This week, Ajanae and Brittany have the honor of interviewing Toi Derricotte. The trio speak candidly about preparing for death, the complexity of being a Black women poet, and the origin story of Cave Canem. They also explore the importance of community, trust, and intimacy as tools for survival. 

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Writing Prompt:

Brittany and Ajanae conclude their mini-tour of the South by interviewing Jericho Brown; in this conversation, the trio discuss breaking bad writing habits, navigating career longevity, and the things that bring them delight (spoiler alert: friendship, r&b and Beyoncé are on the list)! 

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Prompt: Make a playlist of the music that has most deeply shaped your writing.

On this weeks episode, Brittany and Ajanae continue their mini-tour of Atlanta with an interview with Mia. S. Willis. During this conversation, they discuss learning to slow down, avoiding the “full length” book pressure, and language as a material culture; they also think fondly on friendship, connection, and Black colloquialisms. 

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Writing prompt: Make time this week to write poems that you won’t share with anyone. Note any shifts in your experience with the process. 

Join us this week in Atlanta, where Brittany and Ajanae sit down with Maya Marshall to discuss Maya’s debut collection, All the Blood Involved in Love (Haymarket Press). This conversation centers around choice, obligation and priorities, both on and off the page. Listen as they navigate falling in love, managing illness, choosing between work and family, and much more!

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Writing Prompt: Write a poem where the reader gets to choose their own ending. This may involve writing the poem in multiple stanzas or sections and asking the reader to skip ahead. 

This week, Brittany and Ajanae talk with guest Naomi Shihab Nye about the joy and wonder of youth, poets as vessels, editing as an act of devotion, and the complexity of becoming multiple selves over the course of a lifetime. Join them as they process the possibilities that can emerge over a lifetime of being immersed in poetry.

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Prompt: Create a map. Make each plot point a past, current or future version of yourself. What is significant about each location?

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae continue their mini tour of the South in Houston, Texas. Next, they talk with Texas Poet Laureate Lupe Mendez about familial responsibility, masculinity, education, and the preservation of memory. 

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Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

On this week’s episode, Brittany and Ajanae travel to Houston, Texas for the first interview of their (mini) South tour. There, they talk with Joy Priest about landscape, road trips, the process of creating, putting together a collection, and what happens when Blackness meets theory.

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Here are some pieces of media to accompany your experience of the episode, and a writing prompt to tide you over until we meet again!

Read: Sharon Olds - “The Unborn” “After Making Love in Winter” 

Prompt: Write your own theory of living. Consider: What things must be present for you to feel sustained? What truths ground you? What are the facts that make you possible? 

In this episode, Wes reflects on his transition from being a youth to adulthood as it relates to the poetry scene, level of empathy, and approach to wonder.

In today’s episode, Kemi Alabi talks about poetic practice, pleasure, and play as it presents in their collection Against Heaven, winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award (Graywolf, 2022). In this conversation, they discuss the relationship between the secular and profane, subverting and breaking language, and the importance of embracing grief and the emotional body.

Kemi will be reading at the Poetry Foundation on Dec 8th, 2022 – more info below!