Jane Huffman: to change her own mind

The Melody or Witchcraft podcast interviews begin with a love for poetry, its craft, and a major literary ancestor: Emily Dickinson. I’m your host, Kathryn Petruccelli, a poet, workshop leader, Substacker, & former guide for the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. Listen in to hear about the concentric circles of the past and the present. Names or poetic references are fleshed out or linked to in the show notes if not in the moment. Thanks for being a listener! Rate us on Spotify HERE, or Apple Podcasts HERE.kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com for full show notes, links, & photos. I have the fabulous Dana Levin, Season 2 guest, to thank for putting Jane Huffman on my radar. I immediately watched Jane’s reading for the Phosphorescence series with the Emily Dickinson Museum and was struck by the starkness and intention of her work as well as what felt like a clearly Dickinsonian tenor. Our conversation proved super interesting and fun and I’m glad I could get an hour with this very busy PhD candidate! In Episode 23, Jane & I ruminate on the uses of fear and anxiety, her relationship with the narrative, a positive caveat in AI’s influence, & more. (Recorded June 5, 2026) Jane Huffman (she/her) is the author of Public Abstract (American Poetry Review, 2023), winner of the 2023 APR/Honickman First Book Prize. She is a PhD candidate in English and literary arts at the University of Denver, where she is managing editor of Denver Quarterly, and she has an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her poems have appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, Poetry Magazine, The New Yorker, New England Review, and elsewhere. She was a 2019 recipient of the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation. The Dickinson poem Jane chose: I lived on Dread —To Those who knowThe stimulus there isIn Danger — Other impetusIs numb — and vitalless — As ‘twere a Spur — upon the Soul —A Fear will urge it whereTo go without the spectre’s aidWere challenging Despair. Fascile 23, Sheet 6, (Fr498, J770) c. late 1862 RuminationJane Huffman If I stopped for a moment even, even for a moment, I would not start again — like breathing — no, I fear, I should say, fear — I fear I would not start again — and it is fearthat keeps me up, suspended like an apple in my mind when someone tells me to picture it: an apple on your fingertip. Rumination, as a cow does, ultimately sustained by it. (As a cow does, ultimately made of grass, sustained by it, and thus an allegory for, a standing in, the thing she eats. The grass grows up and on in her. She stands in it. The part is a container for the whole. Strokes of grass become the cud, the soul.) The James Allen Hall episode of Melody of Witchcraft in which we cover “One need not be a chanber – to be Haunted –” “Called Back” was indeed the entire contents of the final letter Dickinson wrote which was addressed to her cousins – Letter 1046, January 1886. It reads, Little Cousins, / Called Back / Emily. Called Back was also the title of a novella by Hugh Conway (a pseudonym for English author Frederick John Fargus) which Dickinson had written about in another letter to her cousin the year prior. Link to the Radiolab episode on aphantasia – when someone cannot create a picture of something in their mind. Petrarchan sonnet While I hope to keep the main episodes free to listeners, I’m cooking up some new projects behind the scenes for paid subscribers to add to the other benefits already in place. Details coming in the weeks ahead. In addition, there are costs involved in making the podcast, like equipment, consultation, and the possibility of purchasing the books of my guests, nevermind the huge investment of time. Offering the basic support per month costs only slightly more than one latte or cappuccino. Please consider contributing if you enjoy what you’ve heard. Thanks, Kitty. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe