Lew Watts was born and raised in Cardiff, Wales. He lived and worked for many years in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa before moving to the United States in 2002. He is the author of the novel, Marcel Malone, and three poetry collections—his most recent, Eira, a collection of haibun and haiku, received a 2024 Touchstone Award. Lew is also the co-author, with Roberta Beary and Rich Youmans, of Haibun: A Writer’s Guide, and serves as the haibun co-editor of Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America. Beyond poetry, he is ex-chair of the World Bank’s external panel on climate change, and a past board member of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the home of the Doomsday Clock; he currently sits on various corporate and non-profit boards. He divides his time between Chicago and West Michigan with his wife, Roxanne, and his rascal-of-a-dog, Willis. His other passions are four granddaughters, fly fishing (anytime, anywhere), rugby, jazz guitar, tango music, and gin martinis.

Find Eira here:

https://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/books/eira.htm

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a specific type of phobia you do not personally have but know of someone that does.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that includes a prank and ends with a question.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood, winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium, selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Clark is a winner for the 2020 Kate Tufts Discovery Award, a 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow, and the 2015 Rattle Poetry Prize. She is a recipient of the 2021-2022 Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship and 2019 Pushcart Prize. Clark is the 2017-2018 Jay C. and Ruth Halls Poetry Fellow at the Wisconsin Institute of Creative Writing. Clark is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (M.F.A) and Tennessee State University (B.A.) where she studied Africana and Women's studies. Her new book is Scorched Earth.

Find more at:

https://www.tianaclark.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write an ekphrastic poem based on a work of art by an artist that shares your first or last name.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a specific type of phobia you do not personally have but know of someone that does.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Stephen Gibson is the author of several poetry collections, including Self-Portrait in a Door-Length Mirror, selected by Billy Collins as the winner of the 2017 Miller Williams Poetry Prize; Rorschach Art Too, winner of the Donald Justice Prize; and Rorschach Art. His most recent book is Frida Kahlo in Fort Lauderdale. Gibson, who retired in 2015, taught at Palm Beach State College for thirty-two years. He lives in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Find more the new book at:

https://www.stephen-gibson.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that references small talk in a big way.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write an ekphrastic poem based on a work of art by an artist that shares your first or last name.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Keetje Kuipers is the author of four books of poems, all from BOA Editions. Her most recent collection, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers (2025), was the winner of the Isabella Gardner Award. Her first book, Beautiful in the Mouth, was selected by Thomas Lux as the winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Prize. Named one of the top ten debut poetry books of 2010 by Poets & Writers, her first book also appeared in the top ten on the contemporary poetry bestseller list. Her second collection, The Keys to the Jail (2014), was a book club selection for The Rumpus, and her third book, All Its Charms (2019), was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and includes poems honored by publication in both The Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies.

Find more information at:

https://keetjekuipers.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a time that you carried more than you ever thought possible, and include a reference to temperature.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that references small talk in a big way.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Judith Fox is an award-winning fine art photographer, poet, public speaker, and business leader. The temporary service she founded in Richmond, Virginia in 1978 was purchased by a NYSE firm in 1996. During her business career, Fox served on many for-profit and non-profit boards, was a public speaker and consultant. After selling her company, Judith devoted herself full-time to photography and writing. Fox’s award-winning photographs are in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), the Museum of Photographic Arts (MoPA), the Southeast Museum of Photography (SMP), the Harry Ransom Center, the Haggerty Museum of Art, and the Harn Museum; her work is in private and corporate collections throughout the world. Fox’s photographs have been exhibited in solo and group shows in the United States and Europe. After her book I Still Do: Loving and Living with Alzheimer’s was released, Fox became a global advocate for Alzheimer’s awareness and education. She’s been a speaker and consultant on Alzheimer’s and family caregiving for corporations, non-profit associations and universities. I Still Do was named “one of the best photography books of 2009” by Photo-Eye Magazine. Judith Fox lives and works in Southern California and is currently working on a collection of poetry.

Find more information at:

https://www.judithfox.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about the happiest place on earth.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about a time that you carried more than you ever thought possible, and include a reference to temperature.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Bethany Jarmul is an Appalachian writer and poet. She’s the author of two chapbooks and one poetry collection—This Strange and Wonderful Existence, Take Me Home, and Lightning is a Mother. Her writing was selected for Best Spiritual Literature 2023 and Best Small Fictions 2024, and nominated for the Pushcart Prize, The Best of the Net, Best Microfiction, and Wigleaf Top 50.

Find more information at:

https://bethanyjarmulwriter.wordpress.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that includes an unexpected vow.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem about the happiest place on earth.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Todd Robinson, affectionately known to acolytes as "Toddfather," is a poet and educator based in Omaha. He is the author of Mass for Shut-Ins (Backwaters Press, 2018) and Note at Heart Rock (Main Street Rag Publishing, 2012). Recipient of the 2011-2012 Thompson Learning Community’s Outstanding Faculty Award, he has conducted writing workshops with The Seven Doctors Project, The Naturalist School, Nebraska Warrior Writers, Nebraska Writers Collective, and the CÚRAM center for research in medical devices. He is founder and host of the Kaneko Art Museum’s Bibliophilia reading series, which is currently on a long pandemic pause. He earned a B.A. and M.A. from Creighton University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He serves as vice president on the board of directors of Big Feels Lab.

Find more information at:

https://www.toddfather.net

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that includes a memory you’ve never shared. Include dialogue.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that includes an unexpected vow.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

NOTE THE SPECIAL TIME! WE'RE LIVE AT NOON ET THIS WEEK!

S.C. Flynn was born in a small town in Australia of Irish origin and now lives in Dublin. His poetry has been published in over 100 journals and magazines around the world. The Colour of Extinction, first full-length collection, was just published but Renard Press.

Find more information at:

https://scflynn.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write an elegy that’s not about a person.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that includes a memory you’ve never spoken of before. Include dialogue.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

2011 Rattle Poetry Prize winner Hayden Saunier has published five collections of poetry and her work has been awarded a Pushcart Prize, the Gell Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, and nominated numerous times for a Pushcart Prize. Her acting resume includes film and television appearances in The Sixth Sense, Philadelphia Diary, House of Cards, Mindhunter, Hack and Do No Harm and dozens of roles at regional theatres such as the Guthrie Theatre , Walnut Street Theatre, Arden Theatre, George Street Playhouse, Interact Theatre and People's Light and Theatre Company. A Poet Laureate Emerita of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, she lives in the Philadelphia area.

Find more information at:

https://www.haydensaunier.com/

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that explores the perspective of the other side, and arrives somewhere opposite to where the poem begins.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write an elegy that’s not about a person.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Kim Addonizio was featured with a tribute to her and her poetry students in issue 67 and featured on Rattlecast 88. Kim authored nine poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. Her most recent collection is Exit Opera (W.W. Norton, September 2024). She has received fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, and Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and the essay. Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist in poetry. Recent books include Now We're Getting Somewhere: Poems (W.W. Norton) and a memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life (Penguin).

Find more information at:

https://www.kimaddonizio.com

As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins.

For links to all the past episodes, visit:

https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/

This Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem with a title that begins with “Poem in Which I” after Denise Duhamel. For the next word in the title, find a random verb on randomwordgenerator.com.

Next Week’s Prompt:

Write a poem that explores the perspective of the other side, and arrives somewhere opposite to where the poem begins.

The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.