The Hive Poetry Collective

Farnaz Fatemi and Leila Farjami spend time with Leila's deeply resonant and highly-prasied poetry collection, Daughter of Salt (Trio House Press, 2026). Listen as they discuss: trusting poetry's source and the arrival of images, sounds, and meaning; Farjami's journey from her childhood in Iran to writing poetry in English in California., memory and displacement, and more. Leila reads 7...

We read and discuss "Astronaut," by Simona Regina Adams , then take a deep dive into Zack's amazing new book, The Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens and Other Poems on Aging. Zack Rogow  is the author, editor, or translator of more than twenty books or plays. His tenth book of poems,  T he Kama Sutra for Senior Citizens and Other Poems on Aging , is now available from Valley Press. Click  here  for US...

Roxi Power, co-editor of the new anthology, ⁠ Winter in America (Still: Poets, Writers, and ArtistsRespond to a Fractured World ⁠ , talks with Julie Murphy and Dion O’Reilly about poems by Lynne Thompson, Marcella Durand, Carolina Ebeid, Bill Lavender, Gabriella Guttiérez y Muhs, Addie Mahmassani, and Brenda Cárdenas. We showcase the wide variety of styles and responses to the erosion of our democ...

Jen Siraganian joins Farnaz Fatemi for a conversation about her debut collection of poetry, Everything Has Been Moved, Even the Dead, a richly deep exploration of memory, identity, motherhood, & erasure. Jen reads six poems and they discuss the way her work rebuilds and un-erases people across lifetimes and inherited traumas. Order the book directly from the publisher , Perugia Press. Jen will...

Six local poets, including anthology editor David Allen Sullivan, join Hannah Tool to read and discuss poems from Magpie on the Gallows: Poems on the Art of Bosch and Bruegel (Carbonation Press). The anthology, co-edited by Allen Sullivan and his late mother, Margaret Allen Sullivan, is a celebration and exploration of the ubiquitous, unsettling, curious worlds of Hiernymous Bosch and Peter Bruege...

(STRANGE IN THE BEST WAY!!) Lexi kicks off the interview by reading Susan Browne's, "Strange Ode. " Then we talk about Lexi's newest book, Let Go With The Lights On , Winner of the 2022 Jack McCarthy Book Prize Lexi Pelle was the winner of the Academy of American Poets Award and the 2022 Jack McCarthy Book Prize. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Southern Review , Pl...

Poet  Amber Coverdale Sumrall  joins Julie Murphy to talk about her new collection,  That Other Song , and a writing life shaped by memory, landscape, love, loss, and close attention to the natural world. Amber reads poems from the new book and reflects on her mother’s influence, her many journeys to Ireland, the role of silence and writing retreats in her creative practice, and decades spent nurt...

Roxi Power, co-editor of the forthcoming anthology, Winter in America (Still: Poets, Writers, and Artists Respond to a Fractured World , talks with Dion O’Reilly about poems in the book by Carolyn Forché, Maxine Chernoff, Andrew Schelling, Gary Copeland Lilley, Brenda Hillman, Rodrigo Toscano, and Donna de la Perrière. With their usual verve and humor, Power and O’Reilly highlight the book’s depth...

Jillian Stacia buzzes in to read Ellen Bass’s “ The Thing is ” and selections from her new collection Set the Bone ( Arcana Poetry Press ). Her work pulls threads from the outrage and awe of existing in these dystopian times as a woman, partner, parent, and poet, and celebrates the women before her as “tubes of unused lipstick." Her humor and penchant for singing a borrowed line seep joy thro...

What transforms a grasshopper into part of a rapacious horde? Poet, essayist, playwright and activist Joel O'Connor uses his most recent work, Locust , as a bridge between science and politics, between our nature as humans and the world around us. Like a true scientist, he hypothesizes. Listen to this interview and be transported to an Australia that exists beneath and alongside the contempora...

Farnaz Fatemi interviews current Santa Cruz Youth Poet Laureate Vicky Tinnell, along with Bella Dowd, Felice Rickwald and Ash Raznick. Hear poems and insights from each of these fabulous teen poets, all members of the current YPL cohort. More information about the YPL program here . Information about the poets along with more excerpts from their work can be found here .

What does it mean to inherit a story? How do memory, family, race, and identity shape the poems we write—and how do poems, in turn, reshape the stories we tell ourselves? In this episode of  The Hive Poetry Collective , host Julie Murphy welcomes award-winning poet  Lisa Low  to discuss her remarkable new collection,  Replica  (University of Wisconsin Press, 2026). The conversation begins with Tia...

Ally Ang buzzes into the hive to read poems from their book and also to share the poem "Friends with no Benefits" by Megan Fernandes. Ally is the author of Let the Moon Wobble (Alice James Books 2025). A National Endowment for the Arts fellow and MacDowell fellow, Ally’s work has appeared in The Rumpus , The Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day , The Seattle Met , and elsewhere. The...

Flags Sprouting Everywhere. Join Hannah Tool and Farnaz Fatemi as we read poems which unpack iconic American language and make room for more of us in the current cultural landscape. Poems by: Jean Prokott, Ada Limón, Natalie Diaz, Elana Bell, Julia Bouwsma, Aileen Cassinetto and Naomi Shihab Nye. " A New National Anthem " Ada Limón " They Don't Love You Like I Love You " Na...

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, host Hannah Tool and fellow Hive member Julie Murphy dig into the work of Andrea Gibson in a conversation that touches on Gibson’s penchant for radical vulnerability, their humor and love of bright detail, and the way their body of work begs readers to “feel it all.” Plus, giraffes and aliens! This discussion of selected poems from Gibson’s final coll...

In this episode of  The Hive Poetry Collective , host Julie Murphy and fellow Hive member Farnaz Fatemi explore the work of acclaimed poet Andrea Cohen in a conversation that moves through memory, humor, loss, and the sharp clarity that characterizes her poetry. Together, they explore how poems carry emotional voltage in small spaces, how memory reshapes itself across decades, and how humor and he...

Loss sits at the crux of grief and growth. In her brilliant debut book of poetry,  Splashed Things , Leigh Lucas charts a path through this crossroad with lyrical imagery both savage and excruciatingly tender. Hear her read selections from the book and talk about its development as she claims her own grief at the loss of a cherished one.  Splashed Things  was selected by Maya C. Popa for the A. Po...

Tony Gloeggler reads and discusses a poem by Patricia Smith, "Undertaker." Then we read from his newest book. Poet Tony Gloeggler's latest book is Here on Earth . He is the author of the full-length poetry collections  One Wish Left  (Pavement Saw Press, 2002);  Until The Last Light Leaves  (NYQ Books, 2015), a finalist for the Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award;  What Kind Of Man  (NYQ...

Rebecca Hart Olander buzzes into the hive, reads ⁠Nan Cohen's poem "Thirty Year Friendship⁠ ," and then from her new book, Singing from the Deep End. ⁠ ⁠Rebecca Hart Olander⁠ is a Women’s National Book Association Poetry Award winner and the author of three poetry collections: Dressing the Wounds (dancing girl press, 2019), Uncertain Acrobats (CavanKerry Press, 2021), a finalist for...

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, Julie Murphy speaks with Bay Area poet Grayson Thompson in a powerful conversation on identity, embodiment, and the long arc of becoming. Drawing from his recent collection, A Congregation of Alligators , Thompson’s work moves between the cosmic and the intimate—tracing gender, grief, survival, and self-love with striking imagery and emotional precisi...

Roxi Power continues the conversation with poet Elizabeth Robinson about Vulnerability Index, her 2026 poetry book focusing on her work with the unhoused population of Boulder, Colorado. Robinson's poems illuminate the both the heroism and the casualty cruelty of the social services world. She brings an artful attention, for which she is known, to characters whom she humanizes and brings to li...

John Fadely  lived in Asia for 30 years, including practicing law for 25 years in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore. His book,  Before Leaving the Island , explores the space between worlds: between here and there, between what was known and what is unknown. With sonic resonance and rich imagery, Before Leaving the Island chronicles a mid-life journey, creating a complex personal tapestry unsure of w...

Hannah Tool chats with Rocio Franco, a self-identified Chicana warrior poet from Chicago, about poetry as a way to tell the truth, her experience as a nontraditional, working-class poet, and how Brazilian Jiu Jitsu helps remind her that in poetry, and in life, “you can get up and continue doing it . ” Rocio reads Diane Seuss’s “My Education” and a selection of poems from her debut chapbook Where t...

Cassandra Bautista, Rachel Huerta, Zoe Ly Sen & Andrea Wilson visit the KSQD studio with host Farnaz Fatemi to talk about the 44th annual In Celebration of the MUSE in Santa Cruz County. Hear some heart-stopping poems this hour! .....And, in addition to talking about this special event, each of the four commanding voices share their experiences with poetry and writing poems. Join us for an epi...

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Show, Julie Murphy speaks with Bay Area poet Veronica Kornberg about her debut collection  Strange Gift , newly released by Wandering Aengus Press . Their conversation explores the interplay of memory, family, and the natural world, and how close attention becomes a generative force in Kornberg’s work. Moving between poems like “Brogues,” “Moon Garden,” and the t...