Episodes

  • Todd Davis
    Apr 29 2024

    Todd Davis is the author of seven books of poetry. His most recent collections are Coffin Honey and Native Species. His book Ditch Memory: New and Selected Poems is forthcoming from Michigan State University Press in August of 2024. He has won the Midwest Book Award, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze and Silver Awards, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Editors Prize, and the Bloomsburg University Book Prize. His poems appear in such journals and magazines as Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Missouri Review, North American Review, Orion, Southern Humanities Review, and Western Humanities Review. He is an emeritus fellow of the Black Earth Institute and teaches environmental studies at Pennsylvania State University’s Altoona College.

    Links:

    Read "For a Stray Dog near the Paper Mill in Tyrone, Pennsylvania" in 32 Poems

    Read "Burn Barrel" at Broadsided

    Ditch Memory: New and Selected Poems, forthcoming in August 2024

    "A Nature Poet Grapples with Life at the Edge of the Climate Crisis," an interview in Allegheny Front

    Todd Davis' website

    Bio and Poems at the Poetry Foundation

    Two poems in North American Review

    Three poems at Terrain.org

    "Salvelinus fontinalis," a video poem

    Podcast archive for Notes from the Allegheny Front

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    9 mins
  • Iliana Rocha and Delmira Agustini
    Apr 1 2024

    Iliana Rocha earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. She is the 2019 winner of the Berkshire Prize for her book The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez (Tupelo Press). Her first book, Karankawa, won the 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Best New Poets anthology, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latin American Literature Today, and many others. She has won fellowships from CantoMundo and MacDowell. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Waxwing Literary Journal, and she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee.

    Delmira Agustini is considered one of the most important South American poets of the 20th century. She was born to upper-middle-class parents in Montevideo, Uruguay in October of 1886. She began writing poetry at the age of 10, and her first major work, El Libro Blanco, was published in 1907, when she was just 20 years old. She went on to publish several other books that were well-received by writers and critics.

    Links:

    Read "Still Life," "Houston," and "Landscape with Graceland Crumbling in My Hands"

    Read "Explosión" in Spanish and English

    Iliana Rocha

    Iliana Rocha's website

    Bio and poems at the Poetry Foundation's website

    "The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez" in New York Times Magazine

    "Mexican American Sonnet" at Poets.org

    "Three Poems" in Latin American Literature Today

    “like the building that reflects his death in every window: A Conversation with Iliana Rocha about The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” — curated by Tiffany Troy in Tupelo Quarterly

    Delmira Agustini

    Bio and "The Vampire" at Poets.org

    Six Poems by Delmira Agustini (translated by Valerie Martinez) at Drunken Boat

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    11 mins
  • Harold Whit Williams
    Mar 5 2024

    Harold Whit Williams is a poet and longtime guitarist for the indie rock band Cotton Mather. He's the recipient of the 2020 FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, the 2014 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize, as well as multiple Pushcart nominations. Williams is currently cataloging the KUT Radio Collection for the University of Texas Libraries, all the while writing, recording, and performing his solo music under the moniker Daily Worker.

    Links:

    Read “Early Recordings: Volume 1;” “Caught by the Indian Summer Train;” and “Participation Trophy”

    Harold Whit William's website

    Daily Worker at Radio Gurl Records

    "Holding out for Nothing" music video by Daily Worker

    "Premonitions at a Funeral" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" at JuxtaProse

    Four poems at The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

    "Blues Dreams," winner of The Mississippi Review Poetry Prize

    Follow Harold Whit Williams on Facebook

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    10 mins
  • Denton Loving and D.H. Lawrence
    Dec 21 2023

    Denton Loving is the author of Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level: an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks). He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. His work has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf.

    D.H. Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire in England, and he died in 1930 at Vence in the south of France. Though Lawrence is best known for his novels—he’s the author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and nearly a dozen others—he also published short stories, plays, essays, criticism, and more than a dozen collections of poetry.

    Links:

    Read "Copperhead," "Foundation," and "Hurtling"

    Read "Humming-Bird"

    Denton Loving

    Denton Loving's website

    "Five Poems by Denton Loving" at Salvation South

    "Three Poems by Denton Loving" at Harvard Divinity Bulletin

    "Under the Chestnut Tree" at Ecotone

    Video: WANA (Writers Association of Northern Appalachia) Live! Reading Series featuring Denton Loving

    Review of Tamp at Southern Review of Books

    D.H. Lawrence

    Bio, Poems, and Prose at The Poetry Foundation

    Bio and Poems at Poetry.org

    Mentioned in this episode:

    KnoxCountyLibrary.org

    Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

    Rate & review on Podchaser

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    6 mins
  • Hank Lazer
    Nov 29 2023

    Hank Lazer has published thirty-four books of poetry; his latest books are P I E C E S, When the Time Comes, and field recordings of mind in morning. In 2014, he retired from the University of Alabama after 37 years as a professor and an administrator. He continues to teach innovative seminars on Zen Buddhism and Radical Approaches to the Arts for the University of Alabama's Blount Scholars Program. In 2015, Lazer won The Harper Lee Award, Alabama’s highest literary award for lifetime achievement.

    Read "Duncan Farm November Meditation" and section 8 from The New Spirit

    Hank Lazer's website

    Recordings at PennSound

    Interview on Bookmark with Don Noble

    Eleven poems at Plume

    Five poems at Interim

    "'Furnishings in the House of the Voice': An Interview with Hank Lazer

    by Lisa Russ Spaar"

    Mentioned in this episode:

    KnoxCountyLibrary.org

    Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

    Rate & review on Podchaser

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    9 mins
  • Jenny Sadre-Orafai
    Oct 30 2023

    Jenny Sadre-Orafai is a poet and essayist and the author of Dear Outsiders and three other poetry collections. Her poetry has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Cream City Review, Ninth Letter, and The Cortland Review. Her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Fourteen Hills, and The Los Angeles Review. She co-founded and co-edits Josephine Quarterly and teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University.

    Links:

    Read "Occupation Interview," "Tragedy Lesson," and "Souvenirs for Locals"

    Jenny Sadre-Orafai's website

    Three Poems at $

    "I Become More Animal When I'm Grieving: A Conversation with Jenny Sadre-Orafi" at The Rumpus

    Video: "Hard Hat Reading: Jenny Sadre-Orafai" at Poets House

    Video: "Jenny Sadre-Orafai reads at the SAFTA Reading Series"

    "In Their Own Words: Jenny Sadre-Orafai on 'Queen of Cups'" at Poetry Society of America

    Josephine Quarterly

    Mentioned in this episode:

    KnoxCountyLibrary.org

    Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

    Rate & review on Podchaser

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    6 mins
  • Anna Laura Reeve and William Shakespeare
    Sep 28 2023

    Anna Laure Reeve was born and raised in Knoxville, and she earned a Master of Arts in Literature & Poetry Writing from the University of Tennessee. Her poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Jet Fuel Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and many others. She recently won Beloit Poetry Journal’s Adrienne Rich Award, and she was a finalist for the Heartwood Poetry Prize and the Ron Rash Award in Poetry. Her book Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility was recently published by Belle Point Press. She is an assistant editor of Juke Joint, a literary magazine based in Jackson, Mississippi.

    William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, most likely in April of 1564. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children. Shakespeare made his living as an actor and playwright, and his works include 38 plays in addition to 154 sonnets and various other types of poetry. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.

    Links:

    Read an early version of "Tennessee Red Cobb" at Appalachia Bare

    Read "Méniére's Disease" at The Racket

    Read "Look at Everything" and "Children of Asylum Seekers" at The Racket

    Read "That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)" at Poets.org

    Read "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29)" at Poets.org

    Anna Laura Reeve

    Anna Laura Reeve's website

    "Poets in Conversation: Anna Laura Reeve" at Beloit Poetry Journal

    Two Poems from Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility by Anna Laura Reeve at ACM

    "Motherhood Unshorn: A Review of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility" at Literary Mama

    William Shakespeare

    Bio and poems at Poets.org

    "Shakespeare's Life" at Folger Shakespeare Library's site

    The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

    Mentioned in this episode:

    KnoxCountyLibrary.org

    Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

    Rate & review on Podchaser

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    10 mins
  • Pauletta Hansel and Edna St. Vincent Millay
    Aug 29 2023

    Pauletta Hansel is the author of nine collections of poetry, including her latest book Heartbreak Tree. Her work has been featured in Oxford American, Rattle, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, among others. Hansel was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate, and she was the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County.

    Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine in 1892. Along with her many books of poetry, Millay published plays, a libretto called The King’s Henchman, and she wrote short stories for popular fiction magazines under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

    Links:

    Read "I Take My Mother with Me Everywhere" and "After"

    Read "Postcard from Age 60" at Braided Way

    Read "Recuerdo" at The Poetry Foundation

    Pauletta Hansel

    Pauletta Hansel's website

    "The Road" at Poetry Daily

    "The City" at Appalachian Review

    "May 1, 2020" in The Oxford American

    "Palindrome" at Still: The Journal

    Video: "Meet our 2022 Writer-In-Residence" Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

    Edna St. Vincent Millay

    Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation

    Bio and poems at Poets.org

    The Millay Society's Audio Archives

    Mentioned in this episode:

    KnoxCountyLibrary.org

    Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

    Rate & review on Podchaser

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    7 mins