O, Word?

A conversation with Dante Clark about the poetics of Humor, the Volta, and how Laughter Opens Us to More Sobering Realities

Dante Clark is a writer and performer from the Bronx. His work has been featured in The Root, wildness, Adroit, and more. He’s received support and fellowships from Catapult, In Surreal Life, Brooklyn Poets, The Writing Freedom Fellowship, and NYU, where he’s a recent MFA graduate. While attempting to find a home for his debut collection of poems, Dante remains steadfast in his dream to create a world where all his homies can prosper.

A conversation with Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston about the anthology, the power of poetry to build community, and freedom

Anthony Thomas Lombardi is a writer, educator, organizer, & romantic in revolt. He is the author of murmurations (YesYes Books, 2025); runs Verses & Voltas, a pedagogical poetry service specializing in mentorship programming, manuscript consulting & feedback, & more; & has taught or continues to teach with Borough of Manhattan Community College, Paris College of Art, Brooklyn Poets, Florida State University, & community programming throughout New York City. His work has appeared or will soon in Best New Poets, Ploughshares, AGNI, Missouri Review, Black Warrior Review, Nashville Review, Narrative Magazine, & elsewhere. From Brooklyn, he now lives outside Philadelphia with his partner & their myriad critters. He believes in a Free Palestine & thinks you should too.

A A conversation with Vasvi Kejriwal about the poetics of grief, what it can contain, and our responsibility to those that have passed

Vasvi Kejriwal is a writer and educator from India. She won the Black Warrior Review Poetry Contest and her work was a finalist for the Sewanee Review Poetry Contest and the Scotti Merrill Award, amongst other recognitions. She is a recipient of the AI Young Memorial Scholarship from the Community of Writers Conference. Her work has also received support from Tin House and The Watering Hole. Her poems appear in Rattle, Nimrod, wildness and elsewhere.

A conversation with Maya Williams about the poetics of aliveness, play, and writing about people in our lives

Maya Williams (ey/they/she) is a religious Black multiracial nonbinary suicide survivor who served as Portland, Maine's seventh poet laureate for a 2021-2024 term. Eir full length poetry collections have been nominated for the New England Book Award and the Maine Literary Award. Their chapbooks have won contest awards from Garden Party Collective and The Headlight Review. Follow more of her work at mayawilliamspoet.com.

A conversation with Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston about the anthology, the power of poetry to build community, and freedom

Amanda Johnston is a writer, visual artist, the 61st Texan Poet Laureate, and founder of Torch Literary Arts.

A conversation with jason b. crawford about their collection YEET!, finding a safe home for Black people, and how we write ourselves alive

jason b. crawford (He/They), born in Washington, DC and raised in Lansing, Michigan, is the author of Year of the Unicorn Kidz. Their second collection, YEET! is the winner of the Omnidawn 1st/2nd Book Prize and was published Fall 2025. At the time of this recording, it was also a finalist for the 2026 Lammy Awards from Lambda Literary. They have been published in POETRY Magazine, Academy of American Poets, Cincinnati Review, Beloit Poetry Journal,  and RHINO Poetry, among others. They are a 2023 Emerging Writers Fellow for Lambda Literary and hold their MFA in Poetry from The New School.

A conversation with Nick Martino about Nonce Forms, The Possibilities of Visual Poetics, and Writing Towards Surprise

Nick Martino is a poet and teacher from Milwaukee. His debut poetry collection, Scrap Book (from Alice James Books) won the 2024 Alice James Editors’ Choice Award and will be published in June of 2026. His poems have been published in Best New Poets, Narrative, Ninth Letter, The Boston Review, and The Southern Review, among others. A finalist for the 2024 Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, he holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine where he received the 2022 Excellence in Poetry Prize. He lives in LA.

A conversation with Jonny Teklit about Joy as Poetic Practice, Poetic Influences, and How Joy Can Push Us Towards Action

Jonny Teklit is an award-winning poet who has had work appear in The Academy of American Poets, The New Yorker, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. His poems have been anthologized in Poemhood: Our Black Revival and The Gift of Animals: Poems on Love, Loss, and Connection. He is currently working on his debut collection.

Talking with Alison C. Rollins about Black Bell, the poetics of referentiality, and performance as mode of collective meaning-making

Alison C. Rollins is the author of the poetry collections Black Bell and Library of Small Catastrophes. Rollins holds an MFA from Brown University and is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was awarded a 2023-2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship and named a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in 2019. Her work, across genres, has appeared in American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere.

A conversation with Tariq Thompson about Rhythm, Hip Hop as a Guiding Force, and the Muscularity of Language

Tariq Thompson is a poet and educator from Memphis, Tennessee. He’s the author of the chapbook LONE LILY (from Sunset Press, 2021). His poetry has appeared in the American Poetry Review, The Adroit Journal, Split Lip Magazine and elsewhere. Thompson was a finalist for a 2023 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship. He holds an MFA in poetry from New York University. You can find more of his work at tariqthompson.com.