The American Poetry Review

The Kunitz Prize deadline (May 15!) is just around the corner and we're thinking about the illustrious list of poets who have won it in the past 15 years. Today we discuss the prize-winning poems by Susan Nguyen (https://aprweb.org/poems/impossible-deer) and Jared Harèl (https://aprweb.org/poems/veterans-day-2014).

Join us as we revel in the intricate thought processes of some of our March/April 2024 contributors, Catherine Barnett (https://aprweb.org/poems/envoy), Omotara James (https://aprweb.org/poems/sundays-v-bruce-queens-ny-august-2023), and Fritz Ward (https://aprweb.org/poems/what-it-is).

In this episode, we're talking about the January/February 2024 issue (https://the-american-poetry-review.myshopify.com/collections/issues/products/vol-53-no-1-jan-feb-2024) and appreciating some formal choices in poetry. We touch upon the pantoum (https://poets.org/glossary/pantoum), the duplex (https://poets.org/glossary/duplex), and the golden shovel (https://poets.org/glossary/goldenshovel), and have a chat with Dorothy Chan (https://aprweb.org/poems/triple-sonnet-for-nomi-malone) about her deep engagement with the triple sonnet. Plus, January Gill O’Neil reads "Manifesto," (https://aprweb.org/poems/manifesto)from the Jan/Feb 2024 issue.

It was the end of the year, we were a little punchy and so were the poems. We share some of our favorite super-compressed short poems from Etheridge Knight (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48752/feeling-fucked-up), Kay Ryan (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/eggs-3), and Jean Valentine (http://www.jeanvalentine.com/poems/34door.html), as well as some fiction recommendations for your wintertime reading pleasure. Also, some readings from our November/December 2023 issue (https://the-american-poetry-review.myshopify.com/collections/issues/products/vol-52-no-6-nov-dec-2023) by Todd Dillard (https://aprweb.org/poems/a-catalog-of-how-are-you-doings5) and Maya C. Popa (https://aprweb.org/authors/maya-c-popa).

We've been thinking about some great first lines of poems. What makes them great and how do we get there? In this discussion, we touch upon poems by Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Eduardo C. Corral, Brenda Shaughnessy, and Elizabeth Bishop. We also have readings from the magazine by Kayleb Rae Candrilli (https://www.krcandrilli.com/), Katie Condon (https://www.katiecondonpoetry.com/), and Dana Isokawa (https://aprweb.org/poems/essay-on-speaking).

This episode is a love letter to Mary Ruefle, as we reflect on a great reading of hers (available on YouTube) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=227__gQc8s4), from her book Madness, Rack, and Honey (https://www.wavepoetry.com/products/madness-rack-and-honey).

Tune in for the second half of our special two-part podcast featuring Major Jackson, who shared selections from his new book Razzle Dazzle: New & Selected Poems (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324064909) (W.W. Norton & Co, 2023) at a recent event at APR's home base, the Philadelphia Ethical Society. Major Jackson is the author of six books of poetry, including_ The Absurd Man_ (2020),_ Roll Deep_ (2015), Holding Company (2010), Hoops (2006) and Leaving Saturn _(2002), which won the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for a first book of poems. His edited volumes include: _Best American Poetry 2019, Renga for Obama, and Library of America’s Countee Cullen: Collected Poems. He is also the author of A Beat Beyond: The Selected Prose of Major Jackson _edited by Amor Kohli. A recipient of fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, John S. Guggenheim Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, Major Jackson has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, and has been honored by the Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. He has published poems and essays in _American Poetry Review, The New Yorker, Orion Magazine, Paris Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry London, and World Literature Today. Major Jackson lives in Nashville, Tennessee where he is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Chair in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and serves as the Poetry Editor of The Harvard Review.

Join us for the first half of a special two-part podcast featuring Kazim Ali, who recently visited us in Philadelphia to read from his new book Sukun: New and Selected Poems (https://bookshop.org/p/books/sukun-new-and-selected-poems-kazim-ali/19644670?ean=9780819500700) (Wesleyan University Press, 2023). KAZIM ALI was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including the volumes of poetry Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth Day; All One’s Blue; and the cross-genre texts Bright Felon and Wind Instrument. His novels include the recently published The Secret Room: A String Quartet and among his books of essays are the hybrid memoir Silver Road: Essays, Maps & Calligraphies and Fasting for Ramadan: Notes from a Spiritual Practice. He is also an accomplished translator (of Marguerite Duras, Sohrab Sepehri, Ananda Devi, Mahmoud Chokrollahi and others) and an editor of several anthologies and books of criticism. After a career in public policy and organizing, Ali taught at various colleges and universities, including Oberlin College, Davidson College, St. Mary's College of California, and Naropa University. He is currently a Professor of Literature at the University of California, San Diego. His newest books are a volume of three long poems entitled The Voice of Sheila Chandra and a memoir of his Canadian childhood, Northern Light.

Join us as we chat about Robyn Schiff's new book Information Desk: An Epic (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/676185/information-desk-by-robyn-schiff/) and other fine examples of ekphrastic poetry! Other topics include: the September/October issue (https://the-american-poetry-review.myshopify.com/collections/issues/products/vol-52-no-5-sept-oct-2023), including the new Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize winner, Karisma Price (https://aprweb.org/poems/the-art-of-london-firearms), and Kimiko Hahn's book Foreign Bodies (https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324005216), which refers to Philadelphia's own Mütter Museum (https://muttermuseum.org/).

Join us for a new episode in which we discuss what makes a poem a poem! We touch upon poems from Indrani Sengupta (https://aprweb.org/poems/i-throw-a-dinner-party) and Laura Van Prooyen (https://aprweb.org/poems/sadness-in-the-shape-of-a-phone) in the July/August issue (https://the-american-poetry-review.myshopify.com/collections/issues/products/vol-52-no-4-jul-aug-2023). Plus, a reading from Burnside Soleil. For more, visit The American Poetry Review (https://aprweb.org/).

We discuss the new issue (https://the-american-poetry-review.myshopify.com/collections/issues/products/vol-52-no-4-jul-aug-2023), of course, and: * Readings from Justin Rigamonti and Nomi Stone (https://aprweb.org/poems/doing-messages) * A Tyehimba Jess (https://www.tyehimbajess.net/) reading and other memorable readings – what makes a reading memorable? * Some summer poems like: Ada Limón’s “Sundown All The Damage Done” (https://aprweb.org/poems/sundown-and-all-the-damage-done) * “Mock Orange” by Louise Glück (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49601/mock-orange) * “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47734/lying-in-a-hammock-at-william-duffys-farm-in-pine-island-minnesota) * Recommendations including: Big Swiss (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/big-swiss-jen-beagin/1141291765?ean=9781982153083) by Jen Beagin, Janelle Monae’s new one The Age of Pleasure (https://open.spotify.com/album/3440hCSfwYXxJcbQ0j3jAJ), Tender is the Flesh (https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tender-is-the-flesh-agustina-bazterrica/1135277372)by Agustina Bazterrica, and translations by Jennifer Grotz (https://www.jennifergrotz.com/)

Today on the show, Elizabeth Scanlon, Hannah Gellman and Steven Kleinman discuss: the new issue of APR with Shane McCrae An appreciation of Elaine Equi – “The Lonely Parade” in this issue, and “Sometimes I Get Distracted” Plus, a chat with Hannah re: recommending poems to those new to poetry. Poems mentioned: Elizabeth Bishop “Filling Station,” Robert Hayden “Those Winter Sundays,” Robert Hass “Meditation at Lagunitas,” Angel Nafis “Woo Woo Roll Deep” Marie Howe, “What the Living Do” Books mentioned: Airea D. Matthews, Bread & Circus Marcy Dermansky, Hurricane Girl The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org

Join us for a special feature on poet Faylita Hicks, who is the author of HoodWitch (Acre Books, 2019), a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Poetry, the 2019 Julie Suk Award, and the 2019 Balcones Poetry Prize. Currently, they are working on a second poetry collection, A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024), and a debut memoir about their carceral experience, A Body of Wild Light (Haymarket Books, 2025). The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org

On this episode: Poet Alina Pleskova, whose new collection, Toska, is set to drop soon. Plus, join us as hosts Elizabeth Scanlon and Hannah Gellman discuss, among many other things: · APR's Kunitz Prize · Frank O'Hara · and new books on the horizon. The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast.

On this episode, we talk about our plans for AWP in Seattle and revisit a spectacular Honickman Book Prize reading by Chessy Normile from AWP 2022 as we gear up for the conference next week. For more, visit aprweb.org.

Celebrating the official pub date of Chelsea Harlan's Honickman First Book Prize winning Bright Shade! Chosen by Jericho Brown, who says: This beautiful debut seems to ask not just what poetry is but what it can be. And each poem answers, “Every raindrop/a little bell,//every switchback/and holler baptized.” Listen up for this fantastic reading from Chelsea Harlan from our live event earlier this year in Philadelphia. For more, visit aprweb.org.

Join us for a special edition mini-episode celebrating the appointment of Ada Limón as the new Poet Laureate of the United States. APR Editor Elizabeth Scanlon offers up an exclusive recording of Ada's reading at the APR 50th anniversary celebration that took place in Philadelphia earlier this year. The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org

Join us as hosts Elizabeth Scanlon and Steven Kleinman talk with Natalie Shapero. Shapero is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection POPULAR LONGING. Her previous collections are HARD CHILD, shortlisted for the International Griffin Poetry Prize, and NO OBJECT, winner of the Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award. Natalie’s writing has appeared in The Nation, The New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org

Join us as hosts Elizabeth Scanlon, Steven Kleinman and Thalia Geiger take a deep dive on couplet craft, weird animals, and the pre-elegaic. Plus poets’ readings of: “Love Poem” The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org

Join us as hosts Elizabeth Scanlon, Steven Kleinman and Thalia Geiger take a deep dive on the May/June issues highlights, including: — Shamar Hill’s The Walls Became the World All Around (read by the author) — Alison C. Rollins’ springtime again (read by the author) — and Jack Gilbert interviewed by Forrest Gander The American Poetry Review is a RADIOKISMET podcast. For more: aprweb.org