The Poet Salon

Friends, lovers, bilches—this episode wraps up our pandemic season of The Poet Salon, and what an episode it is! After chopping it up with Amaud Jamaul Johnson on smoke, speakers, and silences, he brought us Linda Gregg's "The Poet Goes About Her Business." If this is your first encounter with the poem, we're excited for you but also very jealous.

Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize.

LINDA GREGG was born in New York and raised in Marin County, California. She earned both a BA and an MA from San Francisco State University. Gregg published many several collections of poetry, including All of It Singing: New and Selected Poems (2008), a Los Angeles Times Favorite Book of 2008 and winner of the Poetry Society of America’s William Carlos Williams Award; In the Middle Distance (2006); Things and Flesh (1999), finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Award for Poetry; Chosen by the Lion (1995); Sacraments of Desire (1992); Alma (1985); and Too Bright to See (1981). Gregg’s lyrical poetry is often admired for its ability to discuss grief, desire, and longing with electrifying craftsmanship and poise. 

Good day, bilches! We're winding down this stab at a third season with our last, luminous guest, Amaud Jamaul Johnson, with whom we discuss advisorship, allusion, and arrangement.

Born and raised in Compton, California, educated at Howard University and Cornell University, AMAUD JAMAUL JOHNSON is the author of three poetry collections, Red Summer, Darktown Follies, and Imperial Liquor (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020). A former Wallace Stegner Fellow in Poetry at Stanford, MacDowell Fellow, and Cave Canem Fellow, his honors include the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Dorset Prize, and a Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, The New York Times Magazine, Kenyon Review, Callaloo, Narrative Magazine, Crazyhorse, Indiana Review, The Southern Review, Harvard Review and elsewhere. His most recent collection was a finalist for the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2021 UNT Rilke Prize.

NEAT GLASS OF THE MACALLAN FINE WHISKY: The Macallan Fine & Vintage Single Malt Scotch Whisky, nothing else.

Salami lovers, soup slurpers, and salad spinners—this week Jane Wong served up the one and only Gwendolyn Brooks. In this episode, you'll hear us eat up Brooks' "when you have forgotten sunday: the love story"

JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, and more.

GWENDOLYN BROOKS is one of the most highly regarded, influential, and widely read poets of 20th-century American poetry. She was a much-honored poet, even in her lifetime, with the distinction of being the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. She also was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress—the first Black woman to hold that position—and poet laureate of the State of Illinois. Many of Brooks’s works display a political consciousness, especially those from the 1960s and later, with several of her poems reflecting the civil rights activism of that period. Her body of work gave her, according to critic George E. Kent, “a unique position in American letters. Not only has she combined a strong commitment to racial identity and equality with a mastery of poetic techniques, but she has also managed to bridge the gap between the academic poets of her generation in the 1940s and the young Black militant writers of the 1960s.” (read the rest here)

Dear lovers and frenemies—we're marching along through the end of this season. Our latest offering is a lovely conversation with Jane Wong with whom we discuss food, framings and frontiers. Phew.

JANE WONG is the author of How to Not Be Afraid of Everything from Alice James Books and Overpour from Action Books. A Kunidman fellow, she is the recipient of a Pushcart prize and fellowships and residencies from the US Fulbright program, Artist Trust, 4Culture, The Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf, Hedgebrook, and more.

WILD FIRE SEASON: An old fashioned with palo santo bitters and a singed orange rind.

Frenz, as promised, here is Carl Phillips' reading our first-ever haiku on The Poet Salon, Kobayashi Issa's "[The world of dew]" or "On the Death of a Child." 

CARL PHILLIPS is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). He has won the Kingsley Tufts Award and been a finalist for the National Book Award. He currently teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

Japanese poet KOBAYASHI ISSA, also known as Kobayashi Yataro and Kobayashi Nobuyuki, was born in Kashiwabara, Shinanao province. He eventually took the pen name Issa, which means “cup of tea” or, according to poet Robert Hass, “a single bubble in steeping tea.” Issa’s haiku are as attentive to the small creatures of the world—mosquitoes, bats, cats—as they are tinged with sorrow and an awareness of the nuances of human behavior. In addition to haiku, Issa wrote pieces that intertwined prose and poetry, including Journal of My Father’s Last Days and The Year of My Life.

We're alive! Our hair is grown out. We brought you flowers. We missed you. For each of the next few weeks, we'll release both episodes with each of our guests. Today, we've got for you the inimitable Carl Phillips, with whom we discussed syntax, abstracts, and the brassiest of tacks. Enjoy!

CARL PHILLIPS is the author of fourteen books of poetry, most recently Pale Colors in a Tall Field (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). He has won the Kingsley Tufts Award and been a finalist for the National Book Award. He currently teaches at Washington University in St. Louis.

ITALIAN MARGARITA IN A SILVER-RIMMED BUFFALO HORN GOBLET: Tequila, amaretto, lemon, and lime over ice.

What's good, baby. We're back for the second part of our conversation with esteemed Tommye Blount. For us today, Tommy brought Spencer Reece's "Interlude," a short poem that imagines, does, asks so, so much.

TOMMYE BLOUNTE grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of the poetry collection Fantasia for the Man in Blue (2020) and the chapbook What Are We Not For (2016). Blount has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem, and Kresge Arts. He lives in Novi, Michigan.

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised in Minneapolis, SPENCER REECE is the son of a pathologist and a nurse. He earned a BA at Wesleyan University, an MA at the University of York, an MTS at Harvard Divinity School, and an MDiv at Yale Divinity School. He was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 2011. Reece’s debut collection of poetry, The Clerk’s Tale(2004), was chosen for the Bakeless Poetry Prize by Louise Glück and adapted into a short film by director James Franco. He is also the author of the collection The Road to Emmaus (2013), which was a longlist nominee for the National Book Award.

Lovely loves, we went on a panda break but we're back now with our latest drop: a conversation with the inimitable Tommye Blount on color, order and desire.

TOMMYE BLOUNTE grew up in Detroit, Michigan. He earned an MFA from Warren Wilson College. He is the author of the poetry collection Fantasia for the Man in Blue (2020) and the chapbook What Are We Not For (2016). Blount has been awarded scholarships and fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem, and Kresge Arts. He lives in Novi, Michigan.

PELEGRINO WITH LIME. 

Friends—here we are. Here you are. Here's Ada Limón reading Wanda Coleman's "Requiem for a Nest." It is almost certainly the record for times we thought we were done with the conversation and Luther realized he had more to say about the poem. Enjoy. We did—we serenely and delusionally did.

ADA LIMÓN, a current Guggenheim fellow, is the author of five poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her fourth book Bright Dead Things was named a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency M.F.A program and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

WANDA COLEMAN grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. During her lifetime she worked as a medical secretary, magazine editor, journalist, and Emmy Award-winning scriptwriter before turning to poetry. Her poetry collections include Mercurochrome: New Poems (2001), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry; Bathwater Wine (Black Sparrow Press, 1998), which received the 1999 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Native in a Strange Land: Trials & Tremors (1996); Hand Dance (1993); African Sleeping Sickness (1990); Heavy Daughter Blues: Poems & Stories 1968-1986 (1988); and Imagoes (1983). She also wrote the books Jazz and Twelve O'Clock Tales: New Stories (2008), Mambo Hips & Make Believe: A Novel (Black Sparrow Press, 1999), and A War of Eyes and Other Stories (1988). Coleman lived in Los Angeles until her death on November 22, 2013.

O hi there, it's us, The Poet Salon, back in your ears with our third season—and what a season it is! 

We're kicking things off with the incomparable Ada Limón. After some quick updates from us, we discuss the virtues of poetic "play" before conversing with the one-and-only Ada about the human condition, carrying grief, and Kentucky.

ADA LIMÓN, a current Guggenheim fellow, is the author of five poetry collections, including The Carrying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Her fourth book Bright Dead Things was named a finalist for the National Book Award, a finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She serves on the faculty of Queens University of Charlotte Low Residency M.F.A program and lives in Lexington, Kentucky.

JANUARY GIMLET: a bright, easy-to-mix cocktail with gin, cranberry juice, and lime.