Interesting People Reading Poetry

<p>In this episode, novelist Lisa Ko reads “Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?” by Tracy K. Smith. Ko’s first book, <em>The Leavers</em>, was a 2017 National Book Award finalist. Her most recent book, <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/712665/memory-piece-by-lisa-ko/">Memory Piece</a> (Riverhead Books, 2024) was described in Electric Literature as “a poignant meditation on late-stage capitalism: what it means to exist in an age of surveillance and government tracking, what it means to create art in an era where identity itself is commodified, and what it means to find purpose.”&nbsp;</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://open.spotify.com/episode/7mpEGcGLhQnJBeHegGXazZ?si=f6_qq7awTrCne2k5PfCM-A </div> </figure> <p>Tracy K. Smith is an American poet born in 1972. <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55520/dont-you-wonder-sometimes">“Don’t You Wonder, Sometimes?”</a> was first collected in <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/life-mars">Life on Mars</a> (Graywolf Press, 2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The poem is also included in <a href="https://www.graywolfpress.org/books/such-color">Such Color: New and Selected Poems</a><em> </em>(Graywolf Press, 2021).</p> <p>Keep up with Lisa Ko at <a href="http://lisa-ko.com/">lisa-ko.com</a>.</p> <p>We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/haikuhotline/">Facebook</a>.</p> <p>Subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interesting-people-reading-poetry/id1265729382">Apple Podcasts</a> or <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSeDE4sAmOxZdWu5yN1M">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>This IPRP Poetry Playlist features a selection of archival recordings from <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/">PennSound</a>, a project of the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. The PennSound website includes an <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/authors.php">extensive audio archive</a> with free recordings of hundreds of poets reading their own work.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://open.spotify.com/episode/4LaSIL9xy50Zf8hhFutG7Y?si=rq4P94nZSemjjXV6CWMRtw </div> </figure> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">Tracklist</h2> <p>1. &#8220;Long Track Blues” by Sterling Brown appears in <a href="https://nupress.northwestern.edu/9780810142381/the-collected-poems-of-sterling-a-brown/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown</a>, published by TriQuarterly. A<a href="https://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Brown-Sterling/Brown-Sterling_02.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> recording of the poem</a> is included in the <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Brown-Sterling.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sterling Brown archive</a> on PennSound.</p> <p>2. &#8220;Rails in the Subway&#8221; by Charles Reznikoff appears in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Charles-Reznikoff-1918-1975-Sparrow/dp/1574232037?ref_=ast_author_dp&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZUVuX3Mll9HMux0-4v445t0HuFtTCRrbC_YyFsEwzU5m9FnU4WQfgR2mh-JzAEgxx6DWElFiz5FvaFBHyU2S2Deg1a08jRgPT96kSOJ8kIJMZW5AfYSpdtmO5QhuoJYH998ZxOGiJ6uJNfla_dy6tGaYybRyjT22c333QgAAHqXamNPqATWdBWTkhfut77Fo5Bm3gTvG6GDShWEhNN3l5sXW67xNyBZ9OJTm0X7DfzY._3Q7LKjJXe4x6SHRWUNVWfxBr52TMfhOBe3XaPia9-U&amp;dib_tag=AUTHOR" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Poems Of Charles Reznikoff: 1918-1975</a>, published by Black Sparrow Press. A<a href="https://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Reznikoff/Reznikoff-Charles_03-27-1975.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> recording of the poem</a> is included in the <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Reznikoff.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Charles Reznikoff archive</a> on PennSound.</p> <p>3. “At North Farm&#8221; by John Ashbery appears in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/321003/selected-poems-by-john-ashbery/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selected Poems</a>, published by Penguin Books. A<a href="https://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Ashbery/BBC-radio-3/Ashbery-John_04_At-North-Farm_Contemporary-American-Poetry_BBC-Radio-3_7-24-99.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> recording of the poem</a> is included in the <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Ashbery.php" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">John Ashbery archive</a> on PennSound.</p> <p>This episode uses the sounds “Accordion drone” and “Untuned piano” by <a href="https://freesound.org/people/adrianornhagen/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">adrianorhagen</a> from <a href="http://freesound.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">freesound.org</a> under the Attribution 4.0 license.</p> <p>Subscribe on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interesting-people-reading-poetry/id1265729382" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Podcasts</a> or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSeDE4sAmOxZdWu5yN1M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>In this episode, Amy Dickinson reads “Say It” by Roland Flint. Dickinson wrote the beloved daily advice column &#8220;Ask Amy,&#8221; which appeared in newspapers across the country from 2003 until her retirement in June of 2024. She is also the author of <a href="https://amydickinson.com/books" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">two memoirs</a> and a new <a href="https://amydickinson.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Substack newsletter</a>. </p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://open.spotify.com/episode/0Biu5xhk2gBgrbInN0mccP </div> </figure> <p>Roland Flint was born in Park River, North Dakota in 1934. “Say It” was first published in <em>Say It</em> (Dryad Press, 1979). It appears in <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Roland-Flint/dp/B09WZ3KXHQ" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Complete Poems of Roland Flint</a>, published by Elizabeth Flint in 2022. </p> <p>We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/haikuhotline/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook</a>.</p> <p>Subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interesting-people-reading-poetry/id1265729382" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Podcasts</a> or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSeDE4sAmOxZdWu5yN1M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>In this IPRP Poetry Playlist, U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón reads three selections from the anthology <a href="https://milkweed.org/book/you-are-here" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World</a>, out now from Milkweed Editions. The collection, edited and introduced by Limón, offers &#8220;fifty poems reflecting on our relationship to the natural world by our most celebrated contemporary writers.&#8221; <a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/you-are-here/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here</a> to learn more about the anthology, including upcoming events and how to share your own &#8220;You Are Here&#8221; nature poem.</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://open.spotify.com/episode/21B1WXPUDJ9WNDH4LMROeD </div> </figure> <h2 class="wp-block-heading has-text-align-center">TRACKLIST</h2> <p>1. “Reasons to Live” by <a href="https://ruthawad.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ruth Awad</a></p> <p>2. &#8220;Lullaby for the Grieving&#8221; by <a href="https://ashleymjonespoetry.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ashley M. Jones</a></p> <p>3. “Twenty Minutes in the Backyard&#8221; by <a href="https://www.albertoalvarorios.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Alberto Ríos</a></p> <p class="has-text-align-left">Subscribe on&nbsp;<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interesting-people-reading-poetry/id1265729382" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Podcasts</a> or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSeDE4sAmOxZdWu5yN1M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>.</p>

<p>In this episode, Roy Foster reads &#8220;Sailing to Byzantium&#8221; by William Butler Yeats. Foster is Emeritus Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford and the author of many books, including his classic, two-volume biography of Yeats, published in 1997 and 2003. In a review of the first volume published in the <em>New York Review of Books</em>, the Irish novelist John Banville wrote: “<em>W.B. Yeats: A Life</em> is a great and important work, a triumph of scholarship, thought, and empathy such as one would hardly have thought possible in this age of disillusion. It is an achievement wholly of a scale with its heroic subject.”</p> <figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-spotify wp-block-embed-spotify wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"> <div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper"> https://open.spotify.com/episode/2EPxyqHWa7nQJB5SKB1BDj </div> </figure> <p><a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43291/sailing-to-byzantium">“Sailing to Byzantium”</a> by William Butler Yeats was first published in 1927 and included in his magnificent collection, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305249/the-tower-by-w-b-yeats/9780241303092"><em>The </em>Tower</a>, published in 1928. To learn more about Yeats&#8217; life and work, look no further than Roy Foster&#8217;s <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Apprentice-Mage-1865-1914-W-B-Yeats/dp/0192880853">W.B Yeats: A Life, Vol. I: The Apprentice Mage </a>and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/W-B-Yeats-Arch-Poet-1915-1939/dp/0198184654">Vol. II: The Arch-Poet</a>.</p> <p>We feature one short listener poem at the end of every episode. To submit, call the Haiku Hotline at 612-440-0643 and read your poem after the beep. For the occasional prompt, follow us on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/haikuhotline/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Facebook</a>.</p> <p>Subscribe on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/interesting-people-reading-poetry/id1265729382" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Apple Podcasts</a> or&nbsp;<a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/5QaSeDE4sAmOxZdWu5yN1M" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Spotify</a>.</p>