It's Christmas Eve at the Dickinsons, and they've got visitors, including bestselling author Louisa May Alcott (on a runner's high) and just-returned-from-Spain Aunt Lavinia (experiencing widow's euphoria). Conspicuously absent (though perhaps not missed) is Edward Dickinson, who heads off to DC — but not without leaving a double-edged gift for Emily.

Could Emily cook? Were Austin and Sue into hunching? And does being a writer have to mean turning your back on your family?

Breezy, Jericho, and Aífe, joined by special guest poet Chen Chen, talk back to Season 1, Episode 8 of Dickinson: “There's a Certain Slant of Light"

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Poems featured:

They shut me up in Prose by Emily Dickinson

Origin Story by Chen Chen

There's a certain Slant of light by Emily Dickinson

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Songs referred to:

Left Alone by Fiona Apple

Love Is Stronger Than Pride by Sade

If You Don't Believe by Deniece Williams

Let's Go Crazy and 1999 by Prince

Lovin' You by Minnie Riperton