Mar 25

Maya C. Popa Reads Brenda Shaughnessy

Maya C. Popa joins Kevin Young to read “Artless,” by Brenda Shaughnessy, and her own poem “The World Was All Before Them.” Popa is the author of “Wound Is the Origin of Wonder” and “American Faith,” the latter of which won the North American Book Prize. Her third collection, “If ... Show More

41m 47s

Feb 25

Adrian Matejka Reads C.D. Wright

Adrian Matejka joins Kevin Young to read “Against the Encroaching Grays,” by C. D. Wright, and his own poem “Almost Home.” Matejka is the author of several poetry collections and the graphic novel “Last on His Feet.” He has been a finalist for the National Book Award and the Puli ... Show More

46m 6s

Jan 2026

April Bernard Reads John Ashbery

April Bernard joins Kevin Young to read “A Worldly Country,” by John Ashbery, and her own poem “Beagle or Something.” Bernard is the author of two novels and six poetry collections—including “Blackbird Bye Bye,” which won the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, ... Show More

42m 20s

Sep 2025

David Wright Faladé Reads “Amarillo Boulevard”

David Wright Faladé reads his story “<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/10/06/amarillo-boulevard-fiction-david-wright-falade">Amarillo Boulevard</a>,” from the October 6, 2025, issue of the magazine. Wright Faladé, the recipient of a Zora Neale H ... Show More

42m 51s

Jun 2025

A.O. Scott on the Joy of Close Reading Poetry

On this week's episode, A.O. Scott joins host Gilbert Cruz to talk about the value of close reading poetry. And New York Times Book Review poetry editor Greg Cowles recommends four recently published collections worth reading.Books mentioned in this episode* "New ... Show More

33m 55s

Dec 2024

Diego Báez — Inheritance

Many people say their experience of time changes after they have children, a phenomenon that Diego Báez captures in “Inheritance.” In this poem, a past, present, and future starring the same child shift ceaselessly in a parent’s mind, like photos flipped through in an album, dots ... Show More

20m 4s

Jun 2023

Rowan Ricardo Phillips — Never Again Would Birds’ Song Be the Same

Have you ever had a private moment — perhaps in the middle of the night — in a large city? When it just seems like it’s you and the great dreaming metropolis? Rowan Ricardo Phillips brings us into a memory he can’t forget, complete with a Wu-Tang Clan soundtrack.Rowan Ricardo Phi ... Show More

12m 58s

Oct 2014

Becca J.R. Lachman, “A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford” (Woodley Press, 2013)

About twenty years ago, I heard William Stafford read his poetry for about twenty minutes. For a young aspiring writer like I was then, he was mesmerizing, a mix of poetic energy and grandfatherly wisdom, with a high-spirited charm. I think it was the first poetry reading that I ... Show More

37m 36s

Oct 2023

554 John Ashbery (with Jess Cotton) | My Last Book with David van den Berg

Poetry! Poetry! Poetry! After taking a look at Emily Dickinson's Poem #1 94 ("Title divine - is mine!"), Jacke talks to Cambridge University's Jess Cotton, whose biography of John Ashbery (John Ashbery: A Critical Life) charts Ashbery's rise from a minor avant-garde figure to the ... Show More

58m 2s

Oct 2025

I Love You, Man: Jason Reynolds on Masculinity

"I don’t want to be whatever version of masculinity y’all keep telling me I have to be. Why are all the benchmarks violent and aggressive? I don’t wanna do it. I’m not interested” — Jason ReynoldsWe all inherit scripts about who we’re supposed to be. For boys, they often center o ... Show More

38m 46s

Jul 2021

Billy Collins' "Fishing on the Susquehanna in July"

William James Collins (born March 22, 1941) is an American poet, appointed as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Poet_Laureate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Poet Laureate of the United States</a> from 2001 to 2003.<a href="https: ... Show More

9m 55s

Feb 2025

Benjamin Zephaniah — To Michael Menson

Benjamin Zephaniah’s urgent, imperative “To Michael Menson” was written when he was a poet in residence at a human rights barrister in England. His poem resonates with his repeated calls for justice for a murdered Black musician — not a justice that is gullible, impotent, or hope ... Show More

12m 52s

Nov 2024

Craig Arnold's "Meditation on a Grapefruit"

Craig Arnold, born November 16, 1967 was an American poet and professor. His first book of poems, Shells (1999), was selected by W.S. Merwin for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His many honors include the 2005 Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize Fellowship in literature, the ... Show More

9m 13s

Monica Ferrell Reads Lucie Brock-Broido