“I’m a striver,” poet Alison Luterman, “still striving to grow.” In this interview with the beloved poet, we follow up on our conversation from episode 64 “It’s Okay to Not Feel Talented, Keep Going Anyway,

Alison tells us about her ongoing singing lessons and how they have changed the way she listens, not only to music but to conversations and the rest of the world. This practice is at the heart of her new collection, Hard Listening. Not only does she read from the book, but she shares about what she learned about creativity from studying the lives of her singing heroes, the interweaving of politics and creative practice, and how to explore and share pleasure in the midst of difficult times.

Alison Luterman’s four books of poems include The Largest Possible Life; See How We Almost Fly; Desire Zoo; and In the Time of Great Fires. She has published poems in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Nimrod, and many other journals and anthologies. She lives in Oakland, California, where she walks her neighborhood daily, stopping at all the yards where there’s a sweet-smelling bush or tree.

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