Melody or Witchcraft

Dear Readers, Maybe I have a lot going on. Maybe I’m not as observant as I’d like to think I am. Maybe my observation skills are focused elsewhere. But, uh - y’all! I can put VIDEO on Substack?! Should I have known that???? I could pretend I knew it all along, but I’m like hella into authenticity these days. This coming Monday, July 13th, the third season of Melody or Witchcraft begins—with Jane W...

Welcome to your upcoming summer listen! Melody or Witchcraft is back! Thought you might need something to keep you company while you’re traveling, beaching, exploring, working, gradening, and so, not six episodes, but seven—and they’re a bit chunkier as well. Looking at the guest list, you might understand that I couldn’t in good conscience edit everything down to some idea of a trim time length I...

Gabrielle Calvocoressi ’s new collection of poetry, The New Economy , was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Other collections include The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart , Apocalyptic Swing , and Rocket Fantastic , which is the winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. They serve on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and live in Old East Durham,...

This Bonus Bit closes out Season 2 of the podcast. Season 3 will be coming your way in July! Gaby talks about a book by Ang Roell, which they call “Decolonize the Hive.” The title as I found it is Radicalize the Hive and more information about Ang and the book can be found at this link . Here you are! At the end of Season 2! At the Bonus Bit, no less! I’m so glad you’re listening. Would you consid...

Camille T. Dungy is the author of America, A Love Story , Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden, and five other books of poetry and prose. She has edited three anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry. Dungy is currently a University Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University. If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these no...

Matt and I discuss Hanif Abdurraqib’s work, specifically Matt brings up Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance . There’s a touch of general chatter after the official recording’s end for those of you who (like me) crave a peek behind the curtain, so to speak, and that then leads into some info for Sylvia Plath fans: Matt reveals a new project that the Boutelle-Day Poetry Cen...

Matt Donovan is the author most recently of We Are Not Where We Are (Bull City Press, 2025) which was co-authored with Jenny George, and The Dug-Up Gun Museum (BOA 2022). He is the recipient of a Whiting Award, a Rome Prize in Literature, a Pushcart Prize, and an NEA Fellowship in Literature. Donovan serves as the director of the Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College. If you’re reading this...

Two quick little blips that add to the conversation. In the first, we muse together some more about dream stuff. In the second, Kelli reveals a very special and unique element within her new book, Accidental Devotions . The book’s launch date is May 12, 2026. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.sub...

Kelli Russell Agodon ‘s next book Accidental Devotions will be published by Copper Canyon Press in May 2026. Her previous collection, Dialogues with Rising Tides , was a finalist for the Washington State Book Awards. Kelli is the cofounder of Two Sylvias Press and teaches in Pacific Lutheran University’s MFA program, the Rainier Writing Workshop. She is also the cohost of the poetry series Poems Y...

Dr. Victoria Kennefick is a writer, poet, editor and teacher who lives in Tralee, Co. Kerry (Ireland). She completed a PhD in Irish and American Literature at University College Cork and was a Fulbright Scholar at Emory University. Her debut collection, Eat or We Both Starve (Carcanet Press, 2021), won the Seamus Heaney First Collection Poetry Prize and the Dalkey Book Festival Emerging Writer of...

Dana Levin is the author of five books poetry. Her latest is Now Do You Know Where You Are (Copper Canyon), a 2022 New York Times Notable Book and NPR “Book We Love.” Levin teaches for the Bennington Writing Seminars, the MFA program at Bennington College, and serves as Distinguished Writer in Residence at Maryville University in St. Louis. Her first book of prose, House of Feels , comes out from...

Season Two is almost here! I’m in LOVE with what these esteemed guests had to say and I hope you will be, too. The trailer above should give you a nice teaser as to what kind of craziness and beauty to anticipate. In this world? Who’s going to turn down LOVE? How do you feel about the big corporations? The soon-to-be trillionaires that push around power? Oh yeah? Hmm. Me too. This kind of programm...

Groundwater Tacey M. Atsitty It was the Christmas my sister’s hamsters went missing from their cage. Santa had just brought Kisses and Fatso only two nights prior. The cage was knocked over, but we didn’t put two and two together until her cat Mushy came out of hiding a few hours later. I mean, we weren’t for sure, but we suspected. And my sister just cried. Though we were young, we were no strang...

This is the final episode in Season One. I’ll be back with Season Two on Monday, April 20th. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber of the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com). That’s where you’ll find complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Dr. Tacey M. Atsitty de Gonzales , Diné (Navajo), is Tsénahabiłnii (Sleep Rock...

Two wee stories from Dr. Mossberg to complement our interview. 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

If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes will be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Dr. Barbara Mossberg has led an Emily Dickinson-infused life for 77 years, writing poetry since age 6 in the now-burned Alt...

If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes will be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Katie Farris ’s recent poems & translations appear in Granta, Poetry, and The New York Times . Her book, Standing in the Fo...

This is eight minutes of Jennifer and I casually chatting after the end of the official interview. We talk about another poem, a couple books, the trials and tribulations of Dickinson’s posthumous publication etc. No notes on this one, but feel free to comment with your questions. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit...

Jennifer Franklin is a poet, professor, and editor whose lastest book is If Some God Shakes Your House (Four Way Books, 2023). Her work has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and her awards include a Pushcart Prize, a NYFA/City Artist Corp grant, and residencies from the T.S. Eliot Foundation and Café Royal Cultural Foundation. Her publications include The Paris Review, The Nation...

Nuala O’Connor lives in Galway, Ireland. Her fifth poetry collection Menagerie (Arlen House) was published in 2025. Her novel Miss Emily , about Emily Dickinson’s friendship with an Irish maid, was published in 2015 by Penguin USA and Sandstone in the UK. She’s currently writing a memoir about late-diagnosed autism. She is a member of Aosdána . “Hope” is the thing with feathers -That perches in th...

Tina Cane is the founder and director of Writers in the Schools, Rhode Island and served as Poet Laureate of Rhode Island 2016-2024. Her books include Dear Elena: Letters for Elena Ferrante , Body of Work, and Year of the Murder Hornet . She’s also published two verse novels for young people, Alma Presses Play and Are You Nobody, Too? and is co-host with Joey Sweeney of the forthcoming podcast Sta...

Guests for Season One: Tina Cane, Nuala O’Connor, Jennifer Franklin, Katie Farris, Barbara Mossberg, & Tacey M. Atsitty. 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

One of the poetry techniques that I’ve come to love – to look for, to lean on is repetition. Repetition comes in many forms and has many uses. Sometimes it’s about emphasis, sometimes it’s about a foggy, dreamy wistfulness or melancholy tone. Sometimes it takes the form of an incantation, a recitation that wants to call something into being, or it can be about music and rhythm—like the chorus of y...