The Hive Poetry Collective

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...

Dion and Richard read and discuss "Dream Song 14," by John Berryman and then read from his newest book, I Do Know Some Things, a finalist for the National Book Award. We also discuss how one can become insufferable upon learning they have won or placed in a prize. Richard Siken is a poet, painter, and author of several books . His book  Crush  won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets pr...

Farnaz Fatemi and Samyak Shertok discuss Shertok's book, No Rhododendron , selected by Kimiko Hahn as winner of the 2024 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry . Shertok offers profound and poignant insights in an exploration of the rich invented forms he uses in his debut collection. They discuss the horse-ghosts and other ghosts on the cover, in the book, and in the poet's life. The poet takes...

With Jack Spicer and Federico Garcia Lorca at his heels,  ⁠Albert Flynn DeSilver⁠  talks about his latest book,  SOME VOID: New and Selected Poems, 1996-2026  as well as his other poetry collection,  ⁠Hadrian’s Wall⁠ . Working outside the zeitgeist, as Albert says, is a path many poets have taken. Hear him talk about his own path, including its beginning as outlined in the popular memoir  ⁠Beamish...

In the first of two interviews, Roxi Power talks with poet Elizabeth Robinson about Vulnerability Index , her 2026 poetry book charting her work with the unhoused population of Boulder, Colorado. Through multiple hybrid forms––confessions, parables, lists, and narratives that refuse resolution––Robinson’s collaged fragments rearrange what Joan Retallack has called our “geometries of attention”upon...

Farnaz Fatemi talked with Diana Whitney about her maximalist, long armed book, Girl Trouble, a book full with exploration of girlhood, secrets, trauma and also female power. References in the show: Diana's essay in Longreads:   The Killer Who Spared My Mother Ariel Levy’s reporting on the Steubenville rape case:  Trial by Twitter Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich  - Netflix documentary featuring vo...

Jack Gilbert (1925-2012) sat tangential to The Beats but was singularly distinct from them. As a self-described "serious romantic, “ Gilbert roared onto the scene with his book Views of Jeopardy , earning him a Guggenheim Fellowship and a loyal following. We look at books from The Great Fires as well as earlier work. An outsider poet, In 2013 he was posthumously selected as a finalist for the...

January Gill O’Neil reads and discusses Lucille Clifton's " Won't You Celebrate with Me" and also poems from January's newest book, Glitter Road . January Gill O’Neil is a poet whose work explores the afterlives of history in American landscapes and intimate lives. Her poems trace how place, memory, and moral inheritance shape identity across generations, joining lyric precis...

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, poet Cate Lycurgus opens the show with a reading of “ Jacaranda ” by Shirley Kaufman, setting the tone for a conversation attuned to beauty, impermanence, and change. Host Julie Murphy then speaks with Cate about her chapbook  Seacliff  and her new manuscript,  Radiance, Despite . Moving poem by poem, they explore erosion and belonging, caregiving and...

This conversation reeks with the funk of gratitude! 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...

José and Dion read "Entrance" by Rainer Maria Rilke and then from José's new book Haunt Me . José Enrique Medina  earned his BA in English from Cornell University. His book  Haunt Me  won the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize. His second book,  Man Without a Skirt , was selected by Ellen Bass as the runner-up for the 2025 Two Sylvias Press Chapbook Prize. His work has appeared in  USA Today...

After their first time reading together, poet-pals Lynne and Patricia sit down with a seriously sleep-deprived Dion at the Dream Inn in Santa Cruz, California to read and discuss their poems as the sound of waves pulses in the background. Lynne Thompson was the 4th Poet Laureate for the City of Los Angeles. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, her poetry collections include Beg No Pardon (2007),...

Dion and Hannah discuss poems loosely themed around nurture, connection and loss. Dion reads Marge Piercey’s “Tao of Touch,” Jericho Brown’s “Reunion Tour” and “Information Only” by Dale Hudson, and Hannah shares Wislawa Szymborska’s “Cat in an Empty Apartment,” “Lighthouse” by Ellen Bass and “Since We’re Not Young” by Adrienne Rich.

Join translator Niloufar Talebi as she talks with Farnaz Fatemi about her new book, Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems of Ahmad Shamlou , iconic Iranian 20th poet, Ahmad Shamlou, an innovator in Persian poetry and socially conscious writer. Extras: A companion YouTube playlist for this episode, which features original Persian recitations by Ahmad Shamlou alongside English translation readings an...