PennSound Podcasts

In Episode 08 of PennSound podcasts, on December 9, 2004, brought together two very different Cageans — and — for a conversation with the students of his Modern and Contemporary American Poetry course. First, we hear from Goldsmith, explaining the hubbub that resulted when his book Soliloquoy was first introduced. Soliloquoy is an unedited document of every word Goldsmith spoke during one week in 1996 (he wore a hidden, voice-activated tape recorder and transcribed the results). In the discussion that follows, Osman and Goldsmith hash out the political nature of language ("Language is just charged matter," Goldsmith says), the presence of choice and intervention in the work of Cage and , the inability of poetics to be truly uncreative, and the power of form and structure in poetry.

In Episode 07 of PennSound podcasts, discusses , a 2007 Kelly Writers House Fellow, who has written poems and prose about death, human mortality, and nature's stasis. He reads a few of Hall's poems, and recordings of Hall reading his own work are featured.

As explains in the 2007 Episode 06 of Pennsound podcasts, PennSound is an archive for those seeking to make aesthetic connections between different poetic trends: a site of convergence for the reader (in this case, listener) and the poetic tradition. This makes PennSound a particularly useful resource for teachers who are looking to demonstrate to their students the relationships between contemporary poetry and earlier poetic movements.

In Episode 05 of PennSound podcasts, an excerpt of a conversation with about recorded poetry is featured. This discussion refers to the sheer quantity of poetic voices now widely available in such recordings, a few of which -- including , , , and -- are played before this discussion.

In Episode 04 of PennSound podcasts — which also features an excerpt from the Flarf Poetry Festival — relates the origin story of the Flarf movement. Stephen McLaughlin, then an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, introduced the Flarf Poetry Festival. This podcast features McLaughlin's introduction and readings by , , , and .

In Episode 03 of PennSound podcasts, for the Winter/Spring of 2006, selected recordings from the PennSound archives to be featured in this episode. Featured poems include 's "On This Side Nothing," 's "Oh," 's "Praise Poem: Elizabeth Murray," 's "Peter Lorre Reminisces about Being a Sidekick," and 's "Trying to Live As If It Were Morning."

In Episode 02 of PennSound podcasts, introduces recordings from the PennSound archive of reading and discussing her work. The recordings include Jena Osman reading "Dropping Leaflets" at a 2001 Kelly Writers House event, a 2004 discussion between and Osman about contemporary poetics and "Dropping Leaflets," a brief excerpt from a 1995 interview with Osman, and Osman's recitation of her piece "The March."

In Episode 01 of PennSound podcasts, introduces recordings from the PennSound archive of reading various poems and works. The recorded readings include "A Paradise of Poets," an excerpt from The Lorca Variations, John Cage's "Lecture on Nothing," and selections from Esther K. Comes to America.