Poetry Koan

This week in the pharmacy we have the poet ED DOEGAR!

Ed’s poem “Anon” as well as the Karen Solie poem he prescribes can be found here.

Edward Doegar’s poems, reviews and translations have appeared in various magazines, including Poetry London, Prac Crit, clinic and Poetry Wales. He’s a fellow of the Complete Works programme, a scheme promoting diversity in British poetry. His poems are featured in the anthology Ten: The New Wave (Bloodaxe, 2014), and his pamphlet For Now was published by clinic in 2017. Ed also works as a Commissioning Editor at The Poetry Translation Centre.

This week in the pharmacy we have the poet CAConrad!

The poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be found here:

CAConrad grew up in Pennsylvania, where they helped to support their single mother during Conrad’s difficult youth. Influenced by Eileen Myles, Audre Lorde, Alice Notley, and Emily Dickinson, Conrad writes poems in which stark images of sex, violence, and defiance build a bridge between fable and confession. In a 2010 interview with Luke Degnan for BOMBMagazine’s BOMBlog, Conrad discussed their approach to poetry, which focuses on process and on engaging the permeability of the border between self and other. “Ultimately, I want my (Soma)tic poetry and poetics to help us realize at least two things. That everything around us has a creative viability with the potential to spur new thinking and imaginative output and that the most necessary ingredient to bringing the sustainable, humane changes we need and want for our world requires creativity in all lives, every single day.”

Conrad is the author of seven books, the latest is titled While Standing in Line for Death (Wave Books, 2017). They are a 2015 Headlands Art Fellow, and has also received fellowships from Lannan Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Banff, Ucross, RADAR, and the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage. They conduct workshops on (Soma)tic Poetry and Ecopoetics.

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Intro music: Of Montreal’s Knight Rider; outro music is also by Of Montreal (The Party’s Crashing Us)

This week in the pharmacy we have the poet NATALIE EILBERT!

All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be found here:  http://bit.ly/2n9lxHZ

NATALIE EILBERT is the author of Indictus, winner of Noemi Press’s 2016 Poetry Prize, slated for publication in early 2018, as well as the poetry collection, Swan Feast (Bloof Books, 2015). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Granta, The New Yorker, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, jubilat, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the 2016 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellowship at University of Wisconsin–Madison and is the founding editor of The Atlas Review.

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Intro music: Prince. Outro music: Will & Ali

This week in the pharmacy we have the poet DONIKA KELLY!

All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be found here: http://bit.ly/2zO7zUm

Donika is the author of BESTIARY (Graywolf 2016), winner of the 2015 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, long listed for the National Book Award (2016), and a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award (2017), and the chapbook AVIARIUM (500 Places 2017). A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, she received her MFA in Writing from the Michener Center for Writers and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University.  She is an Assistant Professor at St. Bonaventure University, where she teaches creative writing.

If you’ve enjoyed the episode, please (pretty please) could you leave us a nice review on iTunes,

Also, in the next year, I’m trying to raise funds for the S.H.E College Fund initiative in Kenya by learning 52 poems in 52 weeks. Here is my 52 Poems in 52 Weeks Donations Page: https://chuffed.org/project/52-poems-in-52-weeks 

If you’re feeling some poetry-love after listening, a donation, no matter how small (or large) would be greatly appreciated.

Don’t forget, the Poetry Pharmacy is open every day on Twitter, dispensing poems for whatever ails body and soul. Feel free to @/DM us there, or email us here (thepoetrypharmacy AT gmail.com) with your requests for a poem prescription.

This week in the pharmacy we have the poet KEEGAN LESTER!

All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be found here: http://bit.ly/2gJQDDX

Keegan splits his time between New York City and Morgantown, West Virginia. Mary Ruefle selected his first collection of poetry this shouldn’t be beautiful but it was & it’s all i had so i drew it for the 2016 Slope Editions Book Prize. His work is published in or forthcoming from the Boston Review, The Atlas Review, Powder Keg, Boaat Journal, The Journal, Phantom Books, Tinderbox, CutBank, Reality Beach and Sixth Finch among others and has been featured on NPR, The New School Writing Blog and ColdFront Mag. He is the co-founder and poetry editor for the journal Souvenir Lit. He also performs monthly with the New York City Poetry Brothel. He’s taught at the West Virginia Young Writers’ Holiday, Stonehill College, and multiple workshops in Morgantown, West Virginia, and was a mentor for the 2016 Adroit Journal Summer High School Mentorship Program. At West Virginia University he was a writing center tutor for three years and a tutor for the WVU Men’s Soccer & Woman’s Basketball teams. He was born in Huntington Beach, California. He earned his MFA from Columbia University.

[Theme music for the podcast is played by the wonderful coversart]

This week in the pharmacy we have the writer, poet, and artist KHAIRANI BAROKKA!

All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be found here: http://bit.ly/2klT8AG

KHAIRANI BAROKKA was born  in Jakarta and currently lives in London. Among her honours, she was an NYU Tisch Departmental Fellow for her masters, Emerging Writers Festival’s (AUS) Inaugural International Writer-In-Residence (2013), and Indonesia’s first Writer-In-Residence at Vermont Studio Center (2011).

Okka is the writer/performer/producer of, among others, a deaf-accessible, solo poetry/art show, Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee. It premiered at Edinburgh Fringe 2014 as Indonesia’s only representative, with a grant from HIVOS. She was recognized in 2014 by UNFPA as one of Indonesia’s “Inspirational Young Leaders Driving Social Change”, for highly prolific, pioneering international work in inclusive, accessible arts.

Published internationally in anthologies and journals, Okka has presented work extensively, in ten countries, is a frequent public speaker, and has been awarded six residencies and various grants. She is author and illustrator of poetry-art book Indigenous Species (Tilted Axis Press, 2016), co-editor with Ng Yi-Sheng of HEAT: A Southeast Asian Urban Anthology (Fixi, 2016), and co-editor, with Sandra Alland and Daniel Sluman, of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back (Nine Arches Press, May 2017). A PhD-by-practice researcher at Goldsmiths, as an LPDP Scholar in Visual Cultures, Okka is currently working on a book and visual works. Her first full-length poetry collection, Rope, is currently out with Nine Arches Press (October 2017).

[Theme music for the podcast is by Aretha Franklin played by the wonderful coversart & also Ahmad Jamal from his album Tranquility]

Oh yes, it’s KAVEH AKBAR in da house Pharmacy this week!

All the poems we prescribe and talk about in this episode can be read here: http://bit.ly/2xu8VST

Kaveh’s debut full-length collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is just out with Alice James in the US and Penguin in the UK, and his chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press. The recipient of a 2016 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Pushcart Prize, and the Lucille Medwick Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives and teaches in Florida.

Kaveh also founded and edits Divedapper, a home for dialogues with the most vital voices in contemporary poetry. Previously, he ran The Quirk, a for-charity print literary journal. He has also served as Poetry Editor for BOOTH and Book Reviews Editor for the Southeast Review. Along with Gabrielle Calvocoressi, francine j. harris, and Jonathan Farmer, he starred on All Up in Your Ears, a monthly poetry podcast.

CONTACT: [email protected] or on Twitter @KavehAkbar.

[Theme music for the podcast is by Aretha Franklin played by the wonderful coversart & also Ahmad Jamal from his album Tranquility]

So pleased to have Finn Menzies in the Poetry Pharmacy this week!

Finn prescribes Max Ritvo‘s AFTERNOON which can be found here, and I reciprocate with Jim Ferris‘s FACTS OF LIFE (read Jim’s poem here).

We also read and talk about a poem from Finn’s debut collection Brilliant Odyssey Don’t Yearn.

Finn Menzies is an out transgender teacher in Seattle, WA. He received his MFA from Mills College. He is the creator of FIN Zine, a bi-annual zine dedicated to his journey through transition.

Finn’s debut collection, Brilliant Odyssey Don’t Yearn is out with Fog Machine. You can order it on Amazon. His poetry can also be seen in Gigantic Sequins, Quiet Lightning, SUSAN /the journal, Open House, SPORK, HOLD: a journal, The Shallow Ends, and various other journals.

Annually, Finn facilitates UNdoing Ego a workshop on meditation and generative writing.

[Theme music for the podcast is from Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes played by the wonderful coversart on YouTube]

Today in the Poetry Pharmacy, we’re hanging out with CHEN CHEN.

Chen prescribes a Keegan Lester poem which can be READ HERE, and I reciprocate with jayy dodd‘s incredible ARS POETICA. We also read and talk about Chen’s poem POPLAR STREET.

Chen Chen is the author of When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities, winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. A Kundiman and Lambda Literary Fellow, Chen has also authored two chapbooks. He helps edit Iron Horse and Gabby. He also works on a new journal called Underblong, which he co-founded with the poet Sam Herschel Wein. He lives in Lubbock with his partner Jeff Gilbert and their pug dog Mr. Rupert Giles.

[Theme music for the podcast is from Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes played by the wonderful coversart on YouTube]

Welcome to a new season of the show, now rebranded and slightly reformatted as POETRY PHARMACY!

You might notice that we have a slightly different way of doing things: two readers, three poems, and even more POETRY LOVE than ever before.

We’re kicking off the new season with AMAAN HYDER, author of a recent collection of poetry At Hajj (Penned In The Margins) who reads to me a poem from a collection he loves by the writer and visual artist Shani Mootoo. I then read and we talk about a poem I love by Kaveh Akbar, and we finish with Amaan’s poem The Clot.

Links to the poems read and discussed in this episode: Shani Mootoo’s A RECOGNITION / Kaveh Akbar’s DO YOU SPEAK PERSIAN? /Amaan Hyder’s THE CLOT.

[Theme music for the podcast is from Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes played by the wonderful coversart on YouTube]