WordTemple host Katherine Hastings interviews poet, performer, nonfiction writer and verse playwright Annie Finch, visiting from her home in Maine. Her most recent collection of poems, Spells, brings together poems written over a span of 40 years and reflects her passion for poetic craft, from lyrics to chants and more. Joy Harjo says “Annie Finch’s poetry is a pure tone that calls us home to the first impulse of poetry. We link to mystery. We lift off.” Molly Peacock adds “One of the most dexterous formal poets writing in the United States today, Annie Finch is at ease in a dazzling variety of prosodic modes, from the very short lyric to the sonnet to myriad metrical constructions in stanzaic forms…All of her considerable talents are on display in Spells.”

Also, Hastings speaks with Tamam Kahn, author of Untold — A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad. Untold demystifies the most influential women present at the dawn of Islam and introduces us to Muhammad’s wives, among them a successful merchant, the leader of an army, two Jewish war captives, and a Coptic Christian diplomat. “Swimming amid ‘the names of God,’ Tamam Kahn has written a brilliant and illuminating book, equally awesome in the depth of its research, the grace of its prose, and the beauty of its poetic voices Untold should be read with joy by any reader who hopes to transcend current stereotypes about Islam. It is a bridge between worlds.” — Alicia Ostriker