The Deerfield Public Library Podcast

Adam Morgan discusses his new biography, A Danger to the Minds of Young Girls: Margaret C. Anderson, Book Bans, and the Fight to Modernize Literature (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2025).  Morgan's book is the first biography solely devoted to Margaret C. Anderson, the founder of the avant-garde literary and arts magazine The Little Review, which she began publishing in Chicago in 1914. The influen...

This month on the Deerfield Public Library Podcast, we are very happy to welcome writer and artist Annah Feinberg to talk about her hilarious and moving debut full-length graphic novel, Goodbye, Dolly! Narrated from beyond the grave by Dolly, the famous cloned sheep born in 1996, Goodbye, Dolly! tells the story of her six disaffected children (or as Annah calls them, "nepo lambs") as they search t...

Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr., in conversation on his new novel The El (Vintage Books, 2025). A love letter to our city of Chicago, The El follows a group of teen gang members in August 1979 as they travel across the city to a summit where gangs plan to join forces. But the reality is less like the movie The Warriors and more like the creation of a corporate structure, and leader Teddy—a devoted reade...

Our conversation with poet, writer, and translator James Shea , whose extraordinary new collection of poems Last Day of My Face (University of Iowa Press, 2025), was recently published as a winner of the prestigious Iowa Poetry Prize.  James Shea's work delights in word play and unexpected images with a voice set at and considering the edges of meaning. As you'll hear in our conversation, Shea dra...

Our Queer Poem-a-Day "outro" episode, featuring three "extras" for Year 5! At 02:00: Mathew Kerbis, a board member of The Friends of the Deerfield Public Library, shares details about the local 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, dedicated to enriching the Library's materials, services, and programs for the members of the community. Mathew shares with us some of the Library programs (like Queer P...

Day 20: Ocean Vuong reads his poem "The Last Dinosaur." This poem first appeared in a slightly different form in The Boston Review (2021) and in his collection Time is a Mother (Penguin Press, 2022). Writer, professor, and photographer, Ocean Vuong is the author of The Emperor of Gladness. Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Hartford, Connecticut in a working class family of nail salon and facto...

Day 19: Mark Doty reads his poem, "A Display of Mackerel," which first appeared in his collection Atlantis (Harper Perennial, 1995). Mark Doty is the author of nine books of poetry. Fire to Fire: New & Selected Poems , won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008.  Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at:  deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Find books from partic...

Day 18: Rose Zinnia reads her poem, "I'm Like If Mary Oliver Had Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder." This poem was originally published in Poetry (April 2025).  Rose Zinnia is a poet, novelist, essayist, teaching artist, editor, and designer. Born in Akron, Ohio, she is the author of Togethering (Ledge Mule Press, 2024), a chapbook of poetry & lyric essay. A 2025 National Endowment for the...

Day 17: Nikky Finney reads her poem "Charm," originally published in her collection The World is Round (InnerLight Publishing, 2003).  Nikky Finney is the author of On Wings Made of Gauze; Rice; The World Is Round; and Head Off & Split, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2011. Her new collection of poems, Love Child's Hotbed of Occasional Poetry, was released in 2020. Finney is Caroli...

Day 16: Oliver Baez Bendorf reads his poem "What the Dead Can Do, which was originally published in West Branch (2021), reprinted in Best American Poetry 2022, and in his book Consider the Rooster (Nightboat Books, 2024). Oliver Baez Bendorf is the author of three books of poetry, including Consider the Rooster, a finalist for the 2024 National Book Critics Circle Award. Born and raised in Iowa, h...

Day 15: Jayson P. Smith reads their poem, "I Arrive in a Place with a High Level of Psychic Distress." Queer Poem-a-Day is honored to be the first publication of this poem.  Jayson P. Smith is a poet, dancer, educator, & curator from the Bronx. J is the recipient of fellowships from Hawthornden Foundation, NYFA, The Poetry Project, and Callaloo. They curate NOMAD Readings in Brooklyn (& elsewhere)...

Day 14:  Jessica Jacobs reads her poem, "Saturday Services at the Provincetown Shore" from her book unalone (Four Way Books, 2024). Recorded with permission of Four Way Books. All rights reserved. Jessica Jacobs, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow, is the author of unalone, poems in conversation with the Book of Genesis (Four Way Books, March 2024); Take Me with You, Wherever You're Going (Four Way Books, 2...

Day 13: Francisco Márquez reads his poem, "The Bulge," first published in The Adroit Journal (April 2025).  Francisco Márquez is a poet from Maracaibo, Venezuela, born in Miami, Florida. His work has been featured in the Yale Review, the Brooklyn Rail, the Slowdown podcast, and the Best American Poetry anthology. He has received support from the Tin House Writer's Workshop, The Poetry Project, and...

Day 12: Jaz Sufi reads her poem, "Ode to My Lover's Sequined Dress." Queer Poem-a-Day is honored to be the first publication of this poem.  Jaz Sufi (she/hers) is a queer Iranian-American poet and arts educator. Her work has been published or is upcoming in Best New Poets, Best of the Net, AGNI, Black Warrior Review, Muzzle, and elsewhere. She is a National Poetry Slam finalist and has received fe...

Day 11: Gabrielle Calvocoressi reads their poem, "Miss you. Would like to take a walk with you" originally published in Poetry (October 2021).  Gabrielle Calvocoressi is the author of The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing (a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize), and Rocket Fantastic, winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. Calvocoressi is the recipient of numerous awar...

Day 10: Jan-Henry Gray reads his poem "On Therapy," first published in the anthology Permanent Record: Poetics Towards the Archive (Nightboat Books, 2025), edited by Naima Yael Tokunow. Jan-Henry Gray is the author of Documents, selected by D.A. Powell as the winner of BOA Editions' Poulin Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Selected Emails. His poems have been included in various anthologies, includin...

Day 9: Timothy Liu reads his poem "The Price of Kissing is Your Life," originally published in the Georgia Review (Spring 2025). Timothy Liu 's most recent books of poems are Down Low and Lowdown and Luminous Debris, both out from Barrow Street. A reader of occult esoterica, he teaches at SUNY New Paltz and Vassar College. Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at: de...

Day 8: Lloyd Schwartz reads his poem "Who's On First?" This poem was originally published in Ploughshares (1981) and reprinted in Who's On First: New and Selected Poems (University of Chicago Press, 2021). Lloyd Schwartz is poet laureate of Somerville, the Frederick S. Troy Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a longtime arts critic for NPR's Fresh Air. He's...

Day 7: Keetje Kuipers reads her poem "Cremello Horse," which first appeared in the magazine 32 Poems and was then published in Lonely Women Make Good Lovers (BOA Editions, 2025). Keetje Kuipers' fourth collection of poetry, Lonely Women Make Good Lovers, was the recipient of the Isabella Gardner Award. Her poetry and prose have appeared in American Poetry Review, New York Times Magazine, and Poetr...

Day 6: Gaia Rajan reads his poem "Essay on Class," which originally appeared in Frontier Poetry (2023).  Gaia Rajan is the author of the chapbooks Moth Funerals (Glass Poetry Press 2020) and Killing It (Black Lawrence Press 2022). His work is published in the Academy of American Poets' Poem-A-Day, Best New Poets, the Best of the Net anthology, The Kenyon Review, THRUSH, Split Lip Magazine, diode,...

Day 5: Rick Barot reads his poem "Pleasure," which appears in his recent book, Moving the Bones . Rick Barot's most recent book of poems is Moving the Bones , published by Milkweed Editions in 2024. His previous book, The Galleons , was longlisted for the National Book Award. He lives in Tacoma, Washington, and directs the Rainier Writing Workshop, the low-residency MFA program at Pacific Lutheran...

Day 4: S. Brook Corfman reads her poem "Before & After." The poem first appeared in Pigeon Pages (2020), in a slightly different form.  S. Brook Corfman is the author of My Daily Actions, or The Meteorites, one of The New York Times Best Poetry Books of 2020, finalist for the Leslie Feinberg Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature, and winner of the Fordham University Press POL Prize, chosen...

Day 3: Marcelo Hernandez Castillo reads his poem "Eclogue: A Field Guide and Cure." The poem was published in the recent anthology Like A Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration (Haymarket Books, 2025). Marcelo Hernandez Castillo is the author of Children of the Land: a Memoir (Harper Collins); Cenzontle (BOA Editions), winner of the A. Poulin, Jr. prize; Dulce (Northwestern University Press), winner...

Day 2: Faylita Hicks reads their poem "A Gxrl's Trip Home." This poem was originally published in A Map of My Want (Haymarket Books, 2024). Faylita Hicks (she/they) is a writer, interdisciplinary artist, Hoodoo practitioner, and cultural strategist exploring the intersections of social justice and spirituality. They are the author of A Map of My Want (Haymarket, 2024), HoodWitch (Acre, 2019), and...

Day 1: Jericho Brown reads his poem "Duplex." This poem was originally published in The Progressive Magazine (2019). Jericho Brown is the author of The Tradition, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. He is also a recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship. Text of today's poem and more details about our program can be found at: deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday/ Find books from participat...