The Poetry Magazine Podcast

Richie Hofmann and Cindy Juyoung Ok on Erotic Turmoil and More

08.15.2023 - By Poetry FoundationPlay

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

This week, Cindy Juyoung Ok talks with Richie Hofmann, whose latest book is A Hundred Lovers (Knopf, 2022), about the ancient tale of Hermias of Iasos which informs Hofmann’s poem “Dolphin.” The poem appears in the July/August issue of Poetry alongside “Breed Me,” and we’ll hear both on today’s episode. Hofmann and Ok reveal they are both “Cavafy heads,” and Hofmann discusses the influence of Robert Mapplethorpe on his poems, as well as why lineation is one of the “erotic touchstones” of poetry.

More episodes from The Poetry Magazine Podcast