Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens spin into a frosty finish with poet and figure-skating stan Jacques J. Rancourt! What a way to celebrate our 50th episode! Please support the poets mentioned in today's episode by buying their books. Shop indie if you can; we recommend Loyalty Bookstores, a Black-owned bookseller in DC. You can buy Jacques's Brocken Spectre here .  Find Jacques J. Rancourt’s website here . Fol...

The queens defy Big Sonny and play an associative game that leads to a lot of poetry love -- and some hot dish. Please support the poets we mention in today's show by buying their books! You can shop indie at Loyalty Bookstores , a Black-owned DC-area independent bookseller.  Walt Whitman's “Song of Myself" ends with these lines: If you want me again look for me under your boot-sole...

Poetry & fruit wine, bebè! We recommend watching episode 6 of season 1, “Wine & Roses.”  You’ll remember the experience! Troye Sivan Mellet is a South African-born Australian singer-songwriter, actor and YouTuber. Watch the official video for Sivan’s song, “Bloom” here .  While Aaron cites another music writer’s critique of “Bloom” as a song about bottoming, I prefer this close-reading of...

Aaron and James  correct history and re-award the Pulitzer Prize. Hindsight is 20/20 and we definitely are hind-oglers. Support the poets we mention by buying their books. We recommend Loyalty Bookstores , a Black-owned indie bookseller in the DC area. Read David Trinidad's dishy and detailed account of how Anne Sexton got her Pulitzer here . More/other insight into the Pulitzers can be had i...

Aaron and James revisit Ai's poem "Twenty Year Marriage." The conversation opens up to ideas about education and the violence of white supremacy. Show Notes: Ai was born on Oct. 21, 1947. She died on March 20, 2010. She published Cruelty in 1973. Her second book, Killing Floor (1978) was the Lamont selection from the Academy of American Poets. She won the National Book Award for Vic...

The queens get Swiftian! As always, please support the writers we mention by buying at indie bookstores. If you need a good one, we recommend Loyalty Bookstores , a black-owned DC-area store.  Catherine Barnett is a Taurus. Watch Nicole Sealey perform Barnett's "Apophasis at the All-Night Rite Aid" here . (~2 min) You can read Vievee Francis's poem "Say It, Say It Any Way...

Our hysterical homosexuals pit quotes by Julianne and Marianne Moore, then play a game of fuck, marry, kill: the poetic form edition.   You can read the Marianne Moore poems we reference by clicking on the links below: "Roses Only" "Nevertheless" "In Distrust of Merits"   "Poetry" "Silence"   Read a small essay by Annie Finch on (as well as Ms. Moo...

We're 30, dirty, and thriving! The queens name 30 poets for each other, and then we associate a word or phrase with each one. No beeps! Please consider supporting the poets we mention in today's show by buying their books! We can recommend Loyalty Bookstore , a black-owned DC-based indie bookstore that ships nationally.  Watch Anne Carson read "A Lecture on Corners" here (~58 m...

Game day with Carl Phillips, who is gracious enough to play a game called "Apertures." You can buy Carl Phillips's books -- particularly his newest, Then the War -- here at Loyalty Bookstores, a Black-owned independent bookstore in DC. You can watch this terrific interview with Carl Phillips by Washington Post fiction editor Ron Charles here .  Hear Carl read "Then the War&quot...

Part 2 of our interview with Carl Phillips begins with his reading of "Invasive Species" from Then the War . Then we talk origin, luck, coping, and unexpected kindness. You can buy Carl Phillips's books -- particularly his newest, Then the War -- here at Loyalty Bookstores, a Black-owned independent bookstore in DC. Hear Carl read "Among the Trees," a lyric essay from Then...

Carl Phillips stops by to talk poetry, survival, harnesses, and censorship. You can buy Carl Phillips's books -- particularly his newest, Then the War -- here at Loyalty Bookstores, a Black-owned independent bookstore in DC. You can hear Carl read the title poem from Then the War here (~2 min). Read Richie Hofmann's review of Then the War in the LA Review of Books here . You can read &qu...

The ladies pay  tribute to the Queen of Drag and to the makeup of language!  Consider buying books by authors mentioned in today's episode (and, hey, Aaron's and James's too!) at an independent bookstore. If you need a recommendation, we like Loyalty Bookstore , a Black-owned indie in DC, or The Ivy , a woman-owned indie in Baltimore.  1. For more about jush/zhuzh and its meanings,...

Aaron and James revisit Chrystos, Audre Lorde, and Minnie Bruce Pratt--three queer poets who were censored and attacked by Jesse Helm after winning fellowship awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. Please consider supporting authors and indie bookstores. You can purchase books by the writers we discuss at Loyalty Books , a black-owned DC-based independent bookseller. Chrystos is a Menomi...

Tantalize, Memory: Our kiki with David Trinidad continues! Buy David's new book, Digging to Wonderland, at your favorite indie bookstore -- or buy it here from Loyalty Books, a Black-owned independent bookseller in Washington, DC. Gypsy Rose Lee (born Rose Louise Hovick, January 8, 1911 – April 26, 1970) was an American burlesque entertainer famous for her striptease act whose memory was adap...

We kiki with David Trinidad about memory, desire, and his poem "Finding Bobby." Order David's new book, Digging to Wonderland , here -- from Loyalty Bookstores, a black-owned independent bookstore in DC. Doriane Laux and Kim Addonizio's The Poet's Companion says this: "David Trinidad, who writes poems about sexuality from a gay man's perspective, does so in very...

Reading is FUNdamental! The queens skewer the filthy fundamentalism of Aaron's youth. As always, please consider buying books mentioned in the show at an indie bookstore. We recommend Loyalty Books , a Black-owned bookshop in Washington, D.C. Aaron mentions an underground comic by Justin Green called Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary . You can read more about that comic here . If you hav...

Work, girl! And we give love to our power bottom brethren. Read Emily Dickinson's Poem 260 .   You can listen to it read by Yina Liang, courtesy of the Favorite Poem Project here (~5 min).  Read (or listen) to Richard Blanco's poem "We're Not Going to Malta" here .  Watch Larry Levis read with Phil Levine (~76 minutes; Levis is first). Aaron is right, Levis has a lovely, c...

It's Breaking Form Game Day with Diane Seuss! Buy Di's books at your favorite independent bookstore. We recommend Loyalty Bookstores , a Black-owned indie in DC. Apparently, the word "jockstrap" comes from the riders of early bicycles (called penny farthings, which had a huge front wheel and a smaller rear wheel). The riders were called "bicycle jockeys," and they wor...

Margins: Bras, God, Legs, Poetry.  Part 2 of our interview with Diane Seuss, 2022 Pulitzer Prize winner for her book of poems, frank: sonnets . You can purchase frank at The Ivy, a great independent bookstore in Baltimore. A wonderful essay on Keat's epitaph can be found in The Paris Review here .   For more about still life as it pertains to domestic spaces and women's spaces, check out...

Diane Seuss joins us for the Breaking Form Interview. Seuss won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for frank: sonnets. Frank also won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Pen/Voelcker Award, and the LA Times Book Prize. If you haven't read frank yet, you can buy get it from Loyalty Books , a Black-owned independent bookstore. Her four previous books are It Blows You Hollow (1999); Wolf...

Poetry, promiscuity, philosophy: maybe you should ask your next question! Thom Gunn was born on August 29, 1929 and died on April 25, 2004. He was born in Gravesend, England to parents who were both journalists.  Jorie Graham (born May 9, 1950—Taurus) won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1996 for The Dream of the Unified Field: Selected Poems 1974-1994. Since 1999, she has been Boylston Professor...

Aaron and James talk about giving poetry readings and processing shame. Please consider buying the books of writers we mention. We like Loyalty Bookstores , a Black-owned indie in DC. Check out Yona Harvey's website here You can check out the creative nonfiction journal Fourth Genre here .  Watch the interview with Cher on The Letterman Show (around 3:57). The reference to the "God Warri...

The queens explore poetic law and rebellion with Denise Duhamel. Part 2 of their Breaking Form Interview concludes. Please consider purchasing books by Denise and other poets we mention in this episode at Loyalty Bookstores , a Black-owned DC-area bookstore. Denise Duhamel's most recent books of poetry are Second Story; Scald ; and Blowout , which was a finalist for the National Book Critics...

The queens ask Denise Duhamel's superhero poet origin story in Part One of their interview. Buy Denise's books at Loyalty Bookstore , a DC-area Black-owned bookstore.   Denise Duhamel was a sociology major in undergrad. Her most recent books of poetry are Second Story; Scald ; and Blowout , which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other titles include Ka-Ching...

Join the  queens as they go spelunking in some of their favorite openings. You can buy books mentioned in the show at Loyalty Books, a Black-owned indie bookstore in Washington, Dc. Watch Louise Glück read "The Wild Iris" here (~2 min) A terrific interview between Glück and Peter Streckfus can be found here (they also read together; scroll down for that) (~30 min)   Watch Hanif Abdurraqi...