The Poet and The Poem: Recent Episodes
Grace Cavalieri
Refresh your life with THE POET AND THE POEM. Hear America’s most beloved poets in reading and conversation. Award winning poet/host Grace Cavalieri presents poets reading their work and talking about their art. After 41 years consecutive on public radio, cited by The Encyclopedia of Broadcasting for longevity, THE POET AND THE POEM has made history for one reason: It’s powerful. Voted top in the nation for ENTERTAINMENT IN MEDIA by The National Commission On Working Women, ALL NEW 30-minute shows are now available. (Made possible by donors McNeil and Shashaani.)
Robin Dunn is originally from Scotland and is a master of linguistics. William Heath writes poems of American Culture. Each present new books of poems.
Caroline Bock premieres an autofictional novel, "THE OTHER BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE," about a TV executive in NYC.
Two Baltimore poets, one acritic/ musicologist, the other an educator historian, share poems from The Baltimore School of Poetry.
Two prominent poets writing/ furthering Italian American heritage in the context of today's canon.
Roberta Beary is the international roving ambassador for The Haiku Foundation. She takes Haibun to a new enduring level.
Jason Gebhardt is the winner of the Washington Writers' Publishing House 50th Anniversary Editor's Poetry Prize for "DICTIONARY OF AIR." He lives in Washington, DC with his family and works as a preschool teacher.
Christopher Gorham is the 20th awardee of the Marfield Prize for Writing in the Arts: "Matisse and World War I."
Multilingual artist, poet, essayist, musician premiers his new work NO MORE ANIMALS with his original music.
Two women poets are leaders in the field, writing, presenting and furthering african american poetry.
Harryette Mullen is an icon in American literature, able to excel in all language esthetics. This podcast premieres her new book: "Regaining Unconsciousness."
Ellen Carter premiers her debut book THE MEANING OF LIFE and talks about the writing craft.
An emerging poet of consequence writes of his identity as a Korean /Jewish person, and uses Krean folklore as a tool.
Two Maryland poets premiere new work with different voices and styles, superior in craft.
A Chinese American poet, appointed the 25th U.S. Poet Laureate, reads his poems inspired by Zen practices.
Katie Lehman brings Emily Dickingon to readers in a new light with her poems: "Emily Dickinson's Lexicon."
One of the founders of the Language School of Poetry reads from his new books, "Letter To Poetry" and "Simple Syrup."
Nin Andrews celebrated poet premieres her new book: Son Of A Bird: A Memoir in Prose Poems.
Mary Jo Bang is an eminent American poet, reading from her 9th book, "A Film In Which I Play Everyone."
Ukrainian poet premieres a poetry selected from 50 years of writing, "The Venus of Odesa."
Poet and novelist premiers forthcoming poetry collection "This Dark Earth" in reverence to the land.
"Lanterns in The Night Market," is this prize winning author's poetry from 20 years of traveling the world.
Winner of the Passager Mogenthau Prize for a poet 70 years (or older) with a debut poetry book.
Natalie Dykstra, winner of the 2024 Marfield Award for writing in the arts; "Chasing Beauty; the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner."
Kymberly Taylor debuts stunning book of poems, "Thinandflying dress" where sensuality is the metaphor for freedom. She is the publisher of "Annapolis Home Magazine," journalist/poet.
Carolyn Forche is one of America's most valued, admired and beloved poet. She leads the POET AS WITNESS activism for human rights.
Korean-American writer is a surgeon and poet and combines science and art as a daily practice. From a harsh life, a child, during the Korean war, he now heals others.
Richard Colaresi is the translator of a new edition of VIRGIL's AENEID bringing the masterwork into a sparkling new version.
Maria Terrone, editor, educator, premiers her new collection of poems, "No Known Coordinates."
DANIEL MENDELSOHN, editor of "NY Times Review of Books" is the new translator of Homer's "ODYSSEY." Scholar, editor, essayist, translator.
George Bilgere is the master of poetry combining humor and tragedy. He's producer of radio show "WORDPLAY" and author of daily newsletter "POETRY TOWN."
Acclaimed poet now writes an African American ghost story enriched by her Petrachan sonnets.
Tim Donnelly directs Columbia University's MFA program. He's the author of 4 books and the winner of some of America's top literary awards.
Poet, teacher, former Director,Academy of American Poets, the NEA, The Folger Poetry Board, and more.
Young-Key Kim-Renaud is a linguist, scholar and poet. She writes penetrating poems about her culture; and edited the (English) SONGS IN THE SECOND LANGUAGE KOREAN ANTHOLOGY.
Gregory Orr One of America's great poets and teachers, created and directed the MFA program in Writing at the Univ of VA where he taught for 45 years.
Detroit's favorite son, known for his fight for justice with poetry; and music groups, especially the famous Magic Poetry Band.
Novelist, poet, is author of the famed novel "Vivaldi's Virgins" and four other historical novels.
Robert Haywood, art historian/curator features pop artists KAPROW and OLDENBURG's "Happenings" in a groundbreaking book.
Dennis Maloney, poet, publisher, translator, whose own books of poems have been translated in more than a dozen languages.
Judith Bowles premiers her third book of deceptively simple poetry that deepens, and fulfills, our reality.
A.B. Spellman is a seminal figure from the Black arts Movement of the 1960's. He is renowned as a jazz scholar, and reads from his new book 'Between The Night And Its Music.'
Marc Vencenz is a poet, musician, publisher/editor, translator and artist who upholds the poetry canon in this world.
Leo Woodman radio tv producer/poet/ started writing poetry 10 years ago, at age 68, and authors 5 books.
Uruguayan poet visits America with his book "Aguas," translated by poet Jona Colson, Co-President The Washington Writers' Publishing House.
James Hall is author of ROMANTIC COMEDY. This ruthlessly beautiful funny book of poems won the FourWay Book Prize judged by Diane Seuss.
Grace Cavalieri's Legacy in Radio, Television and Literature interviewed by CYNTHIA MANION.
Dr. Nishi Chawla is a poet, playwright, and filmmaker, transported from teaching English at Delhi University for 20 years, to teaching English in USA for 20 more.
Patrick Bringley is the 18th recipient of the NATIONAL MARFIELD BOOK PRIZE for Writing in The Arts. "All The Beauty In The World" is life as a guard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Jean Nordhaus premieres "The Music of Being" illustrating grief; as well as the many facets language. She holds advanced degrees in Philosophy and German Literature. Jean is also dance critic and essayist.
Remica Bingham-Risher writes a monumental book of poems, "Room Swept Home," chronicling her African American family history from the 19th century to the present day -- and her own world of poetry.
A VietNam Marine Veteran and a VietNam survivor, both writers, read and discuss the impact of that war.
David Lehman is a poet and literary critic, known for his curation of American culture, and for creating "The Best American Poetry" anthologies.
Ryler Dustin is the Univ/Pittsburgh winner for "Trailer Park Psalms." It is a must-hear book and an American favorite. Dustin lives in the Pacific Northwest, the locus for his poetry.
Quique Aviles is a political activist, poet, performer, and theater producer, originally from San Salvadore, now in Washington, D.C.
Joseph Fasano is a New York poet, and fast becoming one of America's favorites. Don't miss this show.
Majda Gama is the author of award winning "The Call of Paradise." Born in Beirut, and having lived in Arabia, Egypt, and England, she now lives and writes in Virginia.
Nancy Arbuthnot is a poet and Professor Emerita at the U.S.Naval Academy, following the blue and gold tradition, having been a 'Navy Child.' Her book about this is "Blue Rhapsodies."
Fahima Ife is a language poet who brings the black diaspora into her work from Africa to the Caribbean.
Poet, producer, educator, NYT Award winning author, his book "Crossover" became a film on Disney Plus.
A poet and a cultural worker, Ali teaches Creative Writing at Morgan State Univ and is author of the award-winning book of poems, "Trouble Sleeping."
"Love Warp" is Joan Selby's debut collection in elder years after a lifetime of poetry.
New York poet writes a sassy classy stunning poetry book about love, "If This Isnt Love."
Two Latin poets who change the world with magnificence, the children of immigrants bring poetry up a notch.
Edgar Kunz is the author of two poetry collections: Fixer, published by Ecco in 2023 and named a New York Times Editors' Choice book, and Tap Out, published by Ecco in 2019. He has been a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow, a MacDowell Fellow, and a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Recent poems appear in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Poetry, APR, and Oxford American. He lives in Baltimore and teaches at Goucher College.
Publisher of Innisfree poetry journal premieres his book, "Guest of Time; A Memoir in Poems."
Ireland's poet premieres her new book of poems chronicling history and contemporary life in her country.
Pastan's novel "In The Field" is winner of the Book Foundation's inaugural Science & Literature Award.
Named The Outstanding Scholar/Teacher at American University, poet David Keplinger premiers his new book "ICE."
This writer presents all the zodiac signs in poetic combinations; "Love in Full Circle."
Poet and artist, author of two spiritual books of poems; her haiku make up National Geographic's book "Animal Arc."
Former President Clinton speechwriter/ poet premieres his new book of poems: "Question Marks" (bilingual, English/Spanish).
GRACE CAVALIERI reviews four world-premiere plays at The American Contemporary Theatre Festival in Shepherdstown, W.V.
Irish poet and musician Terence Winch is a Stand-up Philosopher. He makes us ache and laugh at once.
Six Maryland women poets celebrate their anthology, "The Song In The Room."
Women previously lawyers, painters, journalists, teachers, editors, artists, turn to poetry.
Listen to the voice of Grace Cavalieri, Poet Laureate of Maryland, reading this award winning Children's book, Little Garlic—Enchanted Tales for All Ages,written by Avideh Shashaani.
Sally Wen Mao writes of racism against Chinese women in America in brilliant imaginative forms.
Maryland Poet Laureate, Grace Cavalieri, shows how to bring poetry into the classroom; giving teachers poetry experience and tools.
Katherine Williams is a poet, clinical psychologist, and visual artist. Her new book is "Still Life."
Poet/Publisher makes Passover clearly and beautifully understood through the power of poetry.
Grace Cavalieri, Maryland Poet Laureate, tells us how to bring poetry into the classroom with pleasure and fun.
Kentucky's first black Poet Laureate, founder of Affrilachia Poets, premiers children's ABC book featuring great black figures.
One of America's most distinguished women poets has left the world a trove, great poems of philosophy and domesticity.
Tim Seibles, former Poet Laureate of Virginia, is the author of five collections of poetry, and is a National Book Award nominee.
Maryland poet is author of five chapbooks amd has spent his career providing the gift of language to special education students.
Poet/Memorist honors her mentors in "Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books, and Questions that Grew Me Up."
Bobbitt Award Winner for the most distinguished book of poetry by an American poet in last the two years.
Avideh Shashaani is an Iranian born writer, author of a beautiful new children's book, "Little Garlic: Enchanted Tales or Children."
Twenty-fourth Poet Laureate of the United States reads her poems and talks about her vision.
Daniel Mark Epstein's poems and biographies of Aimee Semple McPherson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Abraham Lincoln, and Bob Dylan, have been translated into many languages.
Minnie Bruce Pratt premieres an exquisite book MAGNIFIED about the loss of her transgender partner in love and politics.
Author of "INHERITANCE," poet in residence at the Guggenheim Museum, a star in the poetry world.
Author of the history of women pilots from the 18th century to date in poetry: "WHERE NO MAN CAN TOUCH."
Esperanza Hope Snyder: poetry in Spanish and English, plus Snyder's novels, plays and screenwriting.
Formerly, a noted "D.J.," and chess champion, a New Jersey poet premiers his new book, "Ideas of Improvisation."
Kira Thurman is the winner of the Marfield National Book Award for "Writing In The Arts."
The prize book is "Singing Like Germans: Black Musicians In The Land Of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach."
The legendary Annie Finch is known as "poetry witch" with her spells, chants, and lullabies.
This debut novel features a mother with multiple personalities on a backdrop of African American folklife.
The editor of VERSE DAILY has 16 books of his poetry; and 15,000 poems written to others on Facebook.
Fleda Brown's tenth collection of poems, Flying Through a Hole in the Storm (2021) won the Hollis Summers Prize from Ohio University Press. Earlier poems can be found in The Woods Are On Fire: New & Selected Poems, chosen by Ted Kooser for the University of Nebraska poetry series in 2017. Her work has appeared three times in The Best American Poetry and has won a Pushcart Prize, the Felix Pollak Prize, the Philip Levine Prize, and the Great Lakes Colleges New Writer's Award, and has twice been a finalist for the National Poetry Series. Her new memoir, Mortality, with Friends will be out from Wayne State University Press next month. She is professor emerita at the University of Delaware and was poet laureate of Delaware from 2001-07.
Y S Fing is the author of "Perdition," where the vulgar is divine, updating Dante's "Inferno."
Maggie Doherty is winner of the 15th National Marfield Award for Writing in The Arts (nonfiction) "The Equivalents."
Raised by Diplomats, author of nine books of poems; holds 12 national awards in poetry.
Editors of Washington Writers' Publishing House Anthology, "This Is What America Looks Like."
Howard Nemerov was Poet Laureate of the U.S .from 1963 -1964 and again from 1988-90.
He was the recipient of the National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize, Bollingen Prize among other honors.
Francisco Aragón is the son of Nicaraguan immigrants. His books include, After Rubén (Red Hen Press 2020), Glow of Our Sweat, and Puerta de Sol. He's also the editor of, The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry.
Didi (Dulce) Menendez is a Cuban-born American publisher and digital artist. Her publications are scheduled to be archived on the moon by Dr. Samuel Peralta's payload the Peregrine Collection.
Henry Crawford, lawyer, software engineer, videographer, is author of two poetry collections, American Software 2017 Books and The Binary Planet, 2020.
John Doe co-founded LA punk band X, still an active member. Doe's a singer, songwriter, actor, poet, guitarist and bass player.
Novelist, poet, musician,Terrence Winch is the author of the young adult novel SEEING-EYE BOY and is a leading figure in the Irish music world.
Ocean Vuong is the author of the bestselling novel, On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, Penguin Press (2019), forthcoming in 30 languages. He received the MacArthur Genius Award.
Carolyn Forche is one of America's greatest living poets. She created the phrase, "poetry of witness," and here reads from her new memoir about witnessing the war in El Salvador.
Ned Balbo reads his poems in every form: pantoum, sonnet, ghazal, villanelle, blank verse.
The Poet and The Poem premieres PENGUIN Anthology, "Singing in The Dark: Poetry's Response To The Pandemic."
Mecca "Meccamorphosis" Verdell is the winner of the 2020 DC Poet Project, and her debut collection, Things to Unlearn, is forthcoming 2021 from Day Eight.
Literary historian/poet Kim Roberts is the editor of By Broad Potomac's Shore: Great Poems from the Early Days of our Nation's Capital (University of Virginia Press, 2020).
Maryland's Howard County Women's Hall of Fame honors Burke's poetry, fiction, op-ed columns, reviews, profiles and feature stories.
New England Poetry Consultant to The Library of Congress 1981-1982, was renamed U.S. Poet Laureate in 1986.
This Illinois poet held three pulitzer prizes, two for poetry and one for the biography of Abraham Lincoln.
This Georgia poet was named US POET LAUREATE in 1966 - known for his sweeping poetic vision and and eccentric poetic styles.
Carolyn Joyner, a Washington, DC poet, examines life's themes in her work through the use of contemporary and traditional form.
Poet Omowole Jesse N. Alexander holds a Master of Engineering degree in electrical engineering from Howard University.
In 1986 Congress designated the term U.S. Poet Laureate to all Poetry Consultants. Warren was the first to be designated. Also, Robert Penn Warren was the 3rd Laureate Poetry Consultant to The Library of Congress serving 1944-1945.
Lucille Clifton was a poet and educator; she was formerly Maryland's poet laureate.and holds the National Book Award for poetry.
Pulitzer Prize Winner William Meredith was the 34th Poet Laureate of the United States, 1978-1980, whose formal and unadorned verse was compared to that of Robert Frost.
Robert L. Hass served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize.
Louise Bogan was appointed the fourth Poet Laureate to the Library of Congress in 1945, and was the first woman to hold this title. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, fiction, and criticism, and became the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.
Jericho Brown grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and worked as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans before earning his PhD in literature and creative writing from the University of Houston. He also holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of New Orleans and graduated with a BA from Dillard University in 1998.
Brown is the author of The Tradition (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and finalist for the 2019 National Book Award in Poetry; The New Testament (Copper Canyon Press, 2014), which received the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; and Please (New Issues, 2008), which received the 2009 American Book Award.
Of his work, Ilya Kaminsky writes, "His lyrics are memorable, muscular, majestic. His voice in these lines is alive—something that is quite rare in his generation of very bookish and very ironic poetics. Brown's poems are living on the page, and they give the reader that much: a sense of having been alive fully."
Brown is the recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award and has received fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Krakow Poetry Seminar in Poland, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University.
He has taught at the University of Houston, San Diego State University, and the University of San Diego, as well as at numerous conferences and workshops. Brown is currently an associate professor of English and creative writing and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and poetry editor at The Believer.
Danuta E. Kosk-Kosicka is the author of two collections: Face Half-Illuminated (Apprentice House, 2015) and Oblige the Light (CityLit Press, 2015), winner of the fifth Clarinda Harriss Poetry Prize. She is also the translator for four books by Lidia Kosk. Recently her work has appeared in Notre Dame Review, Spillway, Subtropics, Tar River Poetry, The Comstock Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is the Poetry Translations editor at Loch Raven Review.
Jody Bolz is the author of A Lesson in Narrative Time (Gihon Books, 2004), the novella-in-verse Shadow Play (Turning Point, 2013), and a new collection, The Near and Far, also from Turning Point. Her poems have appeared in such literary journals as The American Scholar, Indiana Review, North American Review, Ploughshares, Poetry East, Poetry Northwest, and Southern Poetry Review - and in many poetry anthologies, including ToWoo & to Wed: Poets on Love and Marriage (Poseidon Press), Her Face in the Mirror: Jewish Women on Mothers and Daughters (Beacon Press), Don't Leave Hungry: Fifty Years of the Southern Poetry Review (University of Arkansas Press), and Ghost Fishing (University of Georgia Press). After receiving her MFA from Cornell University, where she studied with poet A.R. Ammons, she taught for more than 20 years at George Washington University, serving twice as director of the creative writing program. Among her honors are a Rona Jaffe Foundation writer's award and an individual artist's grant from the Maryland State Arts. From 2002 to 2019, Bolz edited Poet Lore, America's oldest poetry magazine, founded in 1889.
Andrew McConnell Stott is the winner of the 14th National Marfield Prize for Writing In The Arts with his book, What Blest Genius?
Josephine Jacobsen was a Canadian-born American poet, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She was appointed the twenty-first Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1971. In 1997, she received the Poetry Society of America’s highest award, the Robert Frost Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Poetry.
Grace Cavalieri presents 20th Century Poets with minute commentaries. This includes Hayden reading his Immortal poem Those Winter Sundays.
Robert Hayden was an American poet, essayist, and educator. He served as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 1976 to 1978, a role today known as US Poet Laureate. He was the first African-American writer to hold the office. His poems have become part of American culture.
Robert Pinsky was named US Poet Laureate 1997-2000. He's a poet, essayist, critic, dramatist, and teacher. He's the acclaimed Dante translator.
Robert Earl Price holds the American Film Institute's William Wyler award for screenwriting, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry and a Cultural Olympics commission for theater. He was a 2012 recipient of a Maryland Individual Artist Award. His play Blue Monk was produced in Johannesburg, South Africa. His eleven full-length plays include an adaptation of Claude Brown's Man Child in the Promised Land and a ritual play, Black Cat Bones For Seven Sons. He has four volumes of poetry: Bloodlines, Blood Elegy, Blues Blood and Wise Blood. His fifth book of poetry "Blood Flow"? will be published in 2020 by Snake Nation Press, Valdosta, GA.
For over four decades, Robert Earl Price has amassed writing credits in fiction, drama and poetry. His many awards include The TCG/NEA Playwright's Residency, The American Film Institute's William Wyler award for screenwriting, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Poetry and a Cultural Olympics commission for theater, 2006 Gen-Gabriel Moore Playwriting award and 2012 recipient of a Maryland Individual Artist Award (playwriting.) Price was artist in residence in the Drama Department of Washington College from 2008-2018. He is coordinator for the annual Kent County Poetry Festival.
Grace Cavalieri's commentary on Stanley Kunitz, appointed US Poet Laureate 1974 and 2000.
A Poet Laureate Series. Grace Cavalieri discusses THE DRAMATIC POEM in this Poet Laureate Series about Writing. Today's conversation talks about "Character" in the poem, featuring work by poets Kunitz, Lowell, Stroud, Kumin, and Shelton.
George Bilgere has published six collections of poetry, including Imperial (2014);The White Museum(2010), which was awarded the Autumn House Poetry Prize; Haywire (2006), which on the May Swenson Poetry Award; and The Good Kiss(2002), which was selected by Billy Collinsto win the University of Akron Poetry Award. He has won numerous awards, including the Midland Authors Award and a Pushcart Prize. Bilgere has received grants from the Witter Bynner Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Commission, and the Ohio Arts Council. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and journals including Poetry, Ploughshares, the Kenyon Review, Fulcrum,and the Best American Poetry series.
A resident of Ohio, Bilgere lives in Cleveland, where he teaches creative writing at John Carroll University.
Meg Eden's work is published or forthcoming in magazines including Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, Crab Orchard Review, RHINO and CV2. She teaches creative writing at Anne Arundel Community College. She is the author of five poetry chapbooks, the novel "Post-High School Reality Quest (2017), and the forthcoming poetry collection Drowning in the Floating World (2020).
Bro. Yao(Hoke S. Glover III) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Language, Literature, and Cultural Studies at Bowie State University. His poetry has been published in Ploughshares, African-American Review, Rattle, and other journals and anthologies. His first book, Inheritance, was published by Willow Books in Summer of 2016. For fifteen years he ran and operated Karibu Books, one of the nation's largest African American book stores. He also writes non-fiction and his essay "Hospital for the Negro Insane" was a finalist in the Crab Orchard John Guyon Non-Fiction Literary Prize in 2015, and his essay the "Fifty Four" on African American book stores and book culture was a finalist in the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith's Editor's Prize in 2018. Much of his current work focuses on reading "yin' in African American culture.
Doritt Carroll is a native of Washington, DC. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from Georgetown University. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Main Street Rag, North American Review, Coal City Review, Eunoia Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, Gargoyle, Nimrod, and Cherry Tree, among others. Her collection GLTTL STP was published by Brickhouse Books in 2013. Her chapbook Sorry You Are Not An Instant Winner was published in 2017 by Kattywompus. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net.
Lauren K. Alleyne is the author of two collections of poetry, Difficult Fruit (Peepal Tree Press 2014), and Honeyfish (New Issues & Peepal Tree, 2019). Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, Ms. Muse, Women?s Studies Quarterly, Interviewing the Caribbean, The Crab Orchard Review, among many others. Recent honors for her work include a 2017 Phillip Freund Alumni Prize for Excellence in Publishing (Cornell University), the 2016 Split This Rock Poetry Prize, and a Picador Guest Professorship in Literature (University of Leipzig, Germany, 2015). She is currently Assistant Director of the Furious Flower Poetry Center and an Associate Professor of English at James Madison University.
Temple Cone is the author of four books of poetry:Guzzle, That Singing, The Broken Meadow (winner of the Old Seventy Creek Poetry Press Series Prize), and No Loneliness (winner of the Future Cycle Press Poetry Book Prize). In addition, he has published seven poetry chapbooks, as well as reference works on Cormac McCarthy, Walt Whitman, and 20th-century American poetry. He holds an MA in creative writing from Hollins University, an MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia, and a PhD in literature from the University of Wisconsin. He lives with his family in Maryland, where he is Professor of English at the U.S. Naval Academy and the inaugural Poet Laureate for the city of Annapolis.
Garrett J. Brown’s first book of poems, Manna Sifting, won the Liam Rector First Book Prize from Briery Creek Press in 2009, and his chapbook, Cubicles, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2014. His other awards include first place in the Poetry Center of Chicago’s Juried Reading, judged by Jorie Graham; runner-up in the Maryland Emerging Voices competition; and a Creative Writing Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His poetry and creative nonfiction have appeared in The Black Warrior Review, Poetry East, TriQuarterly, Natural Bridge, The Account, and Passages North. He makes his home in Baltimore and is an Associate Professor at Anne Arundel Community College.
Shirley J. Brewer (Baltimore, MD) graduated from careers in bartending and speech therapy. She serves as poet-in-residence at Carver Center for Arts & Technology in Baltimore, and also teaches creative writing workshops to seniors. Recent poems garnish Barrow Street, Comstock Review, Naugatuck River Review, Plainsongs, Poetry East, Slant, and many other journals and anthologies. Shirley was awarded the first Creativity Prize for Excellence in Plorking (Play + Work) from the University of Baltimore, where she earned her Masterês degree in Creative Writing/Publishing Arts. Shirleyês poetry books include A Little Breast Music, 2008, Passager Books, After Words, 2013, Apprentice House, Bistro in Another Realm, 2017, Main Street Rag.
The Write Blend Poetry Circle was officially formed in 2018, when six named poets agreed to become part of a larger collaborative to bring cultural diversity to communities through an expansive range of their voices and poetry.
Pamela Murray Winters is the author of The Unbeckonable Bird, a poetry collection published by FutureCycle Press in 2018. She has an MFA in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She is at work on a second full-length collection of poems and a few chapbooks. Pam lives in Maryland with her husband and a small menagerie.
Barbara DeCesare is a graduate of the Goddard College MFA-W program. She is the author of jigsaweyesore (Anti-Man Press), Adrift (Seventh Wave), and Silent Type (Paper Kite Press). Barbara curated The Prufrock Project, an art exhibit based on the T. S. Eliot poem, cast audience members to perform in her series of small plays You’re Soaking In It, and took the title in the Fear No Lit Literary Page Match automatic writing competition. Her poems and short fiction have been published in Folio, Poetry, Alaska Quarterly, Tarpaulin Sky and many others.
Irish poet, Jane Clarke's first collection, The River, was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015 to public and critical acclaim. Her second book-length collection, When the Tree Falls was published by Bloodaxe in September 2019 and her illustrated booklet of poems, All the Way Home, was published by Smith/Doorstop in April 2019.
The River was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize, given for a distinguished work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry evoking the spirit of a place. In 2016 Jane won the Hennessy Literary Award for Emerging Poetry and the inaugural Listowel Writers’ Week Poem of the Year Award. She was awarded an Arts Council of Ireland Literary Bursary in 2017.
Jane holds a BA in English & Philosophy from Trinity College, Dublin, an MPhil in Writing from the University of South Wales, and has a background in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She grew up on a farm in Roscommon and now lives with her partner in Glenmalure, Co. Wicklow, where she combines writing with her work as creative writing tutor and group facilitator.
A life-long musician, writer, and creative, Rob spent most of his childhood reading comic books, playing games, and making music. Graduated from the University of Virginia in 2002 with a degree in Anthropology, with a focus on ethnomusicology, he has spent the intervening years living and working as a musician and music professional. Aside from writing comics, Rob also works as an audio designer and engineer, and plays in numerous musical projects, including The Vailix, a female-fronted hard rock concept band based around the world of the Cloud Ocean. In his spare time he plays fetch with his miniature Australian cattle dogs, Luna and Astra.
Mervyn Taylor, a Trinidad-born poet and longtime Brooklyn resident, has taught at Bronx Community College, The New School and in the New York City public school system. He is the author of six books of poetry, including The Waving Gallery (2014), and most recently, Voices Carry (2017). About his work, Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott said, “Taylor’s is a quiet voice. His poems possess an admirable degree of subtlety, and a tone that keeps him separate and unique.” Currently, he serves on the advisory board of Slapering Hol Press.
Natwar Gandhi served Washington, DC, as tax commissioner and independent chief financial officer. This book narrates his journey from a primitive Indian town—no paved streets, electricity, telephone or running water—to Mumbai and then, through hard work, determination and good luck, to New York. After academic and corporate stints, Gandhi became the CFO of America's capital and played a significant role in stabilizing the city's finances, transforming it from a deficit-plagued jurisdiction into a financially healthy municipality. Still the Promised Land provides an uplifting message for present-day America, where immigrants are often reviled and immigration is viewed as bad for the country.
Joy Harjo is a poet, musician, and author. She is also the first Native American United States Poet Laureate. She is an important figure in the second wave of the literary Native American Renaissance of the late twentieth century. She studied at the Institute of American Indian Arts, completed her undergraduate degree at University of New Mexico in 1976, and earned an M.F.A. at the University of Iowa in its Creative Writing Program.
Nancy Mitchell is a Pushcart Prize recipient and the author of The Near Surround, Grief Hut, and The Out-of-Body Shop, and co-editor of Plume Interviews 1. Her poems have appeared in journals such as Agni, Green Mountains Review, Poetry Daily, Washington Square Review and have been anthologized in Last Call (Sarabande Books) The Working Poet (Autumn House Press) and Plume 3, 4, 5 & 7.
She has been awarded artist in residence fellowships at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in San Angelo, Virginia and Auvillar, France, and at Spring Creek, Oregon State University. She taught Creative Writing for Maryland Summer Center for Arts, 2012-2014, and in the Environmental Studies Program and English Department at Salisbury University where she produced the annual Fulton School of the Arts festival WORDSTOCK. Mitchell currently teaches for CELL at Salisbury University in Maryland, and serves as Associate Editor of Special Features and Interviews for Plume Poetry. She is the Poet Laureate of Salisbury, Maryland.
Poet and journalist Celeste Doaks is the author of Cornrows and Cornfields
(Wrecking Ball Press, UK, 2015). She is also the editor of (and contributor in) the
poetry anthology Not Without Our Laughter: Poems of Humor, Joy, and Sexuality
(Mason Jar Press, 2017). Her chapbook, American Herstory (Backbone Press,
2019), contains poems about Michelle Obama and the art she chose for the
White House walls. American Herstory was Backbone Press’s first runner-up
prize winner. Her journalism has appeared in Huffington Post, Village Voice,
Time Out New York, and QBR (Quarterly Black Book Review). She is a Pushcart
Prize nominee; her poems have been published in on-line and print publications
such as The Rumpus, Chicago Quarterly Review, Asheville Poetry Review,
Baltimore Magazine, Bayou Magazine and others. In the fall of 2017, she
received a Rubys Literary Arts Grant for her, Grey Matter, her poetry manuscript-
in-progress. Doaks received her M.F.A. from North Carolina State University and
is the 2017-2020 Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at University of
Delaware.
Linda Pastan grew up in New York City, graduated from Radcliffe College in 1954, and received an MA from Brandeis University. She has published 15 volumes of poetry, most recently Insomnia which won the Towson University Literary Award and A Dog Runs Through It. Two of her books have been finalists for the National Book Award, one for The Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She taught for several years at American University and was on the staff of the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference for 20 years. She is a past Poet Laureate of Maryland. Pastan has won numerous awards, including The Radcliffe Distinguished Alumni Award and The Maurice English Award. In 2003 she won the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize for lifetime achievement. Pastan lives with her husband in Maryland. They have 3 children and 7 grandchildren.
Wendy Lesser is the founder and editor of the Threepenny Review and the author of a novel and several previous books of nonfiction, including Why I Read (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014). She has written for the New York Times Book Review, London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, and other publications. To complete this biography, she was awarded one of the first National Endowment for the Humanities Public Scholar awards, the only one given to a Californian in 2015.
David Gewanter is author of four books of poetry: Fort Necessity (Spring 2018), War Bird (2009), The Sleep of Reason (2003), and In the Belly (1997),all published by the University of Chicago Press; and co-editor, with Frank Bidart, of Robert Lowell: Collected Poems (Farrar Straus & Giroux, Faber & Faber, 2003; paperback, 2007). He earned a B.A. in Intellectual History from the University of Michigan, an M.A. and Ph.D. in English at U.C. Berkeley, and then ran writing programs at Harvard. Book awards include: the John C. Zacharis first book prize, Ploughshares (for In the Belly); finalist, James Laughlin Award, American Academy of Poets (for The Sleep of Reason); the Ambassador Book Award, English Speaking Union - US, and the Contemporary Poetry Review Book of the Yearо (for Robert Lowell: Collected Poems).
Dr. Xuhua Liang was born in a beautiful island in the southern China: Xiamen (Amoy), Fujian Province. During the political turmoil of Chinese Culture Revolution, her mother passed away. Raised by her grandparents, she was deeply influenced by her uncles and the Chinese traditional literature. Even though she only had a basic education for six years, she passed with flying color the rigorous national college entrance exam of China in 1977 and entered into the most prestigious language university in China: Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (today's Beijing Foreign Studies University). After graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish, she worked as a full time translator at China Foreign Language Publishing Administration. Later she passed with high score the national exam for the master program of Latin American literature at her Alma Mater. Two years later, she received a full scholarship to study Latin American literature at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She received the Master and Ph.D. Degree in Latin American Literature from SUNY at Stony Brook. She was the first woman Ph.D. in Hispanic Literature in China. During her thirty one years in the U.S., she devoted herself completely to the teaching of Spanish language and literature. She has taught at different state universities and private colleges to American and international students. Due to her family relocation, she left New York and moved to Bethesda near Washington DC, where she has been teaching Spanish language and college Spanish literature courses at Montgomery County Public Schools.
Erica Wright is the author of the poetry collections All the Bayou Stories End with Drowned (Black Lawrence Press) and Instructions for Killing the Jackal (Black Lawrence Press). Her poems have appeared in Crazyhorse, Denver Quarterly, Gulf Coast, New Orleans Review, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor at Guernica Magazine as well as a former editorial board member of Alice James Books. Her debut crime novel, The Red Chameleon (Pegasus Books), was one of O: The Oprah Magazine's Best Books of the Summer in 2014. Her new novel, The Blue Kingfisher (Polis Books), will be released this fall, 2018.
Judith Farr is a well known poems Dickinson scholar and the author of poems, "What Lies Beyond."
Seema Reza is a poet and poetry activist working with veterans and galvanizing arts communities in Washington, Maryland, and Virginia.
Steven Leyva is an Assistant Professor at the University of Baltimore's School of Communications Design.
Blue Eyes Wide Open, in reverence.
W.S. Merwin, 17th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (1927-2019)
Pitas is an Iowa poet who translates poetry from Uruguayan to English and treats us to a sample translation.
Winner of the 2018 Bobbitt Prize from The Library fo Congress for her book, "FAST," Graham is one of America's foremost poets and holds the Chair for Rhetoric and Oratory at Harvard University.
Michigan poet, formerly Poet Laureate of Delaware, writes with warmth and wisdom about her journey.
Former Poet Laureate of DC, Kendrick wrote WOMEN OF PLUMS, groundbreaking poems in slave voices.
Rose Solari is a poet, teacher, publisher, and speaks of poetry and mythology in this entertaining program. Patterson is a short story writer, rock musician, publisher and
novelist.
Former Poet Laureate of Maryland and a beacon of poetry in southern Maryland,
Glaser wins hearts and minds with his work.
Formerly of Alma College Michigan, now emeritus, Palmer writes with heart and
compassion.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
From “The Poet and the Poem from the Library of Congress": During July, on iTunes, we honor Poets Laureate of the United States who keep language from the evils of persuasion …who rinse off words, making them fresh and new.
Martin Espada is a Puerto Rican poet of massive strength and vitality charting the Puerto Rican experience in America with powerful poems.
Tory Dent died of aids contracted from a contaminated medical procedure, not of her own cause. This conversation is from her sickbed before she died, poems at the height of her brilliant groundbreaking power.
Tory Dent died of aids contracted from a contaminated medical procedure, not of her own cause. This conversation is from her sickbed before she died, poems at the height of her brilliant groundbreaking power.
Sheila Black writes of disability and is herself encumbered with a physical burden. She’s a champion of others and a lyrical poet.
Remica Bingham is a strong African American poet who also writes of finding a new marriage with step children, changing the ordinary into extraordinary.
Hiram Larew is our new ee cummings. His buoyant joyful poetry turns words upside down for
the better.
David Gewanter has an inventive and original poetic form using quotes, newspapers, lectures,
creating an historical collage. He writes vigorously of industrialism and capitalism as a cause of
oppression.
Evie Shockley is a stunning poet whose work, “The New Black,” shines bright light on literature
and progress.
Shauna Morgan writes and speaks beautifully of African American experiences and history
with wisdom and warmth.
Rita Dove, a beloved poet, was the youngest U.S. Poet Laureate, 1993-95, and first African American since the title “US LAUREATE” replaced “Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress.”
Billy Collins was Poet Laureate of the U.S., 2001-2002, and is one of America’s most popular poets. (Part II)
Billy Collins was Poet Laureate of the U.S., 2001-2002, and is one of America’s most popular poets. (Part I)
Laura Shovan’s acclaimed book is a novel in verse for children; The Last Fifth Grade of Emerson
Elementary.
Emily Fragos’s stunning new book of poems is SAINT TORCH. She’s editor of The Emily Dickinson letters and EVERYMAN’s Library of pocket poets.
Frank X. Walker formerly Poet Laureate of Kentucky is Professor of English and African American Studies, U of Kentucky. He framed the term Affrilachia for his region.
Terry Blackhawk is from Detroit where she was a teacher and poetry activist, continuing her work now in Connecticut and Michigan.
How can a poet be a country rock star? Kevin Gordon transfers his poetry to powerful lyrics in his original country rock compositions.
The stress and pressures of being black upper class is chronicled in this national Marfield Prize Book for writing in the Arts. Margo Jefferson discusses her book Negroland.
Sandra Evans Falconer writes about breast cancer, but it’s hardly a downer. With her talent, she puts light around a serious experience with energy, fresh language, and terrific conversation. Poetry revitalizes and this show proves it. Sandra holds an MFA in Writing (poetry), from Spalding University. She also holds graduate degrees in social work, (The University of Maryland School of Social Work & Community Planning), as well as in dramatic arts from West Virginia University. Her poems have also been adapted for the stage.
Chad Frame writes of being a gay man. His work is humorous and elegant and we wonder if gay poetry is its own genre. Then, is women’s poetry? Black poetry? Or is it all one long conversation. Chad Frame earned his MFA at Arcadia University. He’s the Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, the Poetry Editor of Ovunque Siamo: New Italian-American Writing, the founder of the Margins panel of diverse artist voices, and a member of No River Twice, a poetry improv performance troupe. Chad Frame earned his MFA at Arcadia University. His work has appeared in various journals.
Tracy K. Smith is the current U.S.Poet Laureate, the 4th African American to hold the poet, mother of three, teacher, and Pulitzer Prize poet. Smith blends technology and science to answer bigger questions that perplex her. Her dad, an engineer, worked on The Hubble Telescope. Smith discusses the personal reasons that are behind her writing. One of America’s favorite poets.