WordTemple host Katherine Hastings visits with Nathalie Handal, the author of Poet in Andalucía. This new collection is “a unique recreation, in reverse, of Federico García Lorca’s Poet in New York, considered one of the most significant books ever published about New York City.”

Also - For four years beginning in 1998, Katherine Hastings served as Alcatraz island’s first Docent. Her mission was to research historical documents stored at the old prison and write interpretive programs based on what she found. This month, Hastings presents a number of poems written by former Alcatraz inmates that she included in a program called Writers on the Rock - Inmate Poetry. You'll hear a poem by Rufus Franklin, who murdered an Alcatraz guard during an escape attempt by hitting him in the head with a hammer, a Mother’s Day poem written by the infamous mobster Al Capone, and others.

Sonoma County poet Marjorie Stein reads from her new book An Atlas of Lost Causes, published by Kelsey Street Press. Also, New York poet Lee Slonimsky reads from his two most recent collections, Money and Light and Logician of the Wind.

WordTemple host Katherine Hastings talks first this month with giovanni singleton about her new book, Ascension. A collection of serial poems written during jazz musician and spiritual leader Alice Coltrane's 49-day transition throught the bardo - and other poems as well - Ascension takes us through a daily practice of meditations on the nature of "self," and longing for less suffering in the world.

Then, Lorena Papayone Wolfman reads from her collection, My Mother's Necklace / El Collar de mi Madre. This collection is bilingual and emerges from a dreamlike ocean of imagery, feeling and sounds. The poems also have their roots in Wolfman's experiences at the IV International Poetry Festival in Granada, Nicaragua, where poetry was celebrated as the conscience of the Earth.

This and more!

In celebration of National Poetry Month, WordTemple host Katherine Hastings will air a wide variety of poetry and music including works by John Berryman, Gary Snyder, Muriel Rukeyser, William Stafford, and many others. Also, a centerpiece from The Atlantis Fragments by Donald Sidney-Fryer. This book, over 500 pages in length, contains all three volumes of Sidney-Fryer's Songs and Sonnets Atlantean. The work unfolds as a type of allegory about nature, an "extended ecological metaphor of our planet Earth" and is presented as translations not just from French, but from Atlantean. Imagine the first body of poems from Atlantis!

Matthew Zapruder, poet, editor, translator and winner of the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, is the author of three collections of poetry - Come On All You Ghosts, The Pajamist, and American Linden. On this month's Word Temple program, he reads from a growing collection of new poems.

Gerald Fleming is the author of Swimmer Climbing Onto Shore and, most recently, Night of Pure Breathing, a collection of prose poems. He discusses his work with host Katherine Hastings, and reads from Night of Pure Breathing.

A dual milestone in City Lights history, When I Was a Poet is volume 60 of the Pocket Poets Series as well as their first book of poems by renowned Beat author David Meltzer. On this month’s program, Meltzer reads from that powerful book. Joining him is Julie Rogers, author of House of the Unexpected, forthcoming from Wild Ocean Press.

Also, contributing poets read from From the Fishouse: An Anthology of Poems that Sing, Rhyme, Resound, Synopate, Al-literate, and Just Plain Sound Great (edited by Camille Dungy, Matt O’Donnell and Jeffrey Thomson).

"A gifted American poet with an unusually international sensibility." This is how Edward Hirsch describes Alissa Valles, a poet who was born in Amsterdam, grew up in the U.S. and the Netherlands and studied in London, Poland, Russia and the U.S. Tonight Valles reads from her collection, Orphan Fire, poems that explore the way a soul navigates the temporary dwelling in the body. Organized as a triptych, Orphan Fire is structured around the journey from entry to death. "Valles' poems refuse to be extinguished, they glow, they illuminate the fringes of our fear and celebrate our courage and frailty as we grope in the dusk searching for ways to be more human." - Jimmy Santiago Baca.

Also, Katherine Hastings speaks with Sonoma County's seventh Poet Laureate, Bill Vartnaw. Born and raised in Petaluma, Vartnaw is the founder of Taurean Horn Press and has published 14 books since 1974, including his own In Concern for Angels (1984). Vartnaw earned his MA in Poetics from New College of California. His work has appeared in various literary magazines.

Finally, a number of Sonoma County residents read some of their favorite humorous verse. Perhaps a little Ogden Nash, a little Wendy Cope.

WordTemple host Katherine Hastings plays T.S. Eliot reading "The Waste Land" followed by Dylan Thomas reading "A Child's Christmas in Wales."

On December 10, 1958, Langston Hughes - one of America’s most important poets, writers and playwrights - gave a stunning talk at U.C. Berkeley.

On this WordTemple, Katherine Hastings introduces and plays the entire reading. Hughes is known primarily for his portrayals of black life in the 20s through the 60s - his work stands as a pillar of the Harlem Renaissance and was among the most important in shaping that movement. Hughes is also known for expressing the influence of jazz in his work. All together, he authored over two dozen books of poetry and prose, 11 plays - including one co-authored with Zora Neale Hurston - and his autobiography, The Big Sea. He called his poems "down to earth," grown from his own life. Here, he reads his poems and gives extraordinarily interesting background to his work. Did you know that Hughes wanted to be a streetcar conductor as a child and that he didn't write his first poem until after he was nominated "class poet" in the 8th grade? This program offers lessons in history, poetry, politics, race and humor in this rare personal talk by one of America’s greatest.

This month on WordTemple, host Katherine Hastings talks with Chicano poet and educator Francisco X. Alarcón, the author of Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes; From the Other Side of Night; Of Dark Love, and many other collections of poems and poetry for young adults and children. Also, Susan Kelly-DeWitt reads new poems along with others from her collection The Fortunate Islands. Finally, in response to 70 of California’s State parks closing, several poets read from the new anthology What Redwoods Know - Poems From California State Parks. Sonoma County poets included in the book are David Beckman, Janine Canan, Ed Coletti, Iris Jamahl Dunkle, Katherine Hastings, Jodi Hottel, Paula Koneazny, Gail Larrick, Hannah Maggiora and Phyllis Meshulam.