THE POETRY QUESTION: TPQ20

Join Chris in conversation with Natalie Eilbert, author of Overland (Copper Canyon Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Natalie Eilbert is the author of Indictus, winner of Noemi Press's 2016 Poetry Prize, as well as the poetry collection, Swan Feast (Bloof Books, 2015). Her work has appeared in or is forthcoming from POETRY, Granta, The Jewish Current, The New Yorker, Tin House,...

Join Chris in conversation with author of Stereo(types), Jonah Mixon-Webster, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!

Join Chris in conversation with author of Refuse to Disappear (Word Works Books), Dr. Tara Betts, about passions, process. pitfalls, and Poetry! Tara Betts is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Break the Habit, which was published in October 2016 with Trio House Press, and her debut collection Arc & Hue on the Willow Books imprint of Aquarius Press. In 2010, Essence Magazine named h...

Join Chris in conversation with Nat Raum, Editor of Fifth Wheel Press, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Nat Raum is a Queer "artist" and "writer" based in Baltimore. Fan of ambient music, open-world RPGs, noise-cancelling headphones, reality tv, and bisexual lighting (preferably all at once).

Join Chris in conversation with Diamond Forde, author of Mother Body (Saturnalia Books), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Diamond Forde's debut collection, Mother Body, is the winner of the 2019 Saturnalia Poetry Prize. She has received numerous awards and prizes, including the Pink Poetry Prize, the Furious Flower Poetry Prize, and CLA's Margaret Walker Memorial Prize, and placed in...

Join Chris in conversation with author and educator, Dorothea Lasky, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! DOROTHEA LASKY: I am the author of five full-length collections of poetry and one book of prose. My newest book is Animal (Wave Books). I am also the author of ROME (Liveright/W.W. Norton) and Milk, Thunderbird, Black Life, and AWE, all out from Wave Books. I co-wrote Astro Poets: Yo...

Join Chris in conversation with Shelley Wong, author of As She Appears (YesYesBooks), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry!  Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, May 2022), winner of the Pamet River Prize and longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco. Her poems have appeared in...

Join Chris in conversation with hip hop legend, Sage Francis, about passions, process… well, really about life and music! Sage Francis is widely considered one of our generation’s greatest lyricists. His career derives mainly from gifted wordplay which creates vivid narratives to instigate as well as inspire, but since it often derives from an accumulation of public disdain and personal turmoil, i...

Join Chris in conversation with Kemi Alabi, author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. Their poems and essays appear in the Atlantic, Poetry, the Nation, Boston Review, the BreakBeat Poets Vol...

Join Chris in conversation with former United States Poet Laureate and author of Musical Tables (Random House), Billy Collins, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Billy Collins is the author of twelve collections of poetry including Whale Day, The Rain in Portugal, Aimless Love, Horoscopes for the Dead, Ballistics, The Trouble with Poetry, Nine Horses, Sailing Alone Around the Room, Que...

Join Chris in conversation with performance poet, advocacy journalist, and teaching artist, Donney Rose, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! DONNEY ROSE - Baton Rouge native Donney Rose is a Maryland-based performance poet, advocacy journalist, and teaching artist. He is the creator of THE AMERICAN AUDIT, a suite of multi-media spoken word projects that examines the Black American exper...

Join Chris of The Poetry Question in conversation with Courtney Faye Taylor, author of Concentrate (Graywolf Press) and winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! COURTNEY FAYE TAYLOR is a writer and visual artist. She is the author of Concentrate, forthcoming from Graywolf Press in November 2022. It is the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize selected b...

Join Chris of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Luther Hughes, author of Shiver in the Leaves, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry. LUTHER HUGHES is the author of the debut poetry collection, A Shiver in the Leaves, (BOA Editions), and the chapbook Touched (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2018). He is the founder of Shade Literary Arts, a literary organization for queer writers of color, and...

Join Chris of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Jasminne Mendez, Author of City Without Altar (Noemi Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, & Poetry! Jasminne Mendez is a Dominican-American poet, playwright, translator and award winning author of several books for children and adults. She is the author of two hybrid memoirs, Island of Dreams (Floricanto Press) and Night-Blooming Jasmin(n)...

Join Chris in a sit down with Saida Agostini Bostic, author of Let the Dead In (Alan Squire Publishing), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Saida’s first collection of poems, let the dead in, was a finalist for the Center of African American Poetry & Poetics’ 2020 Book Prize as well as the New Issues Poetry Prize. She is the author of STUNT (Neon Hemlock, October 2020), a chapbook expl...

Join Chris in a sit down with Dr. Destiny O. Birdsong, author of Nobody’s Magic (Grand Central Publishing) and Negotiations (Tin House), about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Destiny O. Birdsong is a poet, novelist, and essayist whose work has appeared in the Paris Review Daily, African American Review, and Catapult, among other publications. Her debut poetry collection, Negotiations, was...

Join Chris in a sit-down with the legendary Sandra Cisneros, author of the upcoming Woman Without Shame (Alfred A. Knopf), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! From the Sandra Cisneros Website:  I was born in Chicago in 1954, the third child and only daughter in a family of seven children. I studied at Loyola University of Chicago (B.A. English, 1976) and the University of Iowa (M.F.A. C...

Join Chris in a sit-down with Aurielle Marie, author of Gumbo Ya Ya (University of Pittsburgh Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Award-winning poet, essayist, and cultural strategist Aurielle Marie (they/she) is a Black queer storyteller, a political organizer, and child of the Deep South by way of Atlanta. They received their Bachelor’s in Social Justice Strategy and Hip-Hop T...

Join Chris in a sit-down with Ink, EiC of Stanza Cannon and author of 61 Central (Finishing Line Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!  Andrew “Ink” Feindt Most people tend to feel more comfortable with real names, but Ink likes to be called Ink. In an editorial role, he loves working with independent presses and authors to maintain original voices while bringing out the best in t...

Join Chris in a sit down with H. MELT, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! H. Melt is a poet, artist and educator who celebrates trans liberation. They are the author of The Plural, The Blurring and editor of Subject to Change: Trans Poetry & Conversation. Lambda Literary awarded them the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers.

Join Chris in a sitdown with actor, writer, producer, and all around bad-ass, Buddy Wakefield, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!  BUDDY WAKEFIELD is an actor, writer, producer, and three-time world champion spoken word artist featured on the BBC, HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, ABC Radio National and has been signed to both Sage Francis’ Strange Famous Records as well as Ani DiFranco’s Righteou...

Join Chris in a sitdown with Maya Marshall, author of All the Blood Involved in Love and an Editor at Haymarket Books, about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry!  Maya Marshall is the author of the debut full-length poetry collection All the Blood Involved in Love (Haymarket Books, 2022) and the chapbook Secondhand (Dancing Girl Press, 2016). Marshall teaches at Emory University where she serv...

Join Chris in a sitdown with Brian Tierney, the author of Rise and Float (Milkweed), about passions, process, pitfalls, poetry, and a whole lot of music! Brian Tierney is the author of Rise and Float, winner of the 20-2021 Jake Adam York Prize (Milkweed, forthcoming Feb. 2022). His poetry and prose have appeared in such journals as Paris Review, Kenyon Review, AGNI, NER, The Adroit Journal, and ot...

Join Chris in a sitdown with I.S. Jones, author of Spells of My Name, and Editor at Frontier Poetry, about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! I.S. Jones is an American / Nigerian poet, essayist, and music journalist. She is a Graduate Fellow with The Watering Hole and holds fellowships from Callaloo, BOAAT Writer’s Retreat, and Brooklyn Poets. She is the co-editor of The Young African Poets...

Join Chris in a sitdown with Esteban Rodriguez, author of Ordinary Bodies (word west press 2022), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Esteban Rodríguez is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Ordinary Bodies (word west press 2022), and the essay collection Before the Earth Devours Us (Split/Lip Press 2021). He is the Interviews Editor for the EcoTheo Review, Senior Book R...