Podcasts about rona jaffe foundation writer

So much has been written about the imminent transformation that Artificial Intelligence will bring to our world. But it is often hard to get much of a sense of what that will mean on a personal level—for our work, for our leisure and, perhaps most importantly of all, for our families. What improvements will result? What new tensions will arise? What devastation will be wrought? In HUM, Helen Phillips takes these questions and masterfully dramatises them in the lives of a financially struggling family of four. As we spend time with mother May, father Jem, and kids Lu and Cy, we not only experience the very real, very claustrophobic presence of this invasive, dehumanising technology, but are also forced to reckon with the truly thorny question of whether some of the gifts it offers—foremost among them reassurance concerning the wellbeing of those we love—are a worthy altar upon which to sacrifice…well, pretty everything else. Just as with her much celebrated 2019 novel THE NEED, in HUM Helen Phillips has once again used the lens of deeply compelling speculative fiction to help us better understand the world as it changes around us. *Helen Phillips is the author of six books, including the novel The Need (Simon & Schuster, 2019; Chatto & Windus, 2019), which was long-listed for the National Book Award and named a New York Times Notable Book of 2019. Her novel HUM is forthcoming in August 2024 (Simon & Schuster/Marysue Rucci Books). Helen's short story collection Some Possible Solutions (Henry Holt, 2016) received the 2017 John Gardner Fiction Book Award. Her novel The Beautiful Bureaucrat (Henry Holt, 2015), a New York Times Notable Book of 2015, was a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her collection And Yet They Were Happy (Leapfrog Press, 2011) was named a notable collection by The Story Prize and was re-released in 2023. She is also the author of the children's eco-adventure book Here Where the Sunbeams Are Green (Delacorte Press, 2012).Helen has received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, the Italo Calvino Prize in Fabulist Fiction, the Iowa Review Nonfiction Award, and the DIAGRAM Innovative Fiction Award.Her work has been featured on Selected Shorts, at the Brooklyn Museum, and in the Atlantic Monthly and the New York Times, among others. Her books have been translated into Chinese, French, German, Italian, Korean, Lithuanian, Polish, and Spanish.A graduate of Yale and the Brooklyn College MFA program, she is an associate professor at Brooklyn College. Born and raised in Colorado, she lives in Brooklyn with artist/cartoonist Adam Douglas Thompson, their children, and their dog.Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a sequel of sorts to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-englandListen to Alex Freiman's latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Temim Fruchter discusses her debut novel, City of Laughter, the Jewish folklore and queer joy that informed it, the circular/non-linear structure to be found in Jewish folklore and in her novel, writing in different timelines and generations, hosting Pete's Reading Series, ultrafemme queerness, and more! Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary anti-Zionist Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland, and is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Vermont Studio Center, and a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award. She is co-host of Pete's Reading Series in Brooklyn. Her debut novel, CITY OF LAUGHTER, a New York Times Editors' Pick, is out now on Grove Atlantic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Temim Fruchter is a queer nonbinary Jewish writer who lives in Brooklyn. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Maryland and is the recipient of fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, Vermont Studio Center, and a 2020 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award. She is co-host of Pete's Reading Series in Brooklyn. Her debut novel is City of Laughter. We talked about origin stories for families and books, queer sensibility, growing up Modern Orthodox Jew, unraveling the mysterious stories of our lives, and pushing boundaries in life and creative writing. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, I'm speaking to Aamina Ahmad, about her novel, The Return of Faraz Ali, which I found so moving, multi-layered and immersive, taking us into the heart of the red-light district of Lahore. We follow Faraz Ali, from when he is removed from his courtesan mother as just 5 years old, and as he grows up with a longing to understand who he is and where he comes from. The story involves a detective crime plot, and spans multiple timelines including the second world war, and the 1971 Bangladesh war of independence. I really enjoyed it, and I'm so pleased to be speaking to Aamina today. Aamina Ahmad is a British fiction writer and playwright based in the U.S. She has two book publications, the play The Dishonoured and the novel The Return of Faraz Ali, which was named a "new work to read" by The New York Times, "quietly stunning" by The New York Times Book Review, and a "most anticipated" book by both The Millions and Book Culture. She is a creative writing professor at the University of Minnesota and the winner of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award.This episode was recorded back in September 2023.If you enjoyed this episode, please do leave a review, and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice. Also, come connect with me on social media:www.instagram.com/readwithsamiaYou can now support the podcast, and help me put out great conversations like these.Join my community on Patreon, and when you subscribe you could get access to an exclusive, bonus episode every month:https://www.patreon.com/thediversebookshelfpodcastSupport the show

Authors have for a long time used literary expressions of anguish as a powerful tool to connect with readers. They may use language and symbolic references to nuance the emotions associated with it, but whatever their approach, they look to inspire emotions that deliver that gut punch.My guest today, Aamina Ahmad clearly knows how to handle the literature of conflicted emotions. Her debut novel, The Return Of Faraz Ali—set in the walled city of Lahore, Pakistan—is the story of a cop who is asked to hush up the murder of a prostitute by some powerful figures. But his deep connection to the Mohullah from his past takes the story in a direction that is both unexpected and compelling.While “The Return Of Faraz Ali” might be Aamina's debut novel, she is an experienced writer. Her background and career speak to this experience.Aamina was born and raised in London and studied English in college. She worked for the BBC as a script editor, including on epic stories like The East Enders. And since then she has, of note, published a full length play, a short story and a novel. Here's how she did:Her play, titled The Dishonoured, won a Screencraft Stage Play Award and was nominated for an Off-West End Award. Her short story "The Red One Who Rocks," published in 2019, won the Pushcart Prize. And “The Return Of Faraz Ali” won the Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award. And then they decided to give her the 2017 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award for… well, simply for being a good and promising writer.One of the many things I like about doing this show is discovering new authors—even if the rest of the world discovered them before I did.And ever so often, a particularly delightful piece of writing presents itself and I spend several happy days disappearing into the worlds that they have crafted. The last few days were spent in the literature of Aamina.And now, she joins me from her home in Minneapolis. Aamina Ahmad, welcome to The Literary City.ABOUT AAMINA AHMADAamina Ahmad was born and raised in London, where she worked for BBC Drama and other independent television companies as a script editor. Her play The Dishonoured was produced by Kali Theatre Company, in 2016.  She has an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and is a recipient of the Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, a Pushcart Prize, and a Rona Jaffe Writers' Award. Her short fiction has appeared in journals including One Story, The Southern Review and Ecotone. She won the Writers' Guild Award 2022 for Best First Novel and the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction at the L.A Book Prize for The Return of Faraz Ali. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  Buy The Return Of Faraz Ali: https://amzn.to/3nBWrVHWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "What's That Word?!",  where they discuss the origin of the phrase, "IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME!".WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com.Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycityOr here:  https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/

Today, Lydia Conklin talks to us about their collection RAINBOW RAINBOW, writing humor and joy, Lorrie Moore, deciding to publish their collection before their novel, working with Catapult, and more!  Lydia Conklin has received a Stegner Fellowship, a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, three Pushcart Prizes, a Creative Writing Fulbright in Poland, a grant from the Elizabeth George Foundation, a Creative Writing Fellowship from Emory University, work-study and tuition scholarships from Bread Loaf, and fellowships from MacDowell, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, Djerassi, the James Merrill House, and elsewhere. Their fiction has appeared in McSweeney's, American Short Fiction, The Paris Review, One Story, and VQR. They have drawn cartoons for The New Yorker and Narrative Magazine, and graphic fiction for The Believer, Lenny Letter, and the Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago. They've served as the Helen Zell Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan and are currently an Assistant Professor of Fiction at Vanderbilt University. Their story collection, Rainbow Rainbow, was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W Bingham Award and The Story Prize.  Sign up for Krys Malcolm Belc's online class, Writing Queer Memoir! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This month, in the Jen Hatmaker Book Club, we're celebrating the change of seasons. After enduring the sweltering heat this summer, nothing sounds more cozy than curling up with a good book, wearing your favorite oversized sweater and hunkering down in your favorite reading nook to welcome the falling leaves and falling temps (if you're in the south, and still sweltering, like us, just bump that AC down a few clicks and go with us here).  And if you're not a member of the club, you're not going to want to miss out on the conversations with authors around amazing books we're reading together. Jump on over to jenhatmakerbookclub.com  to sign up! Now, on to this month's author–if you're anything like Jen, a book filled with family drama, unique characters, and a really compelling storyline is the perfect fall read. And this author does not disappoint. We're talking with novelist Gabriela Garcia about her book Of Women and Salt.  Gabriela is the daughter of immigrants from Cuba and Mexico, raised in Miami, and currently living in the Bay Area. Her fiction and poetry have both appeared in Best American Poetry and have received rewards, including the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship.  With Of Women and Salt, Gabriela weaves an intergenerational story that takes us from From Cuba to Miami, featuring three generations of Cuban women, exploring themes of trauma, motherhood, addiction, love, and, immigration. We see the growing possibility of a better life passed down from each generation as well as the all too human aspects of regret and anger each generation feels for what they gave up for the next one.  *** Join the Jen Hatmaker Book Club today! jenhatmakerbookclub.com  *** Thought-Provoking Quotes “I was really interested in how we're all sort of born into a story that's already been happening without us. Whether we are aware of it or not, whether we have access to it fully or not.“ - Gabriela Garcia “Who gets to be a mother? How do we define motherhood? What makes a good mother? And how much of that is also just based circumstantially on what resources are available? There was so much there in all of those relationships that I was interested in exploring.” - Gabriela Garcia “I think with women, and especially immigrant women, often strength and sacrifice are so fetishized. I wanted to sort of explore what it means to survive within these patriarchal structures, within these violent worlds…and you don't always survive. You don't always come out triumphant.” - Gabriela Garcia “I think there's so much room for men to be messy, or complicated, and so much pressure on women to just offer stories of resilience and strength. So I think it means a lot [to me] just to be able to write about these complicated, complex, sometimes very messy women, and to have so many people connect to it.” - Gabriela Garcia    Gabriela's LinksGabriela's Website Gabriela's Instagram   Books & Resources Mentioned in This EpisodeOf Women and Salt by Gabriela Garcia Les Miserables by Victor Hugo If Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery When The Mountains Sing, I Dance by Irena Sola   Connect with Jen!Jen's website Jen's Instagram Jen's Twitter Jen's Facebook Jen's YouTube

Show Notes (More Show Notes available at ourfaithinwriting.com (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/writing-and-faith/our-faith-in-writing-podcast)) Our Faith in Writing explores the intersection of writing and faith through conversations about the writing process, the reading life, contemplative practices, and more. Host Charlotte Donlon is a writer and a spiritual director for writers, and she believes writing and reading help us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Subscribe to Our Faith in Writing wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review the show letting us know how these conversations are helping you feel less alone in your writing life and your reading life. More about Reparations Now! Reparations Now! asks for what's owed. In formal and non-traditional poems, award-winning poet Ashley M. Jones calls for long-overdue reparations to the Black descendants of enslaved people in the United States of America. In this, her third collection, Jones deftly takes on the worst of today—state-sanctioned violence, pandemic-induced crises, and white silence—all while uplifting Black joy. These poems explore trauma past and present, cultural and personal: the lynching of young, pregnant Mary Turner in 1918; the current white nationalist political movement; a case of infidelity. These poems, too, are a celebration of Black life and art: a beloved grandmother in rural Alabama, the music of James Brown and Al Green, and the soil where okra, pole beans, and collards thrive thanks to her father's hands. By exploring the history of a nation where “Black oppression's not happenstance; it's the law,” Jones links past harm to modern heartache and prays for a peaceful world where one finds paradise in the garden in the afternoon with her family, together, safe, and worry-free. While exploring the ways we navigate our relationships with ourselves and others, Jones holds us all accountable, asking us to see the truth, to make amends, to honor one another. More about Ashley M. Jones Ashley M. Jones received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. Ashley was recently named the new Alabama State Poet Laureate. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida's Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer's Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, and elsewhere. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Ashley's debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. Ashley has won several prizes including the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press and a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine. Learn more about Ashley, her work, and her writing at ashleymjonespoetry.com. More about Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. His second full-length volume of poetry, Pilgrim Bell, will be published by Graywolf in August 2021. His debut, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is out now with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, published in 2016 by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2022, Penguin Classics will publish a new anthology edited by Kaveh: The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. The recipient of honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014, Kaveh founded Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for the Paris Review called "Poetry RX." Learn more about Kaveh, his work, and his writing at kavehakbar.com. Charlotte Donlon is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/). Charlotte's writing and work are rooted in noticing how art helps us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other (https://charlottedonlon.com/the-great-belonging-book). You can subscribe to her newsletter (https://charlottedonlon.substack.com/) and connect with her onTwitter (https://twitter.com/charlottedonlon) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/charlottedonlon/).

Show Notes (More Show Notes available at ourfaithinwriting.com (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/writing-and-faith/our-faith-in-writing-podcast)) Our Faith in Writing explores the intersection of writing and faith through conversations about the writing process, the reading life, contemplative practices, and more. Host Charlotte Donlon is a writer and a spiritual director for writers, and she believes writing and reading help us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Subscribe to Our Faith in Writing wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review the show letting us know how these conversations are helping you feel less alone in your writing life and your reading life. Kaveh Akbar and Ashley M. Jones joined Charlotte for a conversation about Kaveh's newest book of poems, Pilgrim Bell which is available now wherever books are sold. Kaveh and Ashley discussed a few of Kaveh's poems from Pilgrim Bell, explored how poems help us feel connected to our loved ones who have died, shared what it's like to write about their parents, and more. The three also talked about how writing and reading help us belong to ourselves, others, the world, and the divine. More about Pilgrim Bell With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, “what now shall I repair?” Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance—the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation—teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness. Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigor is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives—resonant, revelatory, and holy. More about Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. His second full-length volume of poetry, Pilgrim Bell, will be published by Graywolf in August 2021. His debut, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is out now with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, published in 2016 by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2022, Penguin Classics will publish a new anthology edited by Kaveh: The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. The recipient of honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014, Kaveh founded Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for the Paris Review called "Poetry RX." More about Ashley M. Jones Ashley M. Jones received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida's Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer's Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, and elsewhere. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. Ashley has won several prizes including the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press and a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine. Charlotte Donlon is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/). Charlotte's writing and work are rooted in noticing how art helps us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other (https://charlottedonlon.com/the-great-belonging-book). You can subscribe to her newsletter (https://charlottedonlon.substack.com/) and connect with her onTwitter (https://twitter.com/charlottedonlon) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/charlottedonlon/).

Show Notes (More Show Notes available at ourfaithinwriting.com (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/writing-and-faith/our-faith-in-writing-podcast)) Our Faith in Writing explores the intersection of writing and faith through conversations about the writing process, the reading life, contemplative practices, and more. Host Charlotte Donlon is a writer and a spiritual director for writers, and she believes writing and reading help us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Subscribe to Our Faith in Writing wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget to rate and review the show letting us know how these conversations are helping you feel less alone in your writing life and your reading life. Kaveh Akbar and Ashley M. Jones join Charlotte for a conversation about Kaveh's newest book of poems, Pilgrim Bell which is available now wherever books are sold. Kaveh and Ashley discussed a few of Kaveh's poems from Pilgrim Bell, explored how poems help us feel connected to our loved ones who have died, shared what it's like to write about their parents, and more. The three also talked about how writing and reading help us belong to ourselves, others, the world, and the divine. More about Pilgrim Bell With formal virtuosity and ruthless precision, Kaveh Akbar's second collection takes its readers on a spiritual journey of disavowal, fiercely attendant to the presence of divinity where artifacts of self and belonging have been shed. How does one recover from addiction without destroying the self-as-addict? And if living justly in a nation that would see them erased is, too, a kind of self-destruction, what does one do with the body's question, “what now shall I repair?” Here, Akbar responds with prayer as an act of devotion to dissonance—the infinite void of a loved one's absence, the indulgence of austerity, making a life as a Muslim in an Islamophobic nation—teasing the sacred out of silence and stillness. Richly crafted and generous, Pilgrim Bell's linguistic rigor is tuned to the register of this moment and any moment. As the swinging soul crashes into its limits, against the atrocities of the American empire, and through a profoundly human capacity for cruelty and grace, these brilliant poems dare to exist in the empty space where song lives—resonant, revelatory, and holy. More about Kaveh Akbar Kaveh Akbar's poems appear in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Paris Review, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. His second full-length volume of poetry, Pilgrim Bell, will be published by Graywolf in August 2021. His debut, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is out now with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK. He is also the author of the chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, published in 2016 by Sibling Rivalry Press. In 2022, Penguin Classics will publish a new anthology edited by Kaveh: The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse: 100 Poets on the Divine In 2020 Kaveh was named Poetry Editor of The Nation. The recipient of honors including multiple Pushcart Prizes, a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, and the Levis Reading Prize, Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and teaches at Purdue University and in the low-residency MFA programs at Randolph College and Warren Wilson. In 2014, Kaveh founded Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in American poetry. With Sarah Kay and Claire Schwartz, he wrote a weekly column for the Paris Review called "Poetry RX." More about Ashley M. Jones Ashley M. Jones received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida's Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer's Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, and elsewhere. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. Ashley has won several prizes including the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press and a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts.She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine. Charlotte Donlon is a writer, a spiritual director for writers, and the founder and host of the Our Faith in Writing podcast and website (https://www.ourfaithinwriting.com/). Charlotte's writing and work are rooted in noticing how art helps us belong to ourselves, others, God, and the world. Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Curator, The Christian Century, Christianity Today, Catapult, The Millions, Mockingbird, and elsewhere. Her first book is The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other (https://charlottedonlon.com/the-great-belonging-book). You can subscribe to her newsletter (https://charlottedonlon.substack.com/) and connect with her onTwitter (https://twitter.com/charlottedonlon) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/charlottedonlon/).

In this episode, Clifford Brooks and Michael Amidei interview poet Ashley M. Jones. Ashley M. Jones (https://ashleymjonespoetry.com/) is Poet Laureate of the state of Alabama (2022-2026). She received an MFA in Poetry from Florida International University (FIU), where she was a John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Fellow. She served as Official Poet for the City of Sunrise, Florida's Little Free Libraries Initiative from 2013-2015, and her work was recognized in the 2014 Poets and Writers Maureen Egen Writer's Exchange Contest and the 2015 Academy of American Poets Contest at FIU. She was also a finalist in the 2015 Hub City Press New Southern Voices Contest, the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award Contest, and the National Poetry Series. Her poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in many journals and anthologies, including CNN, the Academy of American Poets, POETRY, Tupelo Quarterly, Prelude, Steel Toe Review, Fjords Review, Quiet Lunch, Poets Respond to Race Anthology, Night Owl, The Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy, pluck!, Valley Voices: New York School Edition, Fjords Review: Black American Edition, PMSPoemMemoirStory (where her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2016), Kinfolks Quarterly, Tough Times in America Anthology, and Lucid Moose Press' Like a Girl: Perspectives on Femininity Anthology. She received a 2015 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a 2015 B-Metro Magazine Fusion Award. She was an editor of PANK Magazine. Her debut poetry collection, Magic City Gospel, was published by Hub City Press in January 2017, and it won the silver medal in poetry in the 2017 Independent Publishers Book Awards. Her second book, dark // thing, won the 2018 Lena-Miles Wever Todd Prize for Poetry from Pleiades Press. Her third collection, REPARATIONS NOW! is forthcoming in Fall 2021 from Hub City Press. She won the 2018 Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize from Backbone Press, and she is the 2019 winner of the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award from St. Mary's College of Maryland. Jones is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and a 2020 Alabama Author award from the Alabama Library Association. She was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship in 2020. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, where she is founding director of the Magic City Poetry Festival, board member of the Alabama Writers Cooperative and the Alabama Writers Forum, co-director of PEN Birmingham, and a faculty member in the Creative Writing Department of the Alabama School of Fine Arts. Jones is also a member of the Core Faculty at the Converse College Low Residency MFA Program. She recently served as a guest editor for Poetry Magazine.

Gabriela Garcia is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award and a Steinbeck Fellowship from San Jose State University. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Best American Poetry, Tin House, Zyzzyva, Iowa Review, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in fiction from Purdue and lives in the Bay Area. Of Women and Salt is her first novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rita Mae Reese is an award-winning poet and author whose work has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, a Stegner fellowship, and a "Discovery"/The Nation prize. If that was not enough, Reese is also the Literary Arts Director at Arts + Literature Laboratory, a community-driven contemporary non-profit arts organization supporting the visual, literary, music and performing arts based in Madison, Wisconsin.  Visit ritamaereese.com and artlitlab.org for more info. 

Tiana Nobile is a recipient of a 2017 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer's Award, the Lucy Grealy Prize for Poetry, and a fellowship from Kundiman. A finalist of the National Poetry Series and Kundiman Poetry Prize, she is the author of The Spirit of the Staircase (2017), and her poetry has appeared in Poetry Northwest, The New Republic, Hyphen Magazine, and the Texas Review, among others. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally aired on October 6th 2018.

The Talented Ribkins with Ladee HubbardLadee Hubbard was born in Massachusetts, raised in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands and currently lives in New Orleans with her husband and three children. She received a B.A. from Princeton University, a Ph.D. from the University of California-Los Angeles, and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has published short fiction in the Beloit Fiction Journal and Crab Orchard Review among other publications and has received fellowships from the Hambidge Center, the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Hurston/Wright Foundation. She is a recipient of a 2016 Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award. http://pandeliterary.com/pl_author/ladee-hubbard/ Ready Fire Aim: How I Turned My Hobby Into an Empire with Melissa CarboneAt 40 years old, Melissa Carbone is just getting started. After a decade-long career running the largest revenue market in the world for Clear Channel Media + Entertainment, launching Ten Thirty One Productions, securing the then-largest deal in history on ABC’s Shark Tank in 2013, becoming business partners with billionaire Mark Cuban and turning that into a partnership with the world’s largest entertainment company, Live Nation, she shows no signs of slowing down. Her live entertainment horror company, Ten Thirty One Productions, has pioneered a new industry that is growing rapidly. In 2014, Ten Thirty One Productions was named the premiere leader in the horror attractions industry with Los Angeles Haunted Hayride being the most popular haunted attraction in the country. Melissa has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc., CSQ Magazine, on The Today Show as an industry expert in immersive entertainment, coined a “market maker” by Bloomberg News, as well as Squawk Box, CNN, CNBC Power Lunch and many more. Melissa was named CSQ Magazine’s 2016 Entertainment Visionary, was a top ten finalist for the LA Business Journal’s prestigious “Woman of the Year” Award in 2010, and was voted one of the “Top 7 Pitches” in the history of Shark Tank by the Young Entrepreneur Council. http://www.tenthirtyoneproductions.com

Acclaimed author ZZ Packer (Drinking Coffee Elsewhere) has received a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Whiting Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is currently at work on a novel, Thousands, about the Buffalo Soldiers, which was excerpted in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. In conversation with Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and recorded live during Litquake 2013, at Museum of the African Diaspora. 

Acclaimed author ZZ Packer has been the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award, a Whiting Award, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere won the Commonwealth First Fiction Award and an ALEX award, and was selected for the Today Show Book Club by John Updike. She is currently at work on a novel, Thousands, about the Buffalo Soldiers, which was excerpted in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. Here, we present Packer reading from Thousands, followed by a wide-ranging conversation with author and professor Sarah Ladipo Manyika. ZZ Packer’s stories and nonfiction have appeared in Harper’s, Story, Ploughshares, Zoetrope All-Story, and The New York Times Magazine. She was recently named a professor of Creative Writing at San Francisco State University. Sarah Ladipo Manyika was raised in Nigeria and her writing includes essays, academic papers, reviews and short stories. Her first novel is In Dependence (Legend Press, London; Cassava Republic Press, Abuja). She teaches literature at San Francisco State University. This program is co-presented by MoAD and Litquake.