Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with the wise & awe-inspiring Jennifer Michael Hecht!

Jennifer Michael Hecht is a poet and historian. Her new book is The Wonder Paradox: Embracing the Weirdness of Existence and the Poetry of Our Lives - just out, March 2023, with FSG. Hecht is the author of the bestseller Doubt: A History, a history of religious and philosophical doubt all over the world, throughout history. Her book Stay is a history of suicide and a secular argument against it (Yale).  Hecht’s books have been translated into many languages. Her The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology won Phi Beta Kappa’s 2004 Ralph Waldo Emerson Award “For scholarly studies that contribute significantly to interpretations of the intellectual and cultural condition of humanity.”Publisher’s Weekly called her poetry book, Funny, “One of the most original and entertaining books of the year.”  Her first book of poetry, The Next Ancient World, won three national awards, including the Poetry Society of America’s First Book award for 2001. Her most recent poetry book is Who Said (Copper Canyon, 2013). Her prose book The Happiness Myth (HarperOne, 2007), brings a historical eye to modern wisdom about how to lead a good life.  Hecht has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Politico, Vox, Poetry, and The New Yorker. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of science/European cultural history from Columbia University (1995) and has taught in the MFA program at Columbia University and the New School in New York City. Hecht has also published in peer-reviewed journals, including;The Journal of the History of Ideas, Isis: Journal of the History of Science Society, French Historical Studies, The Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, and has delivered lectures at Harvard, Yale, MIT, Cal Tech, Columbia University as well as The Zen Mountain Monastery, Temple Israel, Saint Bart’s Episcopal Church, and other institutions of learning and introspection. Hecht has been featured on many radio programs, including On Being with Krista Tippet, Leonard Lopate Show, the BBC, Speaking of Faith, Talk of the Nation, and Brian Lehrer. In 2010 Hecht served as one of the five nonfiction judges for the National Book Award. She is a member of the New York Institute for the Humanities. She has appeared on Hardball on MSNBC, the Discovery Channel, and The Morning Show. She lectures widely.

Thank you so much Jennifer for having a coke with us today!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with the man, the myth, the legend... Robert Pinsky!

Known worldwide, Pinsky’s work has earned him the PEN/Voelcker Award, the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Lenore Marshall Prize, Italy’s Premio Capri, the Korean Manhae Award, and the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago, among other accolades.

Robert Pinsky is a poet, essayist, translator, teacher, and speaker. His first two terms as United States Poet Laureate were marked by such visible dynamism—and such national enthusiasm in response—that the Library of Congress appointed him to an unprecedented third term. Throughout his career, Pinsky has been dedicated to identifying and invigorating poetry’s place in the world. Pinsky is a professor of English and creative writing in the graduate writing program at Boston University. In 2015 the university named him a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, the highest honor bestowed on senior faculty members who are actively involved in teaching, research, scholarship, and university civic life.

Thank you so much Robert for having a coke with us today!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with the thoughtful & genre-bending Victoria Chang!

Victoria Chang’s forthcoming book of poems, With My Back to the World will be published in 2024 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Corsair Books in the U.K. Her most recent book of poetry, The Trees Witness Everything was published by Copper Canyon Press and Corsair Books in the U.K. in 2022, and was named one of the Best Books of 2022 by the New Yorker and The Guardian. Her nonfiction book, Dear Memory (Milkweed Editions), was published in 2021 and was named a favorite nonfiction book of 2021 by Electric Literature and Kirkus. OBIT (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), her most recent poetry book, was named a New York Times Notable Book, a Time Must-Read Book, and received the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, and the PEN/Voelcker Award. It was also longlisted for a National Book Award and named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Griffin International Poetry Prize. She has also received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature. She serves as the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech.

Thank you so much Victoria for having a coke with us today!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with the hilarious Jennifer L. Knox!

Jennifer’s fifth book of poems, Crushing It, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2020. Her poems have appeared five times in the Best American Poetry series & in publications such as the New York Times, the New Yorker & American Poetry Review. Her non-fiction writing has appeared in The New York Times & The Washington Post. Currently she is at work on MYCYOWA, a traveling art project designed to increase awareness of mycoremediation. From 2016-2017, she developed & curated the crowd-sourced poetry project, Iowa Bird of Mouth, which was supported by the Iowa Arts Council & the National Endowment for the Arts. Over 750 people from around the world contributed to the project. Jennifer teaches at Iowa State University & in an ongoing series of private creative writing classes online.  She is also the co-proprietor of a small spice company called Saltlickers. Born in Lancaster, California—home to Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, & the Space Shuttle—Jennifer received her B.A. from the University of Iowa, & her M.F.A. in poetry writing from New York University.

Thank you so much Jennifer for having a coke with us today!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with the legend herself, Alice Notley!

Alice is the author of more than 20 books of poetry including The Descent of Alette (1996) & Mysteries of Small Houses (Penguin, 1998). She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, & winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry. In the spring of 2001 she received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters & the Poetry Society of America’s Shelly Memorial Award. She edited & wrote a new introduction to her late husband Ted Berrigan’s The Sonnets (Penguin, 2000). Born in Bisbee, Arizona, Notley grew up in Needles, California. After leading a peripatetic life during the late 60s & early 70s, she settled in New York, where, for 16 years, she was an important force in the eclectic second generation of the so-called New York school of poetry. (Credit to the Griffin Poetry Prize website for this bio!)

Thank you so much Alice for having a coke with us!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets & poetry lovers! I'm so thrilled to present this episode with an iconic headliner of The 12th Annual New York City Poetry Festival, Saeed Jones!

Saeed is the author of the memoir HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES, winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction & the poetry collection PRELUDE TO BRUISE, winner for the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. His poetry & essays have appeared in the New Yorker, New York Times, Oxford American & GQ among other publications. His new poetry collection ALIVE AT THE END OF THE WORLD is out now.

You can find Saeed at @theferocity on Instagram & Twitter, as well as on the podcast Vibe Check! Thank you Saeed for having a coke with us today!

This podcast is brought to you by The Poetry Society of New York and the Radio Drama Network. Become a member of PSNY today! Visit poetrysocietyny.org to learn more, & follow us on social media @poetrysocietyny!

Hey poets and poetry lovers!

Welcome to Having a Coke with You, The Poetry Society of New York's podcast sponsored by the Radio Drama Network!

My name is Tova, I use they/them pronouns, and I’m the Programs Director of PSNY and the Creative Director of The New York City Poetry Festival, and now… the host of this podcast!

Join me as I sit down and have a coke with some of the most iconic poets of today’s day and age. This all-star lineup is KILLER and features Pulitzer Prize winners, United States Poet Laureates, and bestselling authors! 

The Poetry Society of New York is all about bringing poetry to the public eye and making it accessible, and this podcast is meant to do just that. Having a Coke with You allows any listener, no matter their geographical location or socioeconomic status, to have MFA-grade, unfettered access to poetry. While other poetry podcasts tend to hypostatize successful artists who generate transcendent work, Having a Coke with You aims to demystify poetry by allowing listeners to get a glimpse of the real person behind award-winning stanzas. 

Also, in honor of the Radio Drama Network, in every episode of this podcast, listeners will hear poetry straight from the poets’ mouth, punctured by laugh-out-loud anecdotes, such as Allen Ginsberg’s proposal to Alice Notley and Saeed Jones’ profound love of naps.

I promise that Having a Coke with You has a little something for any listener, whether they are poets, poetry-lovers, or even poets-to-be. Having a Coke with You is sure to be your new favorite literary podcast. 

Tune in every Friday starting July 28, 2023, anywhere you listen to podcasts.

Become a member of The Poetry Society of New York: https://poetrysocietyny.org/

Check out the Radio Drama Network: https://www.radiodramanetwork.org/