Planet Poet - Words in Space
Sharon Israel
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Poet Sharon Israel hosts the monthly radio show: Planet Poet - Words in Space on WIOX Community Radio, 91.3 broadcasting live from Roxbury in the Catskill Mountains of New York and streaming live on WIOXradio.com. These archived interviews feature poets and writers from the Catskills, the Hudson Valley and around the U.S reading their work and discussing their obsessions with poetry.
Available episodes
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Sep 13, 2023
PRP (Poets Read Poetry)
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! If you missed yesterday’s broadcast (September 12th), LISTEN to my WIOX show featuring the founding members of PRP (Poets Read Poetry) who have gathered together to read and discuss the poetry of Carl Sandburg.
Pamela Manché Pearce, Planet Poet’s own Poet-At-Large, began PRP in her Garrison, New York living room in 2010 with a simple idea: to have poets gather and discuss the poems of other poets based on a pre-determined theme followed by a shop talk discussion of the members’ own writing lives. Poets Jo Pitkin, Andrew Acciaro and Frank Ortega joined Pamela to form the original group which disbanded in 2014, and was revived on Zoom in the summer of 2021, when I was invited to become the fifth member.
Here's a bit about the members of PRP:
*Andrew Acciaro
* Li Po sailed the Yangzi
Shelley had his Spezia
Blake his Felpham
Cyrano the Moon
Andrew supine
On the supple banks of the river that flows both ways…
Has his poet’s panache and Blarney kissed plume…
Andrew lives in Peekskill, N.Y.
*Sharon Israel*'s chapbook Voice Lesson was published in 2017 by Post Traumatic Press. She won Brooklyn College’s Leonard B. Hecht Poetry Explication Award, was nominated for “Best of the Net” 2016 and won Four Lines’ 2020 winter poetry challenge. Sharon hosts Planet Poet-Words in Space and lives in the Catskills with her husband Robert Cucinotta. For more information: https://linktr.ee/sharonisraelpoet.
*Frank Ortega
*“As a seeker of wisdom and peace, following those paths in life and art,my work is often about race, poverty and oppression--until we have erased them.What I take in becomes my work, those messages we send to each other, always trying to make this a better world”. Frank now resides near Boulder, Colorado. https://artlitlab.org/artists/frank-ortega
*Pamela Manché Pearce*
Pushcart Prize nominee, *Pamela Manché Pearce* is the author of the poetry chapbook, WIDOWLAND (Green Bottle Press, London) and the co-author of THE CHARLES STREET TRIO: A Novel in Three Voices (Daisy H Productions) both of which are available on Amazon. The Poet-at-Large on WIOX’s Planet Poet-Words in Space is on Instagram at #pamelamanchepearceNYC. Pamela lives in Manhattan.
*Jo Pitkin
*A Hudson Valley native, *Jo Pitkin* is the author of a chapbook and four full-length poetry collections. She works as a freelance educational writer creating English language arts materials for K through 12 students and is a teaching artist with The Poetry Barn. Jo lives in Cold Spring N.Y. www.jopitkin.com
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Aug 24, 2023
Bill Birns - Fleischmann's in Verse
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired July 18th, 2023) featuringpoet, writer and historian Bill Birns who will discuss and read from his latest book Fleischmanns in Verse and other works. Planet Poet’s Poet-at-Large, writer and visual artist *Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us on the program to bring us her unique poetic insights and the latest in poetry news
Bill Birns was honored to be named one of 50 Stewards of the Catskills by the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development, on the occasion of the Center’s 50th birthday. A citizen of Delaware County, for over 50 years, Bill has long been active in the community.
Bill is the author of the recently re-released A Catskill Catalog, available from Purple Mountain Press (nysbooks.com); I Was Corning a Beaver Like You Do: Joe Hewitt, John Burroughs, Mountain Culture (John Burroughs Woodchuck Lodge & Mountain Arts Media); and two books of locally-focused verse: The Myth in the Mountain and Fleischmanns in Verse.
A Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Linguistics, Bill taught a couple generations of Catskill Mountain kids at Margaretville Central School and Onteora High School. He lives in Fleischmanns with wife, Gayla, and dog, Murray Wagner.
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May 15, 2023
Lee Slonimsky - Pythagoras and the Animals
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired May 9th, 2023) featuring longtime guest and erudite occasional co-host, poet and writer *Lee Slonimsky* who will talk about and read from his latest collection, the beautifully intriguing Pythagoras and the Animals.
*Lee Slonimsky* has published eleven books of poetry (including his latest, Pythagoras and the Animals). In addition, his sonnet sequence Pythagoras in Love has been translated into French, Greek, Polish and, most recently, into Italian. He manages a hedge fund that advocates for the rights of animals.
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Apr 26, 2023
Christopher Brean Murray - Black Observatory
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired April 11th, 2023) featuring award-winning poet *Christopher Brean Murray *whose debut collection Black Observatory, published by Milkweed Editions, was selected by Dana Levin as the winner of the 2021-22 Jake Adam York Prize. Planet Poet’s Poet-at-Large, writer and visual artist *Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us on the program to bring us her unique poetic insights and the latest in poetry news
*Christopher Brean Murray* has received awards from the Academy of American Poets and Inprint Houston and he served as online poetry editor of Gulf Coast. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, Copper Nickel, New Ohio Review, Washington Square Review and other journals. He lives in Houston, Texas.
“Its very strangeness, its eccentric lenses on cis masculinity, and its simple, formal elegance called me to Black Observatory. Reading these poems is like embarking on a Twilight Zone episode where Franz Kafka bumps into Salvador Dali in a hardware store, and dark, absurdist adventures ensue; where ‘Crimes of the Future’ involve ‘Quitting a job everyone agrees you should keep’ and ‘Kissing a foreigner in a time of war.” There’s sweetness here, too, and deep thought and feeling – this is a singular debut by a singular sensibility: no one else sounds like Murray.” -- Dana Levin
“In Christopher Brean Murray’s Black Observatory, characters set out on adventures in a world not quite like our own. They enter museums of impossible objects, venture down forest paths to strangely abandoned settlements, or wander along the industrial outskirts of eerie cities. All at once, the new American painters – all of them? everywhere? – act in unison, as if their simultaneous cooperation had some specific, perhaps insidious intent. Here, everything is off-kilter and mysterious. Speakers move thorough unnerving landscapes with a mixture of curiosity, ambivalence, and moments of startling insight. This is a brilliant first book, one I will return to with pleasure.” – Kevin Prufer
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Mar 21, 2023
Our Lady of Staten Island
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired March 14th, 2023) featuring two remarkable guests: visionary humanitarian, musician and poet *Elissa Montanti* and writer, producer and director *Michael McKinley*, both here to discuss their documentary “Our Lady of Staten Island” which focuses in great part on Elissa’s work helping African children with Albinism, victims of mutilation, get needed protheses. For more information on the documentary and to view the trailer go to: www.ourladystatenisland.com. Michael will also discuss his book project Meta War and his recent travels to Iraq and Syria.
*Elissa Montanti*, visionary founder and executive director of the Staten Island-based Global Medical Relief Fund (GMRF), has brought more than 500 children of 57 countries to the U.S. for treatment, including surgery, limb prosthetics and other medical necessities. Injured children come from countries or regions able to offer only minimal medical care, poorly fitted prostheses, or none at all.
Elissa’s appearance on “60 Minutes” and her book *“I’ll Stand By You” One Woman’s Mission to Heal the Children of the World*” (written with Jennifer Haupt, Penguin Books, 2012) have helped spread the word about this remarkable woman and her work. The New York Times and The Washington Post, among many print venues, have heralded her extraordinary work. Elissa was featured in “CNN Heroes,” BBC World News, “Democracy Now” WorldVision Radio, and Voice of America. People Magazine voted their story “the Saint of Staten Island”, as one of the five best stories of the year. Elissa received Amnesty International ‘s Modern Day Saints Award and recognition from the Humanitarian Operating center in Kuwait for her bravery and humanitarian work in Iraq and the Shriners Humanitarian Award. “To Walk Without Fear”, a documentary produced by Miracle Mile Films and sponsored by the UN Correspondence Association and the Prince of Jordan, premiered at the United Nations on November 16, 2006.
Elissa lives in Staten Island with her adopted son Ahmed who was blinded and lost his arm at 7 years old in Iraq while walking into crossfire. Elissa’s passions also include music, poetry and painting. Her poetry has won recognition from the American Poetry Society.
*Michael McKinley*’s first novel, *The Penalty Killing*, was shortlisted for an Arthur Ellis Award as best debut crime novel. His subsequent page-turners include, among others, international bestseller *Facetime *and *Willie: The Game Changing Story of the NHL's First Black Player, *nominated for an NAACP Image Award as best biography and one of the top twenty books of 2021. Michael‘s writing credits include the screenplay for the 1992 feature film *Impolite*, starring Christopher Plummer; a number of Discovery Channel docu-drama series including *Perfect Disasters*, *Solar Storm* and *I Shouldn’t Be Alive*. He wrote and produced award-winning films for CNN on the Vatican and on biblical archaeology in the Middle East, and *The Jesus Strand* for History TV. His most recent show is the 2021 three-part documentary series *Epstein’s Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell*, which he co-created and Executive Produced for Peacock and SKY UK. Michael traveled to Iraq and Syria for projects with US Special Forces operators and Syrian Democratic Forces. Michael, educated at Oxford University, lives in New York City. He is currently directing, writing and producing, with Nancy Bell and Alice Barrett Mitchell, *Our Lady of Staten Island.*
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Mar 8, 2023
Frances Collato - Shadows on the Pathway
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired February 14th, 2023) featuring writer Frances Collato, who will read from and talk about her moving family saga, Shadows on the Pathway (including Sephardic poetic proverbs passed down through centuries). Planet Poet’s Poet-at-Large, writer and visual artist Pamela Manché Pearce* *also joins us on the program.
*Frances Collato*, teacher, reading consultant, educational coordinator, middle school principal and college dean, among her other professional accomplishments, has written a book steeped in Sephardic and Italian culture, a family saga spanning 70 years, telling the story of four immigrant families that settle on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in the early 1900’s. Their lives become intertwined when American born super athlete Joey Collato meets Lena Levy in 1932. This is Fran’s family story.
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Feb 2, 2023
Eric Baylin - Poet Laureate Emeritus Sullivan County New York
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my WIOX show (originally aired January 17th, 2023) featuring Eric Baylin, Poet Laureate Emeritus of Sullivan County, New York. You’ll hear Eric discussing his tenure as Poet Laureate, reading his poems and talking about his life as a sculptor and teacher. Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, Pamela Manché Pearce, also joins us on the program.
Eric Baylin, poet and sculptor, lives in Sullivan County, NY, in the village of North Branch. He served as Sullivan County Poet Laureate for 2021-22, a role sponsored by the Sullivan County Library Association. Eric taught visual art for 52 years, working with all ages from pre-school through college, and recently retired after 37 years at Packer Collegiate Institute in Brooklyn.
As Poet Laureate, Eric sought to give poetry a public face in Sullivan County and to encourage the reading and writing of poetry among county residents of all ages. To fulfill his goals, Eric gave workshops, organized and presented poetry events including the first Sullivan County Youth Poetry Festival, held at Bethel Woods in April 2022 and Sylvan Land: The Spirit of Sullivan in Word and Song, at the Tusten Theatre in Narrowsburg, among other his other numerous duties.
In his work as a sculptor Eric uses elements from nature, tree branches and stones gathered from nearby fields and streams to create temporary site-specific installations exhibited at galleries in Sullivan County. Eric is also a long-time meditator, a practice that fuels and sustains both his poetry and art.
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Jan 12, 2023
Alison Carb Sussman - Black Wool Cape
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my podcast (broadcast on WIOX radio January 3, 2023) featuring award-winning poet *Alison Carb Sussman, *who will discuss and read from her new poetry collection, Black Wool Cape. Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, Pamela Manché Pearce, also joins us on the program.
In addition to Black Wool Cape, Alison’s new poetry collection published by Unsolicited Press, the poet, a 2015 Pushcart Prize nominee, has garnered numerous awards and publications throughout her writing career. Her chapbook, On the Edge, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2013. Alison won the Abroad Writers’ Conference/Finishing Line Press Authors Poetry Contest and read her winning poems as their guest in Dublin, Ireland in 2015. Her poem “Dirty” was a finalist in Naugatuck River Review’s 11th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest in 2019. Her poem “Anhedonia” (now “Anhedonic Woman”) was a finalist in the 49th Parallel Award for Poetry in Bellingham Review’s 2016 Literary Contests. Her poems have appeared in Atlanta Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, Gargoyle, The New York Times, Rattle, Southword and other publications. She lives and writes in New York City.
“Alison Carb Sussman is a truth-teller, whether she is singing in the voice of an Israeli soldier, or in the voice of her younger self facing family cruelty. Her lines bear righteous anger subtly -- and transport joy in the small details of a life mapped out with immaculate craft…” -- Marilyn Kallet, poet, editor and former Knoxville Poet Laureate.
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Dec 19, 2022
Ellen Greene Stewart - ELEPHANTS - Up Close and Personal
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my podcast featuring author Ellen Greene Stewart, who will read from and discuss her latest non-fiction book, ELEPHANTS – Up Close and Personal, a truly entertaining and affecting exploration of the author’s experiences as a volunteer in South Africa’s Knysna Elephant Park. (Also a poem by Dan Chiasson!)
Ellen’s poignant portraits of individual elephants combined with her comprehensive and deeply considered compilation of often surprising scientific research on elephant physiology, psychology and the importance of elephants to humanity, emphasize the looming tragedy of their possible extinction.
In addition to ELEPHANTS – Up Close and Personal, published by Toplight – an imprint of McFarland & Co., Ellen is the author of Kaleidoscope (about the intersection of art therapy and dementia), Magnolia Street Publishing; Superheroes Unmasked (an emotional literacy curriculum for grade school children), Youthlight Publishing; and Mental Health in Rural America, Routledge Publishing, as well as numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals. Ellen has volunteered at Knysna Elephant Park several times. She lives and works as an art therapist in rural upstate New York.
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Dec 7, 2022
Lissa Kiernan - The Whispering Wall
*NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my WIOX show (originally aired October 5th, 2022) featuring award-winning poet *Lissa Kiernan, *who will read from and discuss her most recent poetry collection, The Whispering Wall. Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, Pamela Manché Pearce, also joins us on the show.
*The Whispering Wall*, *Lissa Kiernan*’s second full-length poetry collection, won the 2020 Homebound Publications Poetry Prize and was a semi-finalist for Tupelo Press Dorset Prize. Her previous books are Glass Needles & Goose Quills, winner of the Nautilus Gold for lyric prose, and Two Faint Lines in the Violet, finalist for the Julie Suk Award and IndieFab Award. She received her MFA at Stonecoast and holds an MA in Media Arts from The New School. She founded and directs The Poetry Barn, a pollinator habitat for poetry in the Catskills, and AIM Higher, a nonprofit organization dedicated to elevating women artists. She volunteers with Flying Cat Music and, with her husband, Chris Abramides, is an enthusiastic herder of a fluctuating number of felines. lissakiernan.com
“Besotted with, weighted with Beauty, The Whispering Wall constructs delicious sonic tangles and brutally candid testimonies. Kiernan’s lyric recording of multiple losses—of father, fertility, beloved natural places, sheer breathing spaces destroyed by human encroachment—provides the elegant architecture guiding each poem. Seductions and menacing of drink, of violence, shadow the speaker’s journey. Guiding all is the gorgeous dreaminess in Kiernan’s voice, pouring into us its alchemies: art itself is the elixir that distracts from, or miraculously surpasses, illusion or myth. A witchy and sardonic wit’s at work, too, in these poems, singing with Stevie Smith, and with Plath. What a great gift of solace and heart this book is.”
—Judith Vollmer, author of The Sound Boat: New and Selected Poems
“Elegiac and alive with all five senses, plus whatever sixth sense allows us to perceive the metaphysical mysteries of life and death, Lissa Kiernan’s The Whispering Wall limns the mists of grief and memory and delineates the lucidity of having a body.”
—Kathleen Rooney, author of Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk and Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey
* “...*Kiernan deftly weaves her own personal narrative into the lives of other artists (including Remedios Varo, Leonor Fini, and Leonora Carrington), historical events, computer systems, mythological figures, and even aerodynamics concepts, so that the collection subtly expands the dimensions of what the self means... “
—Christien Gholson, author of All the Beautiful Dead and winner of The Bitter Oleander Press Library Of Poetry Book Award
Yours in Radio, Sharon
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Oct 6, 2022
Cammy Thomas - Tremors
Planet Poet-Words in Space – *NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my WIOX show (originally aired September 13th, 2022) featuring award-winning poet *Cammy Thomas *who discusses and reads from her most recent poetry collection, Tremors, published by Four Way Books. *Pamela Manché *Pearce, Planet Poet’s endlessly interesting and erudite Poet-At-Large,* *also joins us on the show!* *
*Cammy Thomas’ *first book of poems, Cathedral of Wish, received the 2006 Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. A fellowship from the Ragdale Foundation helped her complete her second book, Inscriptions. Her third book, Tremors, came out in September 2021. All are published by Four Way Books. Her poems have recently appeared in Image, Poetry Porch, Amsterdam Quarterly, Gravel, and Compose, and in the anthologies, Poems in the Aftermath (Indolent Books), and Echoes from Walden (edited by David Leff, from Wayfarer Books). Her poem, "French Toast," was featured on Poem-a-Day on August 6,…
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Sep 21, 2022
Lisa Richter - Nautilus and Bone
Planet Poet-Words in Space – *NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my WIOX show (originally aired August 16, 2022) featuring Canadian poet *Lisa Richter* who reads from and discusses her poetry collection Nautilus and Bone, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry.
*Pamela Manché *Pearce, Planet Poet’s endlessly interesting and erudite Poet-At-Large,* *also joins us on the show!* *
* Lisa Richter* is a Canadian poet, writer and educator. She is the author of two books of poetry, Closer to Where We Began (Tightrope Books, 2017), and Nautilus and Bone (Frontenac House, 2020), winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Poetry, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Poetry, and the Robert Kroetsch Award for Poetry. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and a National Magazine Award, and appeared in numerous publications and anthologies, including The Literary Review of Canada, CV2,…
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Sep 7, 2022
Cheryl Clarke, Poet, Activist
Planet Poet-Words in Space – *NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my WIOX show (originally aired June 21, 2022) featuring *Cheryl Clarke,* remarkable poet, activist, educator and co-organizer of the annual Hobart Festival of Women Writers in Hobart, the Book Village of the Catskills. Planet Poet’s intrepid Poet-At-Large* Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us on the show!* *
* CHERYL CLARKE *is a black lesbian feminist poet and the author of five books of poetry, the literary study ‘After Mecca’: Women Poets and the Black Arts Movement, and the collection, The Days of Good Looks: Prose and Poetry, 1980-2005. She co-edited with Steven G. Fullwood To Be Left with the Body, a literary publication of the AIDS Project Los Angeles for men of color having sex with men.
SINCE 1979, her writing has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Callaloo: A Journal of African American Arts and Letters, African-American Review, and most recently The Georgia Review and Paideuma: a publicati…
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Jul 26, 2022
Mike Jurkovic - mooncussers
Planet Poet-Words in Space – *NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my May 24th, 2022 WIOX show featuring poet and performance artist *Mike Jurkovic.* Mike will read and perform poetry from his latest collection of poetry mooncussers and other works.
“From suburban streets to worldwide events, Jurkovic fights back with humor, ranging from dry to hilarious. Everything is political, and Jurkovic doesn’t care what you think. He’ll keep writing dis-turbing notes and speak his mind. His new collection, mooncussers, provides entertaining lessons for us to emerge from the matrix that keeps our minds imprisoned.” - Patricia Carragon, Curator/Editor in-chief Brownstone Poets, Brooklyn, NY, author of Angel Fire (Alien Buddha Press).
“A poet of intense precision, a collection of little daggers that head straight to the heart of things.”-John Pielmeier, Playwright (Agnes of God), Screenwriter, Novelist (Hook’s Tale)
*Mike Jurkovic’s *poetry collections include mooncussers (Luchador Press…
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Jun 30, 2022
Jerrice J. Baptiste Coral in the Diaspora
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my April 26th 2022 WIOX show featuring *Jerrice J. Baptiste, *a poet of exceptional lyricism. *Jerrice* will discuss and read from her upcoming poetry collection, Coral in the Diaspora.
Planet Poet’s endlessly interesting and erudite Poet-At-Large* Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us on the show!* *
* Jerrice J. Baptiste* is the author of eight books. She’s a poet in residence at the Prattsville Art Center in NY. *Jerrice* was also the recipient of a residency at the Omega Institute for the Women’s Leadership program in 2019. She has been extensively published in journals and magazines such as The Yale Review; Kosmos Journal; The Caribbean Writer; Mantis and many others. She lives in NY where she joyfully teaches poetry.
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Jun 6, 2022
Sparrow & Violet Snow
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my April 12th, 2022 WIOX show featuring returning guests, poet, essayist and novelist *Sparrow* to discuss his books Small Happiness & Other Epiphanies and The Princeton Diary, and novelist and essayist *Violet Snow *to discuss her new novel To March or to Marry.
*Sparrow* lives in a doublewide trailer in the salutary hamlet of Phoenicia, New York. He has published 10 books, the most recent being Small Happiness & Other Epiphanies (Monkfish Publishing). *Sparrow* plays tonette in the axiomatic pop group Foamola.
*Violet Snow* wrote regularly for the Woodstock Times for 17 years. She has been published in the New York Times “Disunion” blog, Civil War Times, American Ancestors, Jewish Currents, and many other periodicals. Her fiction and memoir have appeared in Otter Magazine, Pilgrimage, Tinker Street, and the podcast series “The Strange Recital.” An excerpt from her historical novel, To March or to Marry, has been publish…
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May 3, 2022
Lee Slonimsky - Bright Yellow Buzz
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my March 15th, 2022 WIOX show featuring returning guest, the unique poet and novelist *Lee Slonimsky, *who will read from and discuss his latest erudite and poignant poetry collection, *Bright Yellow Buzz*. This show has a fascinating range - from Pompeii and the Lisbon Earthquake to Pythagoras, Vermeer, and the DNA commonality of trees and humans.
“*Lee Slonimsky*’s poetic achievement in *Bright Yellow Buzz** *is more than technique, more than memory, though master technique and master memory are everywhere in this work: it is nothing less than ‘spirit’s truth;’…his landscape is written as though pen touched on bough.” *Dr. Robert Basner*
*LEE SLONIMSKY’*s sonnet sequence, Pythagoras in Love, has been translated into French and Greek, was published in Polish this summer and will soon be translated into Italian. His poem “Dragonflies in Love” was included in the new anthology BuzzWords: Poems About Insects, E…
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Apr 8, 2022
Coleman Palmer Experiencing Autumn
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my December 21st, 2021 WIOX show for my conversation with poet *Elizabeth J. Coleman* and photographer
*Michael Craig Palmer* on their beautiful new book, *Experiencing Autumn*, and their unusual and imaginative collaboration.
*Elizabeth J. Coleman* is the editor of HERE: Poems for the Planet (Copper Canyon Press, 2019), with a foreword from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She is the author of two poetry collections, published by Spuyten Duyvil Press (PROOF and THE FIFTH GENERATION), and translated Lee Slonimsky’s sonnet collection PYTHAGORE, AMOUREUX into French (Folded Word Press, 2016). Her poems have appeared in many journals, including Colorado Review, Rattle, and Bellevue Literary Review, and in a number of anthologies. Elizabeth’s website is www.elizabethjcoleman.com.
*Michael Craig Palmer* is a photographer who has explored the architectural legacy of the German Jewish exodus from Germany in the 1920s and 1930s. At the…
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Mar 16, 2022
Geoffrey Nutter Poems and Poetry
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my February 15th, 2022 WIOX show featuring returning guest, the remarkable poet and teacher *Geoffrey Nutter*. Geoffrey reads poems from his latest collection, Giant Moth Perishes, and shares his brilliance and exuberance about poetry including his lightheartedly profound wrangling of the comparative mysteries of Wallace Stevens’ “Anecdote of the Jar” and Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale.”
Planet Poet’s endlessly interesting Poet-At-Large *Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us on the show with her entertainingly erudite musings on a common obsession among writers: their typewriters!
*Geoffrey Nutter* is the author of Giant Moth Perishes (Wave Books, 2021), A Summer Evening (winner of the 2001 Colorado Prize), Water’s Leaves & Other Poems (Winner of the 2004 Verse Press Prize), Christopher Sunset (winner of the 2011 Sheila Motton Book Award), The Rose of January (Wave Books, 2013), and Cities at Dawn (Wave Books, 2016)…
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Feb 8, 2022
Maria Mazziotti Gillan, When the Stars Were Still Visible
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my January 18th, 2022 WIOX show featuring *Maria Mazziotti Gillan*, poet, teacher, artist and visionary founder of the renowned Poetry Center at the Passaic Community College in Patterson, N.J., on her new book, *When the Stars Were Still Visible*. Planet Poet’s erudite and endlessly interesting Poet-At-Large *Pamela Manché Pearce *also joins us with her musings on poetry, art and life.
On *When the Stars Were Still Visible*
“… It is as if this book rose out of an alchemist’s compound comprised of Calabrian limestone and the cement of the back stoop on 17th Street in Paterson, New Jersey, where Mazziotti Gillan grew up. By the end of this poignant and resonant book, the poet accepts her double heritage with all is pain and obstacles and with all its beauty and grace.” – Stephen F Austin State University Press, Nacogdoches, Texas
*Maria Mazziotti Gillan*, American Book Award recipient for All That Lies Between Us (…
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Jan 7, 2022
Leslie Gerber - Losing Tara
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my November 23rd, 2021
WIOX show for my conversation with poet, music critic and founder of Parnassus Records, *Leslie Gerber* on his collection of poems *Losing Tara, An Alzheimer’s Journey**,* published in 2020 by Post Traumatic Press, in honor of his late wife, writer Tara McCarthy. Leslie and I will also listen to and discuss recordings released under his independent label *Parnassus Records*.
“The spouses and loved ones of patients with dementia experience a devastating emotional burden as they watch them decline. *Leslie Gerber* has taken the unusual and compelling step of publishing the poems he wrote in honor of his wife during her tragic course. This is an eloquent way to memorialize their times together and also her most human qualities, which dementia progressively destroys.” - Dennis J. Selkoe MD, Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases, Harvard Medical School
* Leslie Gerber* was born in Brooklyn in 1943. He w…
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Dec 10, 2021
Philip Pardi Meditations on Rising and Falling
Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN to my October 26th, 2021 WIOX show with my in-studio guest, poet, essayist, translator and teacher, *Philip Pardi *who will read from and discuss his prize-winning poetry collection, Meditations on Rising and Falling and talk about his life as writer, activist and teacher.
*Philip Pardi *is the author of Meditations on Rising and Falling (University of Wisconsin Press), which won the Brittingham Prize and the Writers' League of Texas Award for Poetry. His poems, essays, and translations have appeared widely in journals and anthologies. His most recent project, completed with the support of the NEA, is a volume of selected translations by the Salvadoran poet Claudia Lars. He teaches at Bard College and serves on the Advisory Board of LIDE, a non-profit organization devoted to empowering and educating Haitian girls through the arts.
On Meditations on Rising and Falling: “A truly exceptional volume of poems. Wry, wise, and powerful, t…
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Nov 15, 2021
Robert Basner - Autumnal - with Lee Slonimsky
LISTEN to my March 31st, 2021 WIOX show with my guest co-host, the erudite poet and novelist, Lee Slonimsky. Lee invited poet and eminent physician Robert Charles Basner to read and discuss his evocative and original poetry.
Robert Charles Basner, holds the titles of Professor Emeritus of Medicine, Columbia University, and Special Lecturer in Medicine, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He is an internationally recognized physician and biomedical researcher, author, editor, editorialist, and educator. A former faculty member of the Harvard Medical School and current faculty member of his alma mater, the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, he is a laureate of an NIH Academic Career Award of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and of the Sidney Zolot Music Award of the City College of New York. He has published poetry in numerous journals including the Columbia Review, Promethean, and Chronogram and is working on a first collection of verse, “An…
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Oct 14, 2021
Geoffrey Nutter Giant Moth Perishes
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my September 28th, 2021 WIOX radio conversation with remarkable poet and teacher, *Geoffrey Nutter *by phone from Manhattan to read from and discuss his latest poetry collection, Giant Moth Perishes (Wave Books, 2021), and share his brilliance and exuberance about poetry and living in this world.
*Geoffrey Nutter* is the author of Giant Moth Perishes (Wave Books, 2021), A Summer Evening (winner of the 2001 Colorado Prize), Water’s Leaves & Other Poems (Winner of the 2004 Verse Press Prize), Christopher Sunset (winner of the 2011 Sheila Motton Book Award), The Rose of January (Wave Books, 2013), and Cities at Dawn (Wave Books, 2016). He recently traveled in China, giving lectures, workshops, and readings as a participant in the Sun Yat-sen University Writers’ Residency. *Geoffrey*’s poems have been translated into Spanish, French, and Mandarin. Soir d’été, a bilingual edition of his poems translated into French by poets…
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Sep 9, 2021
Robert Milby - Poet Laureate of Orange County, N.Y.
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my August 3rd, 2021 WIOX Radio conversation with *Robert Milby*, poet, teacher and freelance thinker. *Milby* was *Poet Laureate of Orange County, NY* from 2017 to 2019. He’s given over 500 featured readings and hosted 30 poetry series including Calling All Poets in the Hudson Valley. He’s been published in over 2 dozen magazines and 25 anthologies, including: Home Planet News, Chronogram, Waymark, and on many websites. His chapbook, Gothic, Orange (poems inspired by Orange County, NY) was published through the County Historian’s office, in October 2018. *Milby* was the 2020 winner of the Wild West Poetry Contest sponsored by Flying Monkey Productions in Kingston, NY. His latest collection, Corona d’état: The Pandemic Poems, 2020 was published by Lion Autumn Music Publishing in 2021. And, each October, since 2003, Milby and Ulster County, NY Artist, Carl Welden haunt the Hudson Valley as the duo Theremin Ghosts! *Robert M…
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Aug 12, 2021
Jared Fagen - Black Sun Lit
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my June 8th, 2021 WIOX Radio conversation with poet, editor and publisher *Jared Daniel Fagen *on his forthcoming poetry collection, *The Animal of Existence* and two books from his literary press, *Black Sun Lit*: *I am writing you from afar* by *Moyna Pam Dik* and *Apostasy* by *Katy Mongeau. *
*Jared Daniel Fagen* is the author of *The Animal of Existence*, which is forthcoming from Black Square Editions in 2022. His prose poems and essays have appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Lana Turner, Asymptote, Prelude, and Caesura, among other places. Currently residing in Arkville, he is the editor of Black Sun Lit, a PhD student in Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center, and an English instructor at the City College of New York. More @ jareddanielfagen.com
*Jared Daniel Fagen* on *Black Sun Lit*
... We propose a renewed aestheticism that values beauty- not communication or identification – as the end of literature. Be…
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Jul 15, 2021
Rosyl DeMaios Roffman
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my 2017 WIOX Radio conversation with transcendent poet *Rosaly DeMaios Roffman* on poetry’s power to “fix, change and heal things real life cannot.”
*Rosaly DeMaios Roffman*, internationally acclaimed poet and writer, is Professor Emerita at Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she taught creative writing, myth and literature, Japanese and Chinese Literature in Translation and founded the IUP Center for the Study of Myth and Folklore in the 1970’s. In 2002, Roffman established the Rossaly DeMaios Roffman Collection Center for the Study of Myth and Folklore, which grew into the *IUP Dessy-Roffman Myth Collaborative, *formally dedicated on April 24th, 2021 (https://www.iup.edu/news-item.aspx?id=294439&blogid=6121).
Among her myriad accomplishments, *Roffman *co-edited the prize-winning LIFE ON THE LINE, and is the author of Going To Bed Whole, TOTTERING PALACES, THE APPROXIMATE MESSAGE and, IN THE FALL OF A SPARROW.…
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Jun 16, 2021
Roberta Gould - Woven Lightning
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my May llth, 2021
WIOX Radio conversation with the original and exuberant poet *Roberta Gould *on her latest collection *Woven Lightning *(Spuyten Duyvil, 2019) and other works.
“The tension between the lyrical and the practical, the soaring and the quotidian give her poetry its arresting and archetypical energy. A procession of gongs and silences, powerful and affecting. A poet to the bone. – Stanley Nelson, winner of the Thomas Wolfe Poetry Award.
“Roberta Gould is a poet who brings all her senses to her work …the focus is beautifully and lovingly on the familiar…poems that are full of spirit and inventiveness.”
--Donald Lev
Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large *Pamela Manché Pearce *will also join the show this month to talk about Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky and spirituality in art and poetry.
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May 13, 2021
Sparrow - Small Happiness & Other Epiphanies
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my April 13th, 2021
WIOX Radio conversation with poet, essayist, novelist and blithe spirit *Sparrow *on his new book *Small Happiness & Other Epiphanies*. *Sparrow* urges us to “dance your way to health” among other spiritually whimsical (or whimsically spiritual) suggestions for better living. Hear* Sparrow*’s original musical offering “Bungalow Bop” performed by Sparrow (words, flute/guitar) and Robert Burke Warren (music, vocals/guitar).
*Sparrow* lives in a doublewide trailer in the salutary hamlet of Phoenicia, New York. He has published 10 books, the most recent being Small Happiness & Other Epiphanies (Monkfish Publishing). Sparrow plays tonette in the axiomatic pop group Foamola.
*Pamela Manché Pearce, *Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, also joins the conversation with a fascinating segment on the art of collage in jazz, art and poetry.
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Apr 21, 2021
Maxima Kahn - Fierce Aria
*LISTEN * to Planet Poet-Words in Space for my conversation with poet Maxima Kahn on her intriguing and deeply felt debut poetry collection Fierce Aria (Finishing Line Press, 2020).
“I have learned to walk into the valley of my fears and losses,” writes *Maxima Kahn*, and the evidence of what she has learned is all over these amazing poems. Fierce Aria is a book with a post-Wallace Stevens mission: to coax the still perfection of ideas out of the abstract realm, so they can take shape in the messy wilderness of reality. Distinctive, honed, vulnerable, musical, courageous, honest, *Maxima Kahn*’s poems are fully ripened, fully considered—each one ready to drop richly into the hand like a subtly contoured fruit. Taste them.
*–Annie Finch*, author of Spells: New and Selected Poems
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Apr 1, 2021
Arthur Vogelsang - Orbit
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN* to my 20016 WIOX Radio conversation with renowned, award-winning poet, *Arthur Vogelsang*. *Vogelsang *is the author of seven books of poetry, including Twentieth Century Women and Cities and Towns, which received the Juniper Prize. His work has been included in numerous anthologies such as The Best American Poetry, The Pushchart Prize, The New Breadloaf Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and American Hybrid. Arthur was coeditor of the Norton anthology The Body Electric: America’s Best Poetry from The American Poetry Review. He is the recipient of a California Arts Council fellowship and three National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in poetry. Arthur’s newest book, *Orbi*t was published by University of Pittsburgh Press.
"Part vaudevillian, part shaman, *Arthur Vogelsang* celebrates the tenacious hopes of the hopeless and repeats aloud the snarling prayers of the lost. Voice-driven and maximal, each its own tonal high-wire a…
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Mar 5, 2021
Bruce Weber Poet, Art Historian
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my January, 2021 WIOX Radio conversation with Bruce Weber to discuss his life as a poet, poetry event organizer and art historian, and to delve into his new book *There Are Too Many Words In My House* recently published by Rogue Scholars Press.
*Bruce Weber *is the author of five previously published books of poetry: “These Poems are Not Pretty” (Miami: Palmetto Press, 1992), “How the Poem Died” (New York: Linear Arts, 1998), “Poetic Justice” (New York: Ikon Press, 2004), “The First Time I Had Sex with T. S. Eliot” (New York: Venom Press, 2004), and “The Break-up of My First Marriage” (Rogue Scholars Press, 2009).
Bruce’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, as well as in several anthologies, including “Up is Up, But So Is Down: Downtown Writings, 1978- 1992” (New York: New York University, 2006), “Riverine: An Anthology of Hudson Valley Writers” (New Paltz, New York: Codhill Press, 2007), and…
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Feb 5, 2021
Paul Muldoon Pulitzer Prize-Winning Poet
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my 2020 WIOX Radio conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet *Paul Muldoon. *Hear his views on poetry, teaching, and on the process and challenges of producing last year’s Sharon Springs Poetry Festival (the Festival’s fourth year) virtually during Covid. Please note that the Festival was upcoming when this show was initially broadcast in October. A great *highlight* of the show: Hear *Paul Muldoon *read his poem*,* “The Bannisters” from his 2020 poetry collection Frolic and Detour.
*Paul Muldoon* is the author of 14 major collections of poetry, innumerable smaller collections, works of criticism, opera libretti, books for children, song lyrics, radio and television drama. His poetry has been translated into twenty languages.
The Times Literary Supplement has described *Paul Muldoon* as “the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War”. Roger Rosenblatt, writing in The New York Times…
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Jan 15, 2021
Anique Taylor - Where Space Bends
*LISTEN *to my 2020 WIOX Radio conversation with poet and award-winning artist *Anique Sara Taylor *on her splendidly lyric debut poetry collection, *Where Space Bends *(Finishing Line Press, 2020).
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Dec 11, 2020
Nina Shengold Reservoir Year
*LISTEN *to my November 10,, 2020 WIOX Radio conversation with writer and playwright *Nina Shengold* on her new book out this year from Syracuse University Press, *Reservoir Year-A Walker’s Book of Days*.
*Nina Shengold*'s books* *include* *Clearcut (Anchor Books), a Book Sense Notable selection; River of Words: Portraits of Hudson Valley Writers (SUNY Press); and 14 theatre anthologies for Vintage Books and Viking Penguin. Shengold won a Writers Guild Award for her teleplay Labor of Love and the ABC Playwright Award for Homesteaders. She teaches creative writing at Vassar College. Shengold has profiled more than 150 writers for Chronogram, Poets & Writers, and Vassar Quarterly. She’s a founding member of the theatre company Actors & Writers, author series Word Café, and Hudson Valley Writers Resist. She was born in Brooklyn, grew up in New Jersey, escaped to Alaska, and now lives and works in the foothills of New York’s Catskill Mountains.
“*Nina Shengold*’s memoir expl…
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Nov 23, 2020
Poet Lee Slonimsky and Essayist Peter Bricklebank
*Planet Poet-Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my September 29, 2020 conversation with poet and novelist *Lee Slonimsky* and essayist and teacher *Peter Bricklebank*. Lee, my special co-host, invited Peter to read and discuss his remarkable essay on moths, Virginia Woolf and much, much more - *-“An Eclipse of One’s Own.” ** *
*Peter Bricklebank* has published in The American Voice, Carolina Quarterly, Mid-American Review, Kansas Quarterly, Confrontation, Fiction, The New York Times Book Review and The Chicago Tribune, et al. His chapter on essay/memoir appears in The Portable MFA. He has taught at New York University, Sarah Lawrence College, and elsewhere, including a year as Nonfiction writer-in-residence at Central Connecticut State University and at Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv. Pandemics permitting, he co-teaches a winter workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico. He currently teaches in the online graduate program of National University and at the Hudson Valley Writers' Center.…
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Oct 29, 2020
Guy Reed and Cheryl A. Rice Poets
*Planet Poet – Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my September l, 2020 conversation with poets *Cheryl A. Rice* and *Guy Reed*, on their collaborative chapbook, Until The Words Came, published by Post Traumatic Press in 2019 and their new full collections - Cheryl’s Love’s Compass (2019: Kung Fu Treachery Press, an imprint of Spartan Press), and Guy Reed’s Second Innocence, published this year by Luchador Press, also an imprint of Spartan Press.
“It’s not unusual for poets to tackle the subject of craft or the ghosts and mentors
who inspired their path. What sets Cheryl A. Rice & Guy Reed’s Until The Words
Came apart from so many collections is a thoughtful conviction, a strength of
heart that makes their words more than just raw emotion, or a polished sense of
poetics. It is all of these things. The late Richard Hugo once said, ‘Poetry is the
art of meaning what you say.’ Well, Rice and Reed mean every word, and their
work together offers a great sense of ba…
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Oct 16, 2020
Dan Wilcox Albany Poet
*Planet Poet – Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my August, 2020 WIOX radio conversation with Dan Wilcox - poet, photographer, activist and major force in the poetry community of Albany, N.Y. Dan Wilcox hosts the Third Thursday Poetry Night at the Social Justice Center in Albany, N.Y. Dan claims to have the world's largest collection of photos of unknown poets. His poems have been published in Post Traumatic Press 2007, Chronogram, Poetica and most recently in "Ghost Fishing: an Eco-Justice Poetry Anthology". His book “Gloucester Notes” is available from FootHills Publishing. You can read his Blog at dwlcx.blogspot.com.
Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, *Pamela Manché Pearce, *discusses the work of surrealist Aimé Cesaire.
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Oct 2, 2020
Teresa Costa Poet - WOMPS (Word of Mouth Poetry Series)
*Planet Poet – Words in Space – NEW PODCAST! LISTEN *to my WIOX radio conversation with poet and vital force in the Hudson Valley poetry community, *Teresa Costa.* Teresa is the founder and host of WOMPS – Word Of Mouth Poetry Series housed at the Art Bar in Kingston, N.Y. for the last few years. Teresa’s work has been recently featured in Gasconade Review book # 5 & CAPS 20th Anniversary 2020 & Home Planet News. Teresa, a compelling conversationalist, reads and discusses Jazz Poets and Beat Poets as well as her own poetry and her WOMPS Series.
Planet Poet’s Poet-At-Large, *Pamela Manché Pearce *discusses the life and work of *Phillis Wheatley*, the first African-American author of a published book of poetry.
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Sep 18, 2020
Poet Bertha Rogers on Planet Poet Words in Space
*LISTEN *to my WIOX radio conversation with poet, translator and visual artist and poet laureate of Delaware County, N.Y., Bertha Rogers on her exquisite newest works, Uncommon Creatures: The Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Poems From the Exeter Book, which she illuminated and translated, and her collection of poetry, Wild, Again (salmonpoetry, 2019). Don’t miss Bertha Rogers reading in Anglo-Saxon!
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Sep 4, 2020
Pamela Manché Pearce Widowland
*Planet Poet – Words in Space PODCAST! LISTEN *to my WIOX radio conversation with poet and award-winning visual artist *Pamela Manché Pearce*, Planet Poet’s intrepid Poet-At-Large, on her poignant and powerful debut chapbook Widowland, published by Green Bottle Press, London (2018). Pamela’s work has appeared in ArsMedica (Toronto); The Brooklyn Review, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art’s “Between I and Thou” exhibition compilation; Mondo Greco, Samba, The Widows’ Handbook: Poetic Reflections on Grief and Survival and most recently Nowhere Magazine.
“The theme of loss and grief, of courage, are hardly new; and even to acknowledge more recognition now than in previous moments seems like a precarious approach. But there is a canon and Pearce arrives in it with her exquisite verse.”
-- Greg Bem, YELLOW RABBITS REVIEW
Poet and publicist Brandon Amico also appears on the show, sharing valuable tips on how poets can best publicize their work.
Yours in Radio,…
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May 14, 2020
Elizabeth H. Coleman - HERE, Poetry for the Planet
This week, the podcast will feature my conversation with poet, editor, translator, lawyer and champion of the environment, Elizabeth J. Coleman, on her wildly relevant and beautiful anthology, HERE, Poems for the Planet, published by Copper Canyon Press in April, 2019. HERE, edited by Coleman, features a dramatic foreword from His Holiness the Dalai Lama; Coleman’s superb international selection of 125 living poets including U.S. Poet Laureates, Pulitzer Prize-winners and youth poets; and a guide to activism from the Union of Concerned Scientists. https://www.sharonisraelpoet.com/blog/coleman-here
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