Poetry Off the Shelf

Jae Nichelle on debt, cartoon crushes, and musical gynecology.

Sanam Sheriff on pronouns, looking proper, and making an American decision.

Ada Limón on rejection, moving forward, and what the trees have seen.

Marcus Wicker on hip hop, aliens, and real estate.

Emily Skaja on cemeteries, pregnancy, and gardening the future.

Fanny Howe (rerun) on the sky, visions, and the beam that killed the landlord, plus an excerpt from her posthumous collection.

Maya C. Popa on the monkey at the pet store, beauty, and waking up to the world as it is.

Laura Kolbe on hormones, sainthood, and the trouble with change.

America at 250.

Serena Chopra on prairie grass, manic rage, and the memories in her ears.

J Brooke on testosterone, incinerators, and the mobster at home.

Chris Crowder on muscles, privacy, and being Captain Safety.

Arielle Hebert on Florida, driving with the windows down, and tallying up the dead.

Iain McGilchrist on Rip Van Winkle, the poet's brain, and the real word for sunshine.

D.S. Waldman on the left hand, losing his brother, and introducing the most wounded part.

Sony Ton-Aimé on radical joy, pig blood, and the ancestors we forgot.

Monica Ferrell on robot apples, Playboy bunnies, and botox vs. crow's feet.

James Ciano on sports, masculinity, and the desperation to belong.

Stephanie Niu on being lost at sea, crab bridges, and finding the heart of the world.

Diamond Forde on poison, fan fiction, and writing the Great American Vampire Novel.

Remembering Ellen Bryant Voigt, plus a few words on mortality by Andrea Gibson.

Amanda Quaid on cancer, being bad in New York, and erotic hands.

Tracy K. Smith on her Hello Kitty notebook, automatic writing, and the afterlife.

Chet'la Sebree on fertility, the ocean, and sonnets about menstruation.

brittny ray crowell on grief, the scent of burning leaves, and finding her way back.

Kay Gabriel on embarrassment, labor organizing, and the discipline of hope.

Martha Silano in memoriam: on blushing knees, fairy houses, and preparing your kids for loss.

Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize winner Rigoberto González on immigration raids, rhythm, and his father’s last words.

Ahmad Almallah on Gaza, the moon, and the companionship of Paul Celan.

KB Brookins on change, gym bros, and the stories that haven't been told.

Drew Ackerman on insomnia, late-night radio, and soothing his inner cynic.

Shin Yu Pai on professional breakup, desert art, and love in the archive.

Alina Stefanescu on ruins, fear of flying, and life in the Romanian Republic of Alabama.

Philip Hoare on William Blake, revolution, and swimming in the dark.

Stephanie Burt on queer time, glass dildos, and making it up as you go.

Lauren K. Watel on blooming late, showing off, and the question of what's for dinner.

A.E. Stallings on shipwrecks, daylight robbery, and the air in 19th century Athens.

A reading in memory of Martha Silano.

Darius Atefat-Peckham on crocheting, masculinity, and the aftermath of loss.

Keetje Kuipers on becoming a single mother by choice, gardening topless, and leaping without looking.

Catherine-Esther Cowie on Saint Lucia, breathing life into history, and the violence in our heart.

Keetje Kuipers on becoming a single mother by choice, gardening topless, and leaping without looking.

Tiana Clark on divorce, joy, and taking up space on the page.

Four poets on old stories, cultural memory, and minority languages.

Rebecca Lindenberg on diabetes, a final phone call, and letting yourself fall in love.

Catherine Barnett on improv, misfit details, and the humor in elegy.

Mike Sonksen on the Los Angeles fires and what it means to love a city in danger.

Helen Vendler and Marjorie Perloff in the words of people who loved them.

Caleb Femi on parties, golden pavements, and the downside of self-awareness.

Cass Donish on grief rituals, putting on makeup, and letting in joy.

Elisa Díaz Castelo on vertigo, breaking a chicken, and her grandmother's advice for a good life.

Violeta Orozco on the US presidential election, leaving Mexico, and her connection to deep time.

Tyler Mills on the truth, how to love a cockroach, and her grandfather's silence about the bomb.

A.B. Spellman on Jim Crow, alligator suede shoes, and shaking up the art of the castle.

Garth Greenwell on shame, small acts of love, and the patch of snow inside us.

Idra Novey on exile, stereotypes, and making art the center of your life.

Helena and Nicholson Baker on drawing your loved ones, the horrors of the world, and finding your way back to beauty.

Perry Janes on Hollywood, ego, and trying not to break his NDA.

E.J. Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive.

Camille Dungy on her garden, writing from the provinces, and the poetry of Anne Spencer.

Dorothea Lasky on The Shining, writing what you fear, and the ferocity of color.

Merlin Sheldrake on fungi, creativity, and the queerness of nature.

Elisa Gonzalez on bisexuality, humor, and working in finance.

Joyelle McSweeney on sound, style icons, and the Ovidian landscape of her ear canal.

Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief.

Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine.

April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother.

Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end.

Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors.

Nam Le on commerce, irony vs. sincerity, and being in the Arctic.

Gregory Pardlo on improv, therapy, and driving around with his father’s ashes.

Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self.

Blake Butler on complex mourning, the suicide of his wife Molly Brodak, and finding his way back.

Remembering the lesbian poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt, as well as the Palestinian poet and symbol of the resistance, Refaat Alareer.

Steve Zeitlin and Bob Holman on the healing act of writing, small frogs, and politics at the fiddle festival.

Laura Mullen on academia, death threats, and doing the next brave thing.

Daniel Brock Johnson on risk, a T-shirt mantra, and life after the death of his friend James Foley.

Sebastian Merrill on the voice of his former self, the underworld, and laughing during yoga.

Sahar Muradi on cyclical time, leather butterflies, and saying goodbye to her father.

Sean Cole on loneliness, fear of aging, and what poems can do.

Eric Sneathen on queer utopia, bad writing, and San Francisco in the ’70s.

Irène Mathieu on pediatrics, suburbs without a TV, and our body's unknown terrain.

Natalie Shapero on Wheel of Fortune, babysitting for her landlord, and pretending not to grieve.

Rosanna Young Oh on her parents’ grocery store, leaving poetry, and the duties of the firstborn.

Airea D. Matthews on self-interest, starry skies, and her parents’ fateful wedding day.

Sophus Helle on empire, Calvin and Hobbes, and the world's first author.

Leslie Sainz on Bill O’Reilly, glassblowing, and the lure of praise.

Diane Seuss on New York in the ’70s, virtue, and her father’s early death.

Katie Farris on cancer, desire, and her early-menopause care package.

Paisley Rekdal on maps, Sisyphus, and the dangers of beauty.

Aaron Smith on shame, telling the truth, and his mother's last lipstick.

Rebecca Gayle Howell and Ashley M. Jones on working-class poems, good food, and their fathers’ bodies.

Jennifer Jean on foster care, finding her voice, and loving her father as he was.

Mahogany L. Browne on her first kiss, family secrets, and having your book banned.

Janine Joseph on memory loss, car sounds, and a mirror that loves you.

Peter Cole on his brother's death, finding his vocation, and the erotic pull of letters.

Raymond Antrobus on late-night BBC poetry dubs, real people, and becoming a father.

Gabrielle Bates on betrayal, home church, and living in her mother's slaughterhouse.