Friends, lovers, bilches—this episode wraps up our pandemic season of The Poet Salon, and what an episode it is! After chopping it up with Amaud Jamaul Johnson on smoke, speakers, and silences, he brought us Linda Gregg's "The Poet Goes About Her Business." If this is your first encounter with the poem, we're excited for you but also very jealous. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry...

Good day, bilches! We're winding down this stab at a third season with our last, luminous guest, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, with whom we discuss advisorship, allusion, and arrangement. Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and...

Salami lovers, soup slurpers, and salad spinners—this week Jane Wong served up the one and only Gwendolyn Brooks. In this episode, you'll hear us eat up Brooks' "when you have forgotten sunday: the love story" JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work...

Dear lovers and frenemies—we're marching along through the end of this season. Our latest offering is a lovely conversation with Jane Wong with whom we discuss food, framings and frontiers. Phew. JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work Center, Bread...

Frenz, as promised, here is Carl Phillips' reading our first-ever haiku on The Poet Salon, Kobayashi Issa's "[The world of dew]" or "On the Death of a Child."  CARL PHILLIPS is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). He has won the Kingsley Tufts Award and been a finalist for the National Book Award. He currently teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. Japanese poet KOBAYASHI ISSA, also known as...

Today, we‘ve got for you the inimitable Carl Phillips, with whom we discussed syntax, abstracts, and the brassiest of tacks. Enjoy!

What's good, baby. We're back for the second part of our conversation with esteemed Tommye Blount. For us today, Tommy brought Spencer Reece's "Interlude," a short poem that imagines, does, asks so, so much. TOMMYE BLOUNTE grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of the poetry collection Fantasia for the Man in Blue (2020) and the chapbook What Are We Not For (2016). Blount has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf...

Lovely loves, we went on a panda break but we're back now with our latest drop: a conversation with the inimitable Tommye Blount on color, order and desire. TOMMYE BLOUNTE grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of the poetry collection Fantasia for the Man in Blue (2020) and the chapbook What Are We Not For (2016). Blount has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem, and Kresge Arts....

Friends—here we are. Here you are. Here's Ada Limón reading Wanda Coleman's "Requiem for a Nest." It is almost certainly the record for times we thought we were done with the conversation and Luther realized he had more to say about the poem. Enjoy. We did—we serenely and delusionally did. ADA LIMÓN, a current Guggenheim fellow, is the author of five poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her fourth book Bright Dead Things was...

O hi there, it's us, The Poet Salon, back in your ears with our third season—and what a season it is!  We're kicking things off with the incomparable Ada Limón. After some quick updates from us, we discuss the virtues of poetic "play" before conversing with the one-and-only Ada about the human condition, carrying grief, and Kentucky. ADA LIMÓN, a current Guggenheim fellow, is the author of five poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for...

Season 3 Preview

Congrats! You, us, we have made it through two whole seasons of this wacky little experiment to get poets to talk to us about poems. Can't think of more lovely way to close us out than with this conversation with the one and only Justin Phillip Reed on Reginald Shepherd's "Occurrences across the Chromatic Scale". Listen to us astonish, awe, swell, delight, and learn from, over, below this poem. Then be sure to go back and re-listen the very first episode. It's a treat! JUSTIN PHILLIP REED is...

Hello beautifuls—we're nearing the end of our second season (one more episode to go!) and we're grateful you're here with us. This week we answer TWO audience questions about capital-P Poetry and reading rituals. Then, we get the chance to (virtually) chop it up with the one and only delight Justin Phillip Reed. JUSTIN PHILLIP REED is an American poet, essayist, and amateur bass guitarist. His preoccupations include horror cinema, poetic form, morphological transgressions, and uses of the...

Donate to bailout fund, pass it on. Following up on last week's conversation with one of our favs Keetje Kuipers, today, we dig into one of her mentor's poems "Quarantine" by Eavan Boland. Writer and editor KEETJE KUIPERS (pronounced Kay-tcha Ky-pers) is the author of three books of poems, all from BOA Editions. Her first book, Beautiful in the Mouth, was selected by Thomas Lux as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. Named one of the top ten debut poetry books of 2010 by Poets &...

Another week, another hundred hand-washes. This week we get dig into ways to unstick writer's block before the blessing that was the virtual company of Keetje Kuipers. Together, we talk about symmetry, sadness, and sticking cold cheese in unexpected places. Buckle up! Writer and editor KEETJE KUIPERS (pronounced Kay-tcha Ky-pers) is the author of three books of poems, all from BOA Editions. Her first book, Beautiful in the Mouth, was selected by Thomas Lux as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr....

Yooo we did it! Another week, another episode. In this one, the one-and-only Aria Aber brings in Solmaz Sharif's "The Master's House" to binge and revel and geek and play and laugh and pray. And oh did we— ARIA ABER was raised in Germany. Her debut book Hard Damage won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in September 2019. Her poems are forthcoming or have appeared in The New Yorker, New Republic, Kenyon Review, The Yale Review, Poem-A-Day, Narrative, Muzzle Magazine,...

Friends! Lovers! Nemeses! Hope you're washing your hands! This episode is our first recording entirely remotely—including our interview with special guest Aria Aber, who was gracious enough to deal with a combination of technical difficulties and our muddled quarantine brains. No amount of ambient noise could get in the way of her sheer brilliance though.  ARIA ABER was raised in Germany. Her debut book Hard Damage won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was published in...

Hi loves, we're back with part deux of our conversation with the vibrant Michelle Peñaloza. Coming off of last week's lovely conversation about her own work, for this episode, she brought in Douglas Kerney's "Tallahatchie Lullabye, Baby". We excited to share the poem and this chat with you. Hope you're staying safe! MICHELLE PEÑALOZA is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019). She is also the...

This week, friends, we're sitting with the question "So what do you write about?" ahead of a lovely conversation with Michelle Peñaloza. We chop it up about confession, contrast, and kasamas while sipping on Fire and Chrysanthemums. Enjoy! MICHELLE PEÑALOZA is the author of Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire, winner of the 2018 Hillary Gravendyk National Poetry Prize (Inlandia Books, 2019). She is also the author of two chapbooks, landscape/heartbreak (Two Sylvias, 2015), and Last Night...

Hope you're staying safe, loves! This week we've got a special bonus episode for you:  The Craft of the Literary Podcast Interview, which was initially slated to be an AWP panel. Due to pandemic, it was cancelled, but you still get to hear the conversation between Mike Sakesegawa of Keep the Channel Open, Rachel Zucker of Commonplace, David Naimon of Between the Covers, and our very own Dujie Tahat. They discuss topics like how do we come up with questions, is the podcast inherently selfish,...

O dear ones—hope you're staying safe and well! We're coming to you from our respective apartments for our second conversation with Paisley Rekdal, who was kind enough to bring in Brigit Pegeen Kelley's "Black Swan". We geeked. If you haven't yet, be sure to check out last week's episode and leave us a sweet review! PAISLEY REKDAL  is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee;  the hybrid photo-text memoir, Intimate; and five books of poetry: A Crash of Rhinos; Six...

Have you washed your hands yet? Please take care of your selves and each other. This week, we recorded remotely for the first time. After chopping it up about how COVID-19 has affected our relationships to poetry, we dive into a conversation with Paisley Rekdal from a few months ago about mythology, movement, and making difficult editorial choices.  PAISLEY REKDAL  is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee;  the hybrid photo-text memoir, Intimate; and five...

Hope your washing your hands, friends! We're back this week with a cute little episode in which Taneum Bambrick reads Aria Aber's "The Only Cab Service of Farmington, Maine". Last week we kicked it with Taneum talking about sturgeon, sex, and stuff thrown in the trash, and if you haven't heard that yet, we'd highly recommend booping back over in the feed and hitting play ASAP. Taneum Bambrick is the author of Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry...

Hello dearest dearests—what a time to be alive listening to podcasts! If you're here, you probably know the drill already. If not, you're about to hear a thoughtful and laugh-filled conversation with Taneum Bambrick about sturgeon, sex, and stuff you throw in the trash. If you're new to The Poet Salon, stay tuned for next week, where she brings a poem for us to fawn over.  Taneum Bambrick is the author of Vantage, which was selected by Sharon Olds for the 2019 American Poetry...