In this episode of The Hive Poetry Show, Julie Murphy speaks with Bay Area poet Veronica Kornberg about her debut collection Strange Gift, newly released by Wandering Aengus Press. Their conversation explores the interplay of memory, family, and the natural world, and how close attention becomes a generative force in Kornberg’s work. Moving between poems like “Brogues,” “Moon Garden,” and the title piece, they reflect on imagination as both refuge and threshold, where beauty and unease coexist. The episode also touches on Postscript by Seamus Heaney, and the fleeting moments that open and shape a life in poetry.

A Bay Area poet, Veronica Kornberg is a recipient of the Morton Marcus Poetry Prize, and the Wandering Aengus Book Award in Poetry. Her work has appeared in numerous journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, New Ohio Review, Poet Lore, Catamaran, Plume, Calyx, and Beloit Poetry Journal.  Veronica co-founded a long-running poetry reading club on the Peninsula, and is a Peer Reviewer for Whale Road Review. At her home in Pescadero, you can find her exploring the tidepools, or on her knees in the dirt in her habitat garden of coastal scrub. Her debut poetry collection, Strange Gift, was just published on April 7th, 2026, and is available from your bookseller of choice.