: https://www.ruthieackerman.com/new-workshop-page Ruthie's Bookshop shelf: https://bookshop.org/shop/ruthieackerman   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Daria Burke joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about sharing her journey out of Detroit where she was raised in poverty and the question that inspired her memoir, writing well and being well while writing, running away from the past, writing deeply and with courage, refusing to believe in inevitability, doing the unfinished business of raising ourselves, surviving the retelling of our story, holding space for each of the versions of ourselves, how she delivered the investigative reporting aspects of her memoir, rewriting the stories we tell ourselves, posttraumatic growth, embracing full frontal honesty, and her new memoir Of My Own Making.   Also in this episode:  -neuroplasticity -becoming fully available to our life -incorporating books and research   Books mentioned in this episode: -I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou  -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls The Art of Memoir by Mary Karr -Black Women Writers at Work by Claudia Tate The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate MD The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Emotional Inheritance by Galit Atlas   DARIA BURKE is an American writer, speaker, and wellbeing advocate. A marketer by trade and a seeker at heart, Daria is a storyteller and sense-maker, weaving together personal experience and the science of healing and transformation to explore new ways of understanding how we choose who we become. Her debut memoir, OF MY OWN MAKING (Spring 2025), is a soulful and scientific exploration of overcoming adversity, healing from childhood trauma, and rewriting one's own story. As a Chief Marketing Officer, Daria was named a 2020 AdAge Woman to Watch whose work has been recognized by Women's Wear Daily, Forbes, Vogue, Town & Country and the Cut. She has written for Fast Company, The Huffington Post, and Black Enterprise, and has appeared on The Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC. A distinguished alumna of NYU Stern School of Business (MBA) and the University of Michigan (BA), Daria was born in Detroit and now calls Los Angeles and East Hampton home. Connect with Daria: Website: dariaburke.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dariaburke/ Get her book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/daria-burke/of-my-own-making/9781538766804/ LinkedIn Newsletter: The Power of Possibility    – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

In this episode of Spill the Tea, host Jason Blitman is joined by Alison Wood Brooks, behavioral scientist, Harvard Business School professor, and author of Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Curious. They talk about her TALK maxims, what it means to be curious, tapping the adjacent possible, and Alison shares what makes a perfect conversation.Dr. Alison Wood Brooks is the O'Brien Associate Professor of Business Administration and Hellman Faculty Fellow at the Harvard Business School. She studies the behavioral science of conversation, teaches an award-winning course in the MBA curriculum called TALK, and chairs a program for executives called Communicating for Impact. She was named a Best 40 Under 40 Business School Professor by Poets & Quants.SUBSTACK!https://gaysreading.substack.com/ MERCH!http://gaysreading.printful.me BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.com WATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreading FOLLOW!Instagram: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanBluesky: @gaysreading | @jasonblitmanCONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com

Thom Francis welcomes local poet and artist Melissa Anderson, who was the featured reader at the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany on Thursday, April 17, 2025. ——— Melissa Anderson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is deeply influenced by a search for connection with the physical world, changing seasons, and our relationships with the places we call home. She co-runs the slam poetry team Slam Euphoria, as well as their bi-monthly poetry open mic at Cafe Euphoria in Troy. That night she read from her book "Dogstar Poems" (Main St. Rag Publishing, 2024), starting off with a poem from her day job making furniture for Chipotle, “Work Song,” and then a pandemic piece, “Bedroom Window Lockdown.” Melissa explained that “Dogstar” was another name for what is commonly known as “Polaris” or the North Star, & that many of the poems in the book are about looking for direction, as in the poem “Reflexivity.”

Poets from Pakistan and India participated in a poetry competition organized by the Literary Council of Australia in Brisbane. The participants and organizers of the competition said that those from both countries want to promote peace, love and brotherhood, and the large number of poets and participants from both countries participating in this competition was a reflection of this love. Listen to more interesting conversations in this podcast of SBS. - برسبین میں پاکستان اور ہندوستان سے تعلق رکھنے والے شعرا نے ادبی کونسل آف آسٹریلیا کے مشاعرے میں شرکت کی ۔ مشاعرے کے شرکا اور منتظمین کا کہنا تھا کہ دونوں ممالک سے آنے والے امن، محبت اور بھائی چارے کا فروغ چاہتے ہیں اور اس مشاعرےمیں دونوں ممالک کے شعرا اور شرکا کی بھاری تعداد میں شمولیت اسی محبت کا عکس تھا۔ مزید دلچسپ گفتگو سنیے ایس بھی ایس کے اس پوڈ کاسٹ میں۔

Tom McAllister joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about finding the right container for our work trusting our writing to speak for itself, giving ourselves homework, writing constraints as guiding principles, his approach to teaching nonfiction, the challenge of self-promotion, strategies for creating companion pieces, stating things boldly and with confidence, the podcast Book Fight he co-hosts, and how he wrote a short essay for every year of his life and turned it into his new book It All Felt Impossible.:42 Years in 42 Essays. Also in this episode: -trusting the reader -when the well feels dry -handling rejection   Books mentioned in this episode: The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson My Documents by Alejandro Zambra A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Cruz The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen   Tom McAllister is the author of the novel How to Be Safe, which was named one of the best books of 2018 by Kirkus and The Washington Post. His other books are the novel The Young Widower's Handbook and the memoir Bury Me in My Jersey. His short stories and essays have been published in The Sun, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Black Warrior Review, and many other places. He is the nonfiction editor at Barrelhouse and co-hosts the Book Fight! podcast with Mike Ingram. He lives in New Jersey and teaches in the MFA Program at Rutgers-Camden.   Tom's article in The Writer's Chronicle: https://writerschronicle.awpwriter.org/TWC/2025-february/preview/04_From-Anecdote-to-Essay-preview.aspx Connect with Tom: tom.mcallister.ws https://www.instagram.com/realpizzatom/ https://bsky.app/profile/tmcallister.bsky.social https://www.facebook.com/tom.mcallister.12   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

In March 2025, NHPR's Rick Ganley sat down with legendary J. Geils Band frontman Peter Wolf to talk about his memoir, Waiting on the Moon: Artists, Poets, Drifters, Grifters, and Goddesses. Told with wry humor and heart-wrenching honesty, Waiting on the Moon offers an intimate look into the lives of artists, writers, actors, and musicians—their creative drives, personal struggles, and the complex ties that bind them. This conversation was recorded live at The Music Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on March 18, 2025.

Bonny Reichert joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about not knowing if she'd find a way to tell the story that weighed on her, growing up in the shadow of traumatic family history, selling on proposal and working out the boundaries of a book, her background as a food journalist, hammering out the details of the narrative arc, eliminating the squishy middle, reverse outlining for emotional resonance, creating composite characters, telling a story through food, crafting the self as a character, shortening chapters for flexibility, drawing the complexity and sense of beauty and wonder around her father's story of surviving the Holocaust, and her memoir How to Share an Egg.   Also in this episode:  -food as glue -writing a culinary memoir wrapped around a family story -the toll of intergenerational trauma   Books mentioned in this episode: -Also a Poet:Frank O'Hara, My Father, and Me by Ada Calhoun -H is for Hawk by Helen McDonald -Tender at the Bone by Ruth Reichl   Bonny Reichert is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist. She has been an editor at Today's Parent and Chatelaine magazines, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail newspaper. When she turned forty, a now-or-never feeling made her quit her job to enroll in culinary school, and she's been exploring her relationship with food on the page ever since. Bonny was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Toronto with her husband and little dog, Bruno. HOW TO SHARE AN EGG won the 2022 Dave Greber Book Award for social justice writing.   Connect with Bonny: Website: https://bonnyreichert.com/ Instagram: https://instagram.com/bonnyreichert – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Thom Francis reintroduces us to longtime local poet and open mic host Don Levy. Don was the featured reader at the Albany Poets Presents series at Restaurant Navona in 2017, where he shared his poems, told stories about his childhood, and answered questions from the audience. For this segment, Thom asks Don about one of the poems he read that night and some other issues of the day. — Don Levy has been part of the Albany poetry scene since 1988 when he first read at the QE2 open mic. He has read at various venues and events in the area, including The Albany Public Library, Poets in the Park, the Poets Speak Loud series at McGeary's, and The Social Justice Center. He has hosted a number of readings over the years, the first being at The Albany Art Gallery on Jefferson Street, to his last, a featured reader / open mic series called "Live From the Living Room," a straight-friendly reading held at The Pride Center of the Capital Region. Don was one of the editors of Open Mic: The Albany Anthology., a fantastic book that featured work from the poets who frequented the local open mics in the mid-90s. He published 2 chapbooks with local artist Kevin Bruce: How Green Was My Big Eden, a collection of gay fantasy poems, and Super Queer Poet Saves the Day. On January 18, 2017, Don read his poem "Mike Pence Goes to Hamilton" at the Albany Poets Presents event at Restaurant Navona in Albany. In our conversation we talk about where the idea for that poem came from, recent online outrage over major companies supporting LGBTQ+ causes, "wokeness," and using poetry as social commentary.

What happens when we trace the unexpected influences between seemingly unrelated poetic traditions? In this exploration of German poetry's impact on American counterculture, we discover the fascinating connections between renowned German-language poets Rainer Maria Rilke and Paul Salon with Cleveland's underground literary icon DA Levy.Levy, a Cleveland poet and publisher active in the 1960s who faced obscenity trials and ultimately committed suicide, created work that resonates with Rilke's mystical poetics in surprising ways. Both poets use angels not as mere symbols but as modes of address to readers – inviting us into a space where beauty and terror coexist, where mortality is acknowledged as the very thing that gives life its meaning.As we examine Rilke's "Requiem for a Friend" alongside his more famous Duino Elegies, we see how his approach to mythology established patterns that would later emerge in Levy's work, despite their vastly different cultural contexts. The conversation expands to include translation theory, with insights from contemporary translators Pierre Joris and Johannes Göransson who understand translation not as equivalence but as transformation – every act of writing being itself a translation of experience into language.We also examine how Levy's Buddhist influences connect him more meaningfully to Gary Snyder than to the Beat poets with whom he's often categorized, revealing the complexity of his literary lineage. From Federico García Lorca's concept of duende to the rich ethnic diversity of Cleveland's literary scene, this discussion illuminates how poetry transcends borders while remaining deeply rooted in specific geographies and experiences.Have you discovered DA Levy yet? His work, much of it being republished through Between the Highway Press, offers a portal into a uniquely American poetic vision that draws from international traditions while speaking directly to readers with urgent, transformative power.Links mentioned in the video: https://periodicityjournal.blogspot.com/2025/01/alexander-hammond-benedict-from.html?m=1https://rilkepoetry.com/duino-elegies/first-duino-elegy/http://homestar.org/bryannan/duino.htmlhttps://herhalfofhistory.com/2023/07/13/requiem-for-paula-modersohn-becker-by-rainer-maria-rilke/https://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2024/10/new-from-aboveground-press-fragments-of.htmlhttps://betweenthehighway.org/Send us a text Musis by Bitterlake, Used with Permission, all rights to BitterlakeSupport the showCrew:Host: C. Derick VarnIntro and Outro Music by Bitter Lake.Intro Video Design: Jason MylesArt Design: Corn and C. Derick VarnLinks and Social Media:twitter: @varnvlogblue sky: @varnvlog.bsky.socialYou can find the additional streams on YoutubeCurrent Patreon at the Sponsor Tier: Jordan Sheldon, Mark J. Matthews, Lindsay Kimbrough, RedWolf, DRV, Kenneth McKee, JY Chan, Matthew Monahan, Parzival, Adriel Mixon

Claudia Herz Jardine from Scorpio Books in Christchurch is today's book reviewer.

Vicky Nguyen joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about growing up Vietnamese in America and what this country has meant for someone like her, writing memoir as a public figure, pivoting as a writer, not being too quick to self-edit, managing backstory to keep a memoir propulsive, having conversations with loved ones about shared family history, connecting through vulnerability, book promotion as a whole other job, exhausting every marketing channel, writing about people who don't necessarily want to be in our memoirs, how we “rememoir” things, digging deep, and her new memoir Boat Baby. Also in this episode: -when family remembers things differently  -writing in our voice -anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.S.   Books mentioned in this episode: -Born a Crime by Trevor Noah -Owner of a Lonely Heart by Beth Nguyen -The Manicurist's Daughter by Susan Lieu -Sigh, Gone by Phuc Tran -The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls -The Writer by James Patterson   Vicky is an NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent and anchor of NBC News Daily. She reports for the Today show, Nightly News with Lester Holt and NBC News Now. She graduated as valedictorian from the University of San Francisco. Vicky lives in New York with her husband and three daughters. Her parents are always nearby. Connect with Vicky: Website: https://www.vickynguyen.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vickynguyentv Get Boat Baby: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Boat-Baby/Vicky-Nguyen/9781668025567 – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity (Edinburgh UP, 2025) examines a poetic movement that rose from under official state discourse in 1970s Syria Closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up a new poetics which challenges received ideas about modern Arabic poetry Rereads along transnational lines the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ Offers a substantial rethinking of key terms in comparative literary studies — translation, translatability, vernacular —as seen through the lens of everyday poetics Describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works Expands the scope of postcolonial poetry in the globalised age by factoring in relationships between first-, second-, and third-world literary cultures This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qaṣīdat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. It describes the poetic lineages, stretching from early Syrian independence to the 21st century, whose task it was to bring poetic expression closer to everyday life.

These poets are shown cultivating genres and translational practices rooted in a plebeian civilian identity that counters both heroised images of the prophet-poet and stern authoritarian rule. A comparative analysis is provided to understand shafawiyya poetics as a transnational mode of creative engagement. This analysis includes aesthetic affinities and instances of transmission between Arabic poetry and poetries written in formerly Soviet countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria). From this vantage point, matters of perennial debate in comparative literature - vernacular, translatability, postcolonial poetry - are shown from a new perspective.

The book closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up the new poetics and challenge received ideas about modern Arabic poetry. It describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works. Behar rereads the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ along transnational lines, offering a substantial rethinking of the key terms in comparative literary studies as seen through the lens of everyday poetics. Daniel Behar is Assistant Professor of Modern Arabic Literature in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is interested in comparative analysis of modern Arabic poetry, theories of translation, and socialist literary imaginaries in Syria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Paul A. Pavlou's research has been cited more than 90,000 times by Google Scholar, and Thomson Reuters recognized him among the “World's Most Influential Scientific Minds” based on an analysis of Highly Cited Researchers. Paul was ranked No. 1 globally in publications in top Information Systems journals from 2010 to 2016. He earned a Ph.D. in Information Systems and a master's in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor's in electrical engineering and managerial studies, magna cum laude, from Rice University. In his former position as Dean of the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, Paul helped raise over $150M in philanthropic gifts and commitments.  During his tenure, the Bauer College led all business schools by ascending 34 spots in the U.S. News & World Report rankings to become a Top 50 MBA program; climbed 44 spots in the online master's programs rankings; joined the Top 15 public undergraduate programs by Poets&Quants; and ranked #1 undergraduate entrepreneurship program by The Princeton Review for five consecutive years. He also prioritized experiential learning and job placement through initiatives like the Office of Experiential Learning and various research institutes, while also enhancing community inclusion with programs such as the Center for Economic Inclusion, securing over $10M in philanthropic support.

Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity (Edinburgh UP, 2025) examines a poetic movement that rose from under official state discourse in 1970s Syria Closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up a new poetics which challenges received ideas about modern Arabic poetry Rereads along transnational lines the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ Offers a substantial rethinking of key terms in comparative literary studies — translation, translatability, vernacular —as seen through the lens of everyday poetics Describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works Expands the scope of postcolonial poetry in the globalised age by factoring in relationships between first-, second-, and third-world literary cultures This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qaṣīdat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. It describes the poetic lineages, stretching from early Syrian independence to the 21st century, whose task it was to bring poetic expression closer to everyday life.

These poets are shown cultivating genres and translational practices rooted in a plebeian civilian identity that counters both heroised images of the prophet-poet and stern authoritarian rule. A comparative analysis is provided to understand shafawiyya poetics as a transnational mode of creative engagement. This analysis includes aesthetic affinities and instances of transmission between Arabic poetry and poetries written in formerly Soviet countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria). From this vantage point, matters of perennial debate in comparative literature - vernacular, translatability, postcolonial poetry - are shown from a new perspective.

The book closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up the new poetics and challenge received ideas about modern Arabic poetry. It describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works. Behar rereads the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ along transnational lines, offering a substantial rethinking of the key terms in comparative literary studies as seen through the lens of everyday poetics. Daniel Behar is Assistant Professor of Modern Arabic Literature in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is interested in comparative analysis of modern Arabic poetry, theories of translation, and socialist literary imaginaries in Syria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Syrian Poets and Vernacular Modernity (Edinburgh UP, 2025) examines a poetic movement that rose from under official state discourse in 1970s Syria Closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up a new poetics which challenges received ideas about modern Arabic poetry Rereads along transnational lines the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ Offers a substantial rethinking of key terms in comparative literary studies — translation, translatability, vernacular —as seen through the lens of everyday poetics Describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works Expands the scope of postcolonial poetry in the globalised age by factoring in relationships between first-, second-, and third-world literary cultures This book distinguishes a Syrian style of qaṣīdat nathr (prose poem) as a piece of collaborative performance called shafawiyya, vernacularised poetic speech. It describes the poetic lineages, stretching from early Syrian independence to the 21st century, whose task it was to bring poetic expression closer to everyday life.

These poets are shown cultivating genres and translational practices rooted in a plebeian civilian identity that counters both heroised images of the prophet-poet and stern authoritarian rule. A comparative analysis is provided to understand shafawiyya poetics as a transnational mode of creative engagement. This analysis includes aesthetic affinities and instances of transmission between Arabic poetry and poetries written in formerly Soviet countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria). From this vantage point, matters of perennial debate in comparative literature - vernacular, translatability, postcolonial poetry - are shown from a new perspective.

The book closely examines a wealth of unknown primary poetic texts from Syria that make up the new poetics and challenge received ideas about modern Arabic poetry. It describes the institutional culture of poetry translations in Syria and analyses the modes of circulation by which translations pollinated original works. Behar rereads the works of famous Arabo-Syrian poets such as Nizār Qabbānī and Muḥammad al-Māghūṭ along transnational lines, offering a substantial rethinking of the key terms in comparative literary studies as seen through the lens of everyday poetics. Daniel Behar is Assistant Professor of Modern Arabic Literature in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is interested in comparative analysis of modern Arabic poetry, theories of translation, and socialist literary imaginaries in Syria. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

KB Brookins joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about transness, masculinity, and race, how how being a writer has crystalized their experience and made it legible to an audience and to themselves, turning to prose to say the hard things, the tenacity of memoir, resisting erasure and pushing back on toxic systems, coming at creative nonfiction from a poetic impulse, having patience with ourselves, what we might need to let go of as writers, looking at our work with kinder eyes, the way we treat people because of gender, and their multi-themed memoir Pretty. Also in this episode: -stages of grief -permission to have anger -when lines for genre aren't as helpful   Books mentioned in this episode: -Asatta: An Autobiography by Asatta Shakur -Black Boy by Richard Wright -Heavy by Kiese Laymon KB Brookins is a Black queer and trans writer, cultural worker, and visual artist from Texas. KB's chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound won the Saguaro Poetry Prize, a Writer's League of Texas Discovery Prize, and a Stonewall Honor Book Award. Their debut poetry collection Freedom House won the American Library Association Barbara Gittings Literature Award and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for the Best First Book of Poetry. KB's debut memoir Pretty, released in May 2024 with Alfred A. Knopf, won the Great Lakes Colleges Association Award in Creative Non-Fiction.   Connect with KB: Website: https://earthtokb.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthtokb TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthtokb Substack: https://substack.com/@earthtokb Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/earthtokb.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthtokb Get the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/724994/pretty-by-kb-brookins/ – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

unday Evening Jam – Live Stream May 2, 2025It's May, the buds are budding, the robins are rocking, and jD & Sara J are springing into another Sunday Evening Jam — this one steeped in sun-drenched nostalgia, surprise songs, and seasonal sentimentality. This week's loose and lively live stream takes a turn toward springtime vibes and Hip tracks that bloom with meaning.In this week's jam-packed jam:

In this episode, we read and discuss "Singer," a narrative poem that celebrates the poetic speaker's mother in all of her complexity. Dorianne Laux is the author of numerous books of poetry, including Life on Earth (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324065821), which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems (https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393652338) which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also the author of a new craft book titled Finger Exercises for Poets (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324050667/). “Singer” appears in LIFE ON EARTH by Dorianne Laux. Copyright © 2024 by Dorianne Laux. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Michelle Yang joins Let's Talk Memoir for a conversation about her bipolar diagnosis and becoming a mental health advocate, immigrating to the U.S. as a young child, writing at the intersection of body image, mental health, and Asian American identity, building an author platform, revisiting old family dynamics and patterns, grieving a family of origin, mourning make-believe mothers, doing a lot of processing before writing about trauma, keeping the reader in mind, removing societal stigma around serious mental health diagnoses, how she survived and found hope, and her new memoir Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love.   Also in this episode: -keeping strict boundaries -writing in short digestible chapters -revising a manuscript from past to present tense   Books mentioned in this episode:  -Relative Strangers by A.H. Kim -Educated by Tara Westover -Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me by Ellen Forney -Rock Steady by Ellen Forney  -I'm Telling the Truth But I'm Lying by Bassey Ikpi -The Body Papers by Grace Talusan -Hunger by Roxane Gay -What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo   Michelle Yang is an advocate whose writings on the intersection of Asian American identity, body image, and mental health have been featured in NBC News, CNN, InStyle, and Reader's Digest. Michelle has also been featured on NPR, Washington Post, and The Seattle Times for her advocacy. She loves exploring new parts of her new home state of Michigan with her family and smoking up the kitchen with spicy recipes. Her new memoir is Phoenix Girl: How a Fat Asian with Bipolar Found Love. You can find her on michelleyangwriter.com or on Instagram @michelleyangwriter. Connect with Michelle: Website: michelleyangwriter.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleyangwriter/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michelleyangwriter   – Ronit's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Rumpus, The New York Times, Poets & Writers, The Iowa Review, Hippocampus, The Washington Post, Writer's Digest, American Literary Review, and elsewhere. Her memoir WHEN SHE COMES BACK about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and their eventual reconciliation was named Finalist in the 2021 Housatonic Awards Awards, the 2021 Indie Excellence Awards, and was a 2021 Book Riot Best True Crime Book. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts' 2020 Eludia Award and the 2023 Page Turner Awards for Short Stories.  She earned an MFA in Nonfiction Writing at Pacific University, is Creative Nonfiction Editor at The Citron Review, and teaches memoir through the University of Washington's Online Continuum Program and also independently. She launched Let's Talk Memoir in 2022, lives in Seattle with her family of people and dogs, and is at work on her next book. More about Ronit: https://ronitplank.com Subscribe to Ronit's Substack: https://substack.com/@ronitplank Follow Ronit: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/ https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlank https://bsky.app/profile/ronitplank.bsky.social   Background photo credit: Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash Headshot photo credit: Sarah Anne Photography Theme music: Isaac Joel, Dead Moll's Fingers

In a preview of this week's Pop Pantheon: All Access episode, Taylor Swift's eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department— a sprawling, 31 song, two disc, two+ hour melange of music from the superstar— arrived last April amidst peak Taylor cultural overload: her landmark Eras Tour had been globe-trotting for a year, she'd just recently dominated the Grammys winning her record-breaking fourth Album of the Year trophy for previous album Midnights, her non-stop fountain of re-releases of previous works seemed ceaseless, and her new relationship with football star Travis Kelce was plastered all over our TVs and social media feeds constantly. All of that made the album a lot to stomach for many outside of the artist's (massive) core fan base and Poets, though hugely commercially successful, was broadly seen as one of the pop icon's weaker efforts, including by the makers of the podcast. But with the power of hindsight, how does Tortured Poets hold up removed from all of that context? Louie, Russ, and friend of the pod Shaad D'Souza gather to discuss just that, plus each share their... um.. "tailored" versions which help prune the massive tracklist into something more manageable, and maybe good?To hear the rest of the this episode plus receive weekly bonus episodes of Pop Pantheon, gain access to our Discord channel and so much more, subscribe to Pop Pantheon: All Access at the Icon Tier. You can also subscribe for the audio only directly in the Apple Podcasts app.Note for iOS users: Subscribe using your desktop or mobile browser, not the iOS Patreon app, for cheaper rates on Pop Pantheon: All Access.