Award-winning poets and founding editors of the groundbreaking journal, New American Writing, Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover talk with Roxi Power about their most recent books from MadHat Press and how poetry canreveal then reconstitute the brokenness of the world.  Hoover says of writing poetry, “You have to purposefully break a few dishes along the way. The brokenness and emotional force bring the pieces back together.”   

Chernoff, writing under the shadow of Covid, says, “We stand at the margins of this bustling, often cruel but beautiful world and, in a way, the poem writes itself because the world gives us conditions to think about at the same time—the ecology of the world, governments falling apart, etc.  It’s happening to all of us.  Part of being a writer is simply noticing the moment you’re in, personalizing and capturing it in a way that only your particular words at this particular time can do.”

These beloved Bay Area poets collage philosophy, film, history, and—in Hoover’s newest work—Old Testament stories and cadences in poems that redesign rather than restore theshattered surfaces of the world in new forms—like poetic wabi-sabi.  

Peter Johnson recently called Chernoff the most important contemporary prose poet born during his generation. Marjorie Perloff wrote of Paul Hoover’s most recent book, “He’s atthe top of his game.”  Tune into this interview with two of the most articulate poets about their own craft.  It’s part 1 of a two-part interview.  More to come! 

 Maxine Chernoff is professor emeritus of creative writing at San Francisco State University. She is the author of 19 books of poetry and six of fiction, including recent collections from MadHat Press:  Light and Clay: New and Selected Poems (2023) and Under the Music: Collected Prose Poems (2019).  She is a recipient of a 2013 National Endowment for the Arts in Poetry and, along with Paul Hoover, the 2009 PEN Translation Award for their translation of The Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin. In 2016 she was a visiting writer at the American Academy in Rome. A former editor of New American Writing, she lives in Mill Valley. 

 Paul Hoover is the author of over a dozen collections of poetry; his most recent book of poetry is O, and Green: New and Selected Poems (MadHat Press, 2021). He has also published a collection of essays and a novel, and translated or co-translated a few books, including Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry.  Founding and current Editor of theliterary annual, New American Writing–now published by MadHat Press–and two editions of the indispensable Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, Hooverteaches at San Francisco State University.  He’s also won an NEA and numerous awards, including the Carl Sandberg Award in poetry which Chernoff has also won.  

How to access the mind’s expansiveness? Geraldine Connolly reads poems from her new book, Instructions at Sunset, and talks about this as well as excavating the past, family, and how poetry serves as a means of interrogating the self. A two-time recipient of NEA fellowships and the author of four previous books of poetry, Connolly has taught workshops for the Maryland Poetry-in-the-Schools Program and the Graduate Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C. Find out more about Connolly here.

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, host Julie Murphy talks with Leigh Sugar about her debut poetry collection FREELAND. Leigh’s poetry weaves memory, intimacy, and incarceration into lyric that’s as unflinching as it is tender.We chat about language, erasure, love under surveillance, and the ethics of naming. We’ll also discuss the poem Claiming Language by Shane McCrae, a poet who continues to shape how many of us understand rupture and reclamation in American poetry.

Leigh Sugar (she/her) is a poet, editor, teacher, movement artist, and, most importantly, learner. Her debut collection, FREELAND (Alice James Books, 2025), was a finalist for both the Alice James Award and the Jake Adam York Prize, and she created and edited the anthology That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Settings. (New Village Press, 2023). She has taught writing in various settings, including New York University, Hugo House, The Institute for Justice and Opportunity, and Michigan state prisons.  A disabled artist, Leigh lives with her pup in Michigan. Say hi on Instagram @lekasugar, or via her website at www.leighksugar.com.

Meet Santa Cruz County’s 2025-26 Youth Poet Laureate, Finn Maxwell along with the four inspiring finalists who are part of this year's cohort: Noemi Romero, Xander Shulman, Mason Leopold, and Sylvi Kayser.

Each of these teens from different corners of Santa Cruz County will share two poems and talk about their experiences with poetry.

To keep up with this year's events and otherwise support these inspiring poets, follow the YPL program on Instagram @youthpoetlaureatesantacruz or the YPL website here.

Noemi’s spoken word TikTok is available here. 

Recorded in June 2025, during the 6th month of the Trump administration, while American bombs rained down on Iran, Addie and Dion read war poems. They read "We Lived Happily During the War," by Ilya Kaminsky," Convergence," by Joseph Stroud, "The People of the Other Village," by Thomas Lux, "Anywhere you Look," Jane Hirshfield, Samuel Hazo's "Intifada," and Khải Đơn's "Daughter of Many Wars."

Francisco Aragón, Director of Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, talks about his most recent book, After Rubén, and the queering of iconic Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Darío. Hear Francisco’s exquisite voice bring his own and Darío’s words alive as we talk about the Neorealism movement, Federico Lorca, and giving new breadth and depth to Darío’s work. You can find After Rubén at Red Hen Press. Read more about Francisco Aragón here.

Dorianne Laux reads her poem "Fear" as well as poems from her new craft book Finger Exercises for Poets.

Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection,  Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems  was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems,  Facts About the Moon,  won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.  Laux is also the author of Awake;  What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award;  Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition,  The Book of Women.  She is  the co-author of the celebrated text  The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her latest collection of poetry is Life On Earth and was released in January of 2024. Finger Exercises for Poets, a book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets was released in July 2024.

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, host Julie Murphy talks with Santa Cruz poet Cynthia White about her award-winning chapbook Glossogenesis. The show begins with Cynthia's reading of Susan Firer's poem, Transubstantiation. They explore how language shapes experience, how poetry holds memory and transformation, and what it means to write with clarity and care. A rich conversation on craft, intimacy, and the power of the poetic voice. From intimate images of family life to meditations on wonder and memory, this episode is a deep dive into the craft and heart of contemporary poetry as exemplified in Cynthia's spare and startling poems.

Julie Murphy, Addie Mahmassani, and Dion O'Reilly read poems from En•Trance Journal , a journal dedicated to altered states and the lyric moment. We read and discuss poems by Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, Julie Murphy, Deborah Gorlin, Emily Ransdell, Jessica Cuello, and Jim Moore.

There are fifteen fabulous poets in the the first issue of Entrancejournel.net. We wish we could have discussed them all at length, but we had less than an hour to plumb the depths of pure being!!!

To read the rest of them go here.

The first issue of En*Trance Journal also features art by Frank Galuszka and a podcast component, where poets read and discuss their poems.

Nin and Dion read from her new book Son of a Bird, now available from Etruscan Press. They also read and discuss "Unrest," by Emily Fragos.

Nin Andrews is the author of the six chapbooks and ten full-

length poetry collections including The Last Orgasm (2020),

Miss August (2017), and Why God is a Woman (2015). She is

the recipient of two Ohio individual artists grants, the Pearl

Chapbook prize, The Wick Chapbook Prize, and the Gerald

Cable Award. Her collection, Why God is a Woman won the

Ohiona Prize for Poetry in 2016. Her work has been featured

in numerous journals and anthologies including

Ploughshares, Agni, The Paris Review, four editions of Best

American Poetry, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the

Present, and The Best American Erotic Poems. Her poetry has

been translated into Turkish, performed in Prague and

anthologized in England, Australia, and Mongolia.