Rattle Poetry

Latest Episodes:

Lisa Baird: A Canadian Poet's Hymns to the Broken World Jul 14, 2026

Show notes

Lisa Baird joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about her poetry and writing life. A spoken word poet, essayist, and community acupuncturist, her work has been shortlisted for the Room Poetry Contest, Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest, and Sappho Poetry Prize, and longlisted twice for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her most recent book is When Whales Went back to the Water. In this episode, we discuss her work, the craft of poetry, trauma and recovery, nature, acupuncture, and more. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based reading. This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that quotes a line from a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist from the year you found out about Rattle. Next Week’s Prompt: Pick a time in your life that was particularly impacted by the weather, and make us feel it right alongside you. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Lisa Baird here: https://www.lisabaird.ca/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: Anhinga Prize Winner & Nigerian Poetry Jul 07, 2026

Show notes

Rasaq Malik Gbolahan joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about his poetry and writing life. A Nigerian poet, performer, translator, and editor, Rasaq is the winner of the 2024 Anhinga Prize for Poetry for his first full-length collection The Origin of Wounds. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Agbowó and co-founder of Àtẹ́lẹwọ́, a digital journal dedicated to Yorùbá-language literature. In this episode, we discuss his work, the craft of poetry, and African literary spaces. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based reading. This Week’s Prompt: Think of the moment in your life that you most wish you had a photo of but don’t. Make it come to life in a sensory-rich poem. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that quotes a line from a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist from the year you found out about Rattle. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Rasaq Malik Gbolahan here: https://rasaqmalikgbolahan.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

Adam Scheffler on James Wright, Empathy, and the Deep Image Jun 30, 2026

Show notes

Adam Scheffler is the author of two books of poems: Heartworm, which won the 2021 Moon City Press Prize, and A Dog’s Life, which won the 2016 Jacar Press Book Contest. He is also the author of a book of literary criticism, So This Is What It Feels Like: Empathy in the Poetry of James Wright (LSU Press, 2026). He grew up in Berkeley, California, received his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and his PhD in English from Harvard. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Wichita State University and a member of their MFA Faculty in Poetry. Find more here: https://adamscheffler.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem so light that it may even float! Next Week’s Prompt: Think of the moment in your life that you most wish you had a photo of but don’t. Make it come to life in your sensory-rich poem. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

D.M. Aderibigbe Decolonizing Poetic Forms Jun 22, 2026

Show notes

D.M. Aderibigbe is from Lagos, Nigeria. His most recent book, 82nd Division, was selected for the National Poetry Series. His debut book, How the End First Showed, won the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, among other honors. He has received fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference (Walter E. Dakin Fellowship), The James Merrill House, OMI/Ledig House, Ucross, Jentel, and Boston University where he earned his MFA in creative writing. His poems appear in The Atlantic, The Nation, Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and New England Review, among others. He’s an assistant professor in the Center for Writers at the University of Southern Mississippi. Find more 82nd Division: https://www.akashicbooks.com/catalog/82nd-division/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that reimagines a time when you didn’t speak up but should have. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem so light that it may even float! The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Amy M. Alvarez on Identity, Place, and the Poetic Spirit Jun 16, 2026

Show notes

Amy M. Alvarez is the author of Makeshift Altar, winner of the 2025 American Book Award and CariCon Poetry Prize. Born to Jamaican and Puerto Rican parents in New York, New York, her work focuses on race, ethnicity, gender, place, and social justice. Selected as one of 2022’s Best New Poets, her poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, The Missouri Review, Poetry Foundation, and elsewhere. She has been awarded fellowships from CantoMundo, VONA, Macondo, the Virginia Creative Arts Center, and the Furious Flower Poetry Center. In 2022, she was inducted as an Affrilachian Poet. She has taught at public high schools in the Bronx, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts, and at West Virginia University. She currently teaches writing and literature at Boston College as an Associate Professor of the Practice. Find more here: https://www.amymalvarez.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a pantoum that plays! Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that reimagines a time when you didn’t speak up but should have. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

ep. 345 - Valentina Gnup Jun 02, 2026

Show notes

Valentina Gnup is a two-time Rattle Poetry Prize Finalist, and also appears in our new Best of the Ekphrastic Challenge anthology. She received her bachelor's degree in journalism from CSUF in 1980 and her MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles in 2002. Her most recent book is Ruined Music. She has two grown daughters and currently lives in Mill Valley, California, where she coaches high school writers. Find more here: https://www.valentinagnup.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you got into trouble outdoors. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a pantoum that plays! The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

ep. 344 - Robert Wrigley May 26, 2026

Show notes

Robert Wrigley's collections of poetry include The True Account of Myself as a Bird (Penguin, 2022; Box (Penguin, 2017); Anatomy of Melancholy & Other Poems (Penguin, 2013); winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award; Beautiful Country (Penguin, 2010); Earthly Meditations: New and Selected Poems (2006); Lives of the Animals (2003), winner of the Poets Prize; Reign of Snakes (1999), winner of the Kingsley Tufts Award; and In the Bank of Beautiful Sins (1995), winner of the San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award and finalist for the Lenore Marshall Award from the Academy of American Poets. His most recent book is a collection of essays, Nemerov's Door, published by Tupelo Press. Find more here: https://robertwrigley.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that’s all about taste! Include a scent, but not the word “delicious.” Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you got into trouble outdoors. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

ep. 343 - Lisa Wells May 19, 2026

Show notes

Lisa Wells is a poet, essayist, and documentarian. She is the author, most recently, of The Fire Passage, selected by Diane Seuss as the winner of the Levis Poetry Prize (Four Way Books, 2025). Her debut poetry collection, The Fix, won the Iowa Poetry Prize. She is also the author of Believers: Making a Life at the End of the World, (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a finalist for the 2022 PEN E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award. Her work has been published in Granta, The Believer, N+1, The New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, and in The Best American Science and Nature Writing and The Best American Food and Travel Writing. She has taught for The University of Iowa, The University of Arizona, Portland State University, Yale-NUS and currently serves as co-editor of the Kuhl House Poets Series at the University of Iowa Press. Find more here: https://www.lisawellswriter.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write an after poem to one of the Rattle Poetry Prize finalist poems. Make sure not to take the magic from the source poem. Instead, create your own transformation! Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that’s all about taste! Include a scent, but not the word “delicious.” The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

ep. 342 - Luigi Coppola May 12, 2026

Show notes

Luigi Coppola has appeared in multiple issues of Rattle and the Ekphrastic Challenge. He is a teacher, poet, DIY music producer and multimedia artist (recording and performing as The Only Emperor), first-generation immigrant and avid rum and coke drinker. A graduate of the Warwick University Creative writing programme, he is Bridport Prize shortlisted, Ledbury and National Poetry Competition longlisted, has been included in the Poetry Archive Worldview winner’s list. He has performed poetry and music across the UK, including at the Poetry & Words tent at Glastonbury, literature festivals in Brighton, Coventry and London, and numerous events, slams and open mics. In 2022 he collaborated with the American singer Kyla Gabka on her debut album Waiting for Autumn. His most recent book, Even God Gets Distracted Sometimes, combines his poems with visual art by Mark Shuttleworth. Find more here: https://linktr.ee/PoetryPreacher As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Consider your most controversial opinions and boldly write a poem about at least one without apologizing for the stance. Include a fresh metaphor. Next Week’s Prompt: Write an after poem to one of the Rattle Poetry Prize finalist poems. Make sure not to take the magic from the source poem. Instead, create your own transformation! The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

ep. 341 - JeFF Stumpo May 04, 2026

Show notes

JeFF Stumpo is the author of the full-length poetry collection these are the waterfalls in my head, winner of the 2026 Granite State Poetry Prize and forthcoming from Yas Press (University of New Hampshire). He has published five chapbooks of poetry, most through Seven Kitchens Press, including Against Itself Cannot Stand, along with a spoken word album. His other honors include the 2024 Subnivean Award for Poetry and runner-up for the 2023 Joy Harjo Prize. A former bookstore owner, adjunct professor, and slam poet who founded and hosted a slam in Central Texas for five years, JeFF has been a featured performer at some of the oldest slam venues in the US. He lives in New Hampshire. Find more here: jeffstumpo.com Get the new book here: https://learnforlife.unh.edu/portal/events/reg/participantTypeSelection.do?method=load&entityId=676734136 As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem in which utilizes a quote as the title, and indicate who said it within the body of the poem. Next Week’s Prompt: Consider your most controversial opinions and boldly write a poem about at least one without apologizing for the stance. Include a fresh metaphor. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

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