The Beat

Todd Davis is the author of seven books of poetry. His most recent collections are Coffin Honey and Native Species. His book Ditch Memory: New and Selected Poems is forthcoming from Michigan State University Press in August of 2024. He has won the Midwest Book Award, the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Bronze and Silver Awards, the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, the Chautauqua Editors Prize, and the Bloomsburg University Book Prize. His poems appear in such journals and magazines as Alaska Quarterly Review, American Poetry Review, Gettysburg Review, Iowa Review, Missouri Review, North American Review, Orion, Southern Humanities Review, and Western Humanities Review. He is an emeritus fellow of the Black Earth Institute and teaches environmental studies at Pennsylvania State University’s Altoona College.

Links:

Read "For a Stray Dog near the Paper Mill in Tyrone, Pennsylvania" in 32 Poems

Read "Burn Barrel" at Broadsided

Ditch Memory: New and Selected Poems, forthcoming in August 2024

"A Nature Poet Grapples with Life at the Edge of the Climate Crisis," an interview in Allegheny Front

Todd Davis' website

Bio and Poems at the Poetry Foundation

Two poems in North American Review

Three poems at Terrain.org

"Salvelinus fontinalis," a video poem

Podcast archive for Notes from the Allegheny Front

Iliana Rocha earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. She is the 2019 winner of the Berkshire Prize for her book The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez (Tupelo Press). Her first book, Karankawa, won the 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Best New Poets anthology, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latin American Literature Today, and many others. She has won fellowships from CantoMundo and MacDowell. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Waxwing Literary Journal, and she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee.

Delmira Agustini is considered one of the most important South American poets of the 20th century. She was born to upper-middle-class parents in Montevideo, Uruguay in October of 1886. She began writing poetry at the age of 10, and her first major work, El Libro Blanco, was published in 1907, when she was just 20 years old. She went on to publish several other books that were well-received by writers and critics.

Links:

Read "Still Life," "Houston," and "Landscape with Graceland Crumbling in My Hands"

Read "Explosión" in Spanish and English

Iliana Rocha

Iliana Rocha's website

Bio and poems at the Poetry Foundation's website

"The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez" in New York Times Magazine

"Mexican American Sonnet" at Poets.org

"Three Poems" in Latin American Literature Today

“like the building that reflects his death in every window: A Conversation with Iliana Rocha about The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” — curated by Tiffany Troy in Tupelo Quarterly

Delmira Agustini

Bio and "The Vampire" at Poets.org

Six Poems by Delmira Agustini (translated by Valerie Martinez) at Drunken Boat

Harold Whit Williams is a poet and longtime guitarist for the indie rock band Cotton Mather. He's the recipient of the 2020 FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, the 2014 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize, as well as multiple Pushcart nominations. Williams is currently cataloging the KUT Radio Collection for the University of Texas Libraries, all the while writing, recording, and performing his solo music under the moniker Daily Worker. 

Links:

Read “Early Recordings: Volume 1;” “Caught by the Indian Summer Train;” and “Participation Trophy”

Harold Whit William's website

Daily Worker at Radio Gurl Records

"Holding out for Nothing" music video by Daily Worker

"Premonitions at a Funeral" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" at JuxtaProse

Four poems at The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature

"Blues Dreams," winner of The Mississippi Review Poetry Prize

Follow Harold Whit Williams on Facebook

Denton Loving is the author of Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level: an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks). He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. His work has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf.  

D.H. Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire in England, and he died in 1930 at Vence in the south of France. Though Lawrence is best known for his novels—he’s the author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and nearly a dozen others—he also published short stories, plays, essays, criticism, and more than a dozen collections of poetry.

Links:

Read "Copperhead," "Foundation," and "Hurtling"

Read "Humming-Bird"

Denton Loving

Denton Loving's website

"Five Poems by Denton Loving" at Salvation South

"Three Poems by Denton Loving" at Harvard Divinity Bulletin

"Under the Chestnut Tree" at Ecotone

Video: WANA (Writers Association of Northern Appalachia) Live! Reading Series featuring Denton Loving

Review of Tamp at Southern Review of Books

D.H. Lawrence

Bio, Poems, and Prose at The Poetry Foundation

Bio and Poems at Poetry.org

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

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Hank Lazer has published thirty-four books of poetry; his latest books are P I E C E S, When the Time Comes, and field recordings   of mind   in morning. In 2014, he retired from the University of Alabama after 37 years as a professor and an administrator. He continues to teach innovative seminars on Zen Buddhism and Radical Approaches to the Arts for the University of Alabama's Blount Scholars Program. In 2015, Lazer won The Harper Lee Award, Alabama’s highest literary award for lifetime achievement.

Read "Duncan Farm November Meditation" and section 8 from The New Spirit

Hank Lazer's website

Recordings at PennSound

Interview on Bookmark with Don Noble

Eleven poems at Plume

Five poems at Interim

"'Furnishings in the House of the Voice': An Interview with Hank Lazer

by Lisa Russ Spaar"

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

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Jenny Sadre-Orafai is a poet and essayist and the author of Dear Outsiders and three other poetry collections. Her poetry has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Cream City Review, Ninth Letter, and The Cortland Review. Her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Fourteen Hills, and The Los Angeles Review. She co-founded and co-edits Josephine Quarterly and teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University.

Links:

Read "Occupation Interview," "Tragedy Lesson," and "Souvenirs for Locals"

Jenny Sadre-Orafai's website

Three Poems at $

"I Become More Animal When I'm Grieving: A Conversation with Jenny Sadre-Orafi" at The Rumpus

Video: "Hard Hat Reading: Jenny Sadre-Orafai" at Poets House

Video: "Jenny Sadre-Orafai reads at the SAFTA Reading Series"

"In Their Own Words: Jenny Sadre-Orafai on 'Queen of Cups'" at Poetry Society of America

Josephine Quarterly

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

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Anna Laure Reeve was born and raised in Knoxville, and she earned a Master of Arts in Literature & Poetry Writing from the University of Tennessee. Her poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Jet Fuel Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and many others. She recently won Beloit Poetry Journal’s Adrienne Rich Award, and she was a finalist for the Heartwood Poetry Prize and the Ron Rash Award in Poetry. Her book Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility was recently published by Belle Point Press. She is an assistant editor of Juke Joint, a literary magazine based in Jackson, Mississippi.   

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, most likely in April of 1564. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children. Shakespeare made his living as an actor and playwright, and his works include 38 plays in addition to 154 sonnets and various other types of poetry. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.

Links:

Read an early version of "Tennessee Red Cobb" at Appalachia Bare

Read "Méniére's Disease" at The Racket

Read "Look at Everything" and "Children of Asylum Seekers" at The Racket

Read "That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)" at Poets.org

Read "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29)" at Poets.org

Anna Laura Reeve

Anna Laura Reeve's website

"Poets in Conversation: Anna Laura Reeve" at Beloit Poetry Journal

Two Poems from Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility by Anna Laura Reeve at ACM

"Motherhood Unshorn: A Review of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility" at Literary Mama

William Shakespeare

Bio and poems at Poets.org

"Shakespeare's Life" at Folger Shakespeare Library's site

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

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Pauletta Hansel is the author of nine collections of poetry, including her latest book Heartbreak Tree. Her work has been featured in Oxford American, Rattle, American Life in Poetry, and Poetry Daily, among others. Hansel was Cincinnati’s first Poet Laureate, and she was the 2022 Writer-in-Residence for The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. 

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine in 1892. Along with her many books of poetry, Millay published plays, a libretto called The King’s Henchman, and she wrote short stories for popular fiction magazines under the pseudonym Nancy Boyd. She was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in poetry.

Links:

Read "I Take My Mother with Me Everywhere" and "After"

Read "Postcard from Age 60" at Braided Way

Read "Recuerdo" at The Poetry Foundation

Pauletta Hansel

Pauletta Hansel's website

"The Road" at Poetry Daily

"The City" at Appalachian Review

"May 1, 2020" in The Oxford American

"Palindrome" at Still: The Journal

Video: "Meet our 2022 Writer-In-Residence" Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation

Bio and poems at Poets.org

The Millay Society's Audio Archives

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

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Gary Metras is a retired high school English teacher and college writing instructor. His poems have appeared in America, The Common, Poetry, and many others. Metras has published eight books, including his latest called Vanishing Points. His book Marble Dust is forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. Metras was the founder, editor, and letterpress printer of Adastra Press, a venture that for forty years specialized in limited editions of poetry chapbooks. In 2018, Metras was appointed the inaugural Poet Laureate of Easthampton, Massachusetts.  

Simon Perchik's poems have appeared in The Nation, Poetry, The New Yorker, and many others. He was born in 1923 in Paterson, New Jersey. During World War II, he joined the Army Air Corps, flew 35 missions overseas, and reached the rank of first lieutenant. Thanks to the GI Bill, Perchik attended New York University where he earned a bachelor’s degree and a law degree. He practiced law for 25 years before becoming an assistant DA for Suffolk County and its first environmental prosecutor. He was a prolific writer, and he published more than thirty books of poetry. A November 2000 issue of Library Journal called Simon Perchik “the most widely published unknown poet in America.” Perchik died on June 14, 2022, in New York City.

Links:

Read "The Engagement" and "Lint" at The Poetry Foundation

Read "Another Winter"

Read "3" and "482"

Gary Metras

"April 6, 2022" at One Art

"Two Poems by Gary Metras" at Flyfishing and Tying Journal

"Art Maker: Gary Metras, Poet" at Daily Hampshire Gazette

"In Studio: Gary Metras" by Easthampton Media (via YouTube)

Simon Perchik

"Simon Perchik, Poet" in The Easthampton Star

"Five Poems" at the Poetry Foundation

Poems at Poetry Northwest

Poems at Plume

"Two Untitled Poems" at The Inflectionist Review

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

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Sara Moore Wagner is the winner of the 2021 Cider Press Review Editors Prize for her book Swan Wife and the 2020 Driftwood Press Manuscript Prize for Hillbilly Madonna. She has published two chapbooks, Tumbling After (Red Bird Chapbooks) and Hooked Through (Five Oaks Press). She won the 2022 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award, a 2019 Sustainable Arts Foundation award, and she was a 2021 National Poetry Series Finalist. Her work has appeared in Sixth Finch, Beloit Poetry Journal, Waxwing, The Cincinnati Review, Nimrod, Rhino, and others. Wagner's book Lady Wingshot, based on the life of Annie Oakley, won the Blue Lynx Prize and is forthcoming in 2024.

H.D. (Hilda Doolittle) was born in 1886 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and she grew up in Upper Darby near Philadelphia. She attended Bryn Mawr and the University of Pennsylvania. H.D. published numerous books, including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, memoirs, essays, and translations. The publication of her collected and selected poetry helped to establish her as a major poet of the 20th century. H.D.’s work is revered by countless writers and critics, and she’s often thought of as a poet's poet and one of the key figures of the Imagist movement. She died in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1961.

Links:

Read "Purity Test"

Read "Captivity Narrative"

Read "Legend Says"

Read "Leda"

Sara Moore Wagner

Sara Moore Wagner's website

"Anti-Pastoral" at Sixth Finch

"Passing It On" at Waxwing

"Girl as a Deer Shedding the Velvet" at The Inflectionist Review

"Embracing the Half-Wild Creature: A Conversation with Sara Moore Wagner" at The Rumpus

"Sara Moore Wagner on 'Getting My Body Back'" at Poetry Society of America

H.D.

Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation

Bio and poems at Poets.org

"H.D.: American Poet" in Britannica

"Radical Freedom: Poets on the Life and Work of H.D." Live from the IceHouse Tonight (YouTube)

Mentioned in this episode:

KnoxCountyLibrary.org

Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.

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