Rattle Poetry

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ep. 116 - Ernest Hilbert Oct 31, 2021

Show notes

Ernest Hilbert’s debut poetry collection Sixty Sonnets (2009) was described by X. J. Kennedy as “maybe the most arresting sequence we have had since John Berryman checked out of America.” His other books include All of You on the Good Earth (2013); Caligulan (2015), which was selected as the winner of the 2017 Poets’ Prize; and Last One Out (2019). Hilbert currently keeps a heavily-encrypted dark web poetry site called Cocytus and a more public website to promote emerging poets called E-Verse Radio. Hilbert graduated with a doctorate in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, where he edited the Oxford Quarterly. Hilbert later served as poetry editor of Random House’s magazine Bold Type in New York City and editor of Contemporary Poetry Review, published by the American Poetry Fund in Washington DC. He works as an antiquarian book dealer in Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife, Keeper of the Mediterranean Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and their son, Ian. Find the book and more at: https://www.ernesthilbert.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a spooky poem for Halloween. Next Week's Prompt: This was a lot of fun last time, so let’s do another random street view poem. Randomstreetview.com is a site that randomly generates photographs of streets all over the world. Find a photo that speaks to you and write a poem about it. 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. 115 - Jenny Qi Oct 25, 2021

Show notes

Jenny Qi is the author of Focal Point, winner of the 2020 Steel Toe Books Poetry Award. Her essays and poems have been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Tin House, ZYZZYVA, Rattle, and elsewhere, and she has received fellowships and support from Tin House, Omnidawn, Kearny Street Workshop, and the San Francisco Writers Grotto. Born in Pennsylvania to Chinese immigrants, she grew up mostly in Las Vegas and Nashville and now lives in San Francisco. She completed her Ph.D. in Biomedical Science (Cancer Biology) from UCSF, where she studied novel drug candidates in preclinical models of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. She currently works with life science and biopharma groups as a competitive intelligence manager, with a focus on ovarian cancer. Find the book and more at: https://jqiwriter.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: A ballad is a music-based poem that tells a story. This form isn’t especially complicated but it does have very specific requirements. Webexhibits.org has great instructions on how to write your own ballad. (If you google “webexhibits” and “ballad,” webexhibit.org’s “Make Your Own Ballad” page will be the first hit.) “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Tennyson and “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer are examples of ballad poems. Next Week's Prompt: Write a spooky poem for Halloween. 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. 114 - Joseph Fasano Oct 18, 2021

Show notes

Joseph Fasano is a writer and educator. He studied mathematics and astrophysics at Harvard University before changing his course of study and earning a degree in philosophy, with a focus on philosophy of language after Wittgenstein. He did his graduate study in poetry at Columbia University, where he now teaches. Fasano is the author of the novel The Dark Heart of Every Wild Thing (Platypus Press, 2020), which was named one of the "20 Best Small Press Books of 2020." His books of poetry are The Crossing (Cider Press Review, 2018), praised by Ilya Kaminsky for its "lush drive to live, even in the darkest moments"; Vincent (2015); and Fugue for Other Hands (2013), which won the Cider Press Review Book Award. A winner of the Rattle Poetry Prize, he serves on the Editorial Board of Alice James Books, and he is the Founder of the Poem for You Series, a digital space offering recitations of listeners' favorite poems by request. He is also a songwriter, and his songs and performances can be found on his social media platforms. Find these books and more at: http://josephfasano.net/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem in second person. (One of the most famous poems written in second person: “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver.) Next Week's Prompt: A ballad is a music-based poem that tells a story. This form isn’t especially complicated but it does have very specific requirements. Webexhibits.org has great instructions on how to write your own ballad. (If you google “webexhibits” and “ballad,” webexhibit.org’s “Make Your Own Ballad” page will be the first hit.) “The Lady of Shalott” by Alfred Tennyson and “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer are examples of ballad poems. 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. 113 - Mark Jarman Oct 11, 2021

Show notes

Mark Jarman is the author of eleven books of poetry. The Heronry is his most recent. He has also published two books of essays and reviews, most recently Dailiness. His book Questions for Ecclesiastes (Story Line Press, 1997) won the 1998 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Jarman's other awards include a Joseph Henry Jackson Award and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. In 2011, he received the Balcones Poetry Prize for Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems. He recently retired as Centennial Professor of English at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife, the soprano Amy Jarman. Find these books and more at: https://www.markjarmanpoetandcritic.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem without using articles (a, an, the). Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem in second person. (One of the most famous poems written in second person: “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver.) 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. 112 - Marissa Davis Oct 04, 2021

Show notes

Marissa Davis is a poet and translator from Paducah, Kentucky, now residing in Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry has appeared or will soon appear in Sundog Lit, Poem-A-Day, Glass, Frontier Poetry, Nimrod, Great River Review, New South, Southeast Review, and Mississippi Review, among others. Her translations are published or forthcoming in Massachusetts Review, New England Review, Mid-American Review, The Common, American Chordata, and RHINO. Her chapbook, My Name & Other Languages I Am Learning How to Speak (Jai-Alai Books, 2020) was selected by Danez Smith for Cave Canem’s 2019 Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady Prize. Davis holds an MFA from New York University. Find more the book and more at: https://www.marissa-davis.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: “To Autumn” by John Keats is one of the most highly regarded poems in the English language. It is richly imagistic and descriptive. Write your own ode to autumn. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem without using articles (a, an, the). 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. 111 - Deborah P Kolodji Sep 27, 2021

Show notes

Deborah P Kolodji is the California regional coordinator for the Haiku Society of America and former moderator of the Southern California Haiku Study Group. The former president of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, Kolodji is also is a member of the Haiku Poets of Northern California , the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, Haiku Canada, the British Haiku Society, and the California State Poetry Society. Author of four chapbooks of poetry, her first full-length book of haiku and senryu is Highway of Sleeping Towns, from Shabda Press. Debbie has published more than 1000 haiku in publications such as Frogpond, Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, Bottle Rockets, A Hundred Gourds, Acorn, Rattle, and Mayfly, as well as speculative poetry in Strange Horizons, Star*Line, and others. Her work has been anthologized in such publications as The Rhysling Anthology, Red Moon Anthology, Dwarf Stars, Aftershocks: Poetry of Recovery, New Resonance 4, and The Nebula Awards Showcase: 2015. Debbie co-organized the 2013 Haiku North America conference aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, and joined Haiku North America as a director in 2016. Find more the book and more at: http://www.deborahpkolodji.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: You’ve been driving for hours on a long, empty stretch of highway. It’s miles and miles of nothing but desert landscape--no rest stops, no gas stations. Just when you’re starting to think you’ll never see civilization again, a building comes into view. What is it? Write a poem about it. Next Week’s Prompt: “To Autumn” by John Keats is one of the most highly regarded poems in the English language. It is richly imagistic and descriptive. Write your own ode to autumn. 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. 110 - Vince Gotera Sep 13, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast 110 features Vince Gotera and his new book, The Coolest Month. Vince Gotera is a Professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa where he served as Editor of the North American Review (2000-2016). After that, he served as editor of Star*Line, the print journal of the international Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association. His collections of poems include Dragonfly, Ghost Wars, Fighting Kite, and the upcoming Pacific Crossing. Find more on Vince at his website: https://vincegotera.blogspot.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem that contains an anagram. An anagram is created by rearranging the letters of a certain word or phrase to make another word or phrase—for example, an anagram of “anagram” is “nag a ram.” Bonus points if the title of your poem is part of the anagram. Next Week's Prompt: You’ve been driving for hours on a long, empty stretch of highway. It’s miles and miles of nothing but desert landscape--no rest stops, no gas stations. Just when you’re starting to think you’ll never see civilization again, a building comes into view. What is it? Write a poem about it. 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. Bonus Links Register for Tim's editor interview with Lit Mag News on Friday 9/17 here: https://litmagnews.substack.com/p/save-the-dates-upcoming-editor-interviews Register for Rattle's Poetry Day in Wrightwood here: https://www.wrightwoodarts.com/poetryday/ Find the Renaissance Heart performance featuring Francesca Bell and Douglas Manuel here (October 2nd in Los Angeles): https://stickfigureproductions.live/

ep. 109 - Gil Arzola Sep 06, 2021

Show notes

Gil Arzola’s first book of poetry, Prayers of Little Consequence, was published in 2019 by Passager, who named him their Poet of the Year. His story “Losers Walk” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018, and other work has appeared in Dash, Palabra, Whetstone, The Tipton Review, The Elysian Review, Crosslimb, and Slab, among others. His chapbook, The Death of a Migrant Worker, is included for all Rattle subscribers with the fall issue. Find the chapbook here: https://www.rattle.com/chapbooks/the-death-of-a-migrant-worker/ Find his first book here: https://www.passagerbooks.com/prayers-of-little-consequence-by-gilbert-arzola/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem set in a time period of at least one hundred years ago. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that contains an anagram. An anagram is created by rearranging the letters of a certain word or phrase to make another word or phrase—for example, an anagram of “anagram” is “nag a ram.” Bonus points if the title of your poem is part of the anagram. 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. 108 - Brendan Constantine Aug 30, 2021

Show notes

Brendan Constantine was born in Los Angeles, the second child of actors Michael Constantine and Julianna McCarthy. An ardent supporter of Southern California’s poetry communities and one of its most recognized poets, he has served as a teacher of poetry in local schools and colleges since 1995. His first collection, Letters to Guns, was released in February 2009 from Red Hen Press to wide acclaim. This was followed in 2011 by Birthday Girl With Possum, under the performance based publisher Write Bloody, and established Mr. Constantine as a poet equally at home on the page and the stage. His work can be found in many of the nation’s standards, including Poetry, Tin House, Best American Poetry, Poem-a-Day, Virginia Quarterly, Rattle, Prairie Schooner, Field, Chautauqua, and Poetry Daily. His most recent collections are Dementia, My Darling (2016) from Red Hen Press and Bouncy Bounce (2018), a chapbook from Blue Horse Press. He currently teaches creative writing at the Windward School. In addition, he brings poetry workshops to veterans, hospitals, foster care centers, & shelters for the homeless. He is also very proud of his work with the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. Since 2017, he has been working with speech pathologist Michael Biel to develop the first poetry workshop for people dealing with Aphasia. Brendan has appeared in four issues of Rattle and was interviewed in issue #52. Find more info and all the books here: https://brendanconstantine.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: A portmanteau is a blend of two words that combines their meaning. For example, brunch, spork, and sitcom are portmanteaus. Write a poem containing one or more portmanteaus. (Feel free to make up your own!) Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem set in a time period of at least one hundred years ago. 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. 107 - Marcela Sulak Aug 22, 2021

Show notes

Marcela Sulak has published four titles with Black Lawrence Press–three poetry collections, including City of Skypapers (2021), Decency (2015) and Immigrant (2010), as well as her lyric memoir, Mouth Full of Seeds (2020). She’s co-edited with Jacqueline Kolosov the 2015 Rose Metal Press title Family Resemblance. An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres. Sulak, who translates from the Hebrew, Czech, and French, is a 2019 NEA Translation Fellow, and her fourth book-length translation of poetry: Twenty Girls to Envy Me: Selected Poems of Orit Gidali, was nominated for the 2017 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation (University of Texas Press). Her essays have appeared in The Boston Review, The Iowa Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Asymptote, and Gulf Coast online, among others. She coordinates the poetry track of the Shaindy Rudoff Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Bar-Ilan University, where she is an associate professor in American Literature. She also edits The Ilanot Review and hosts the TLV.1 Radio podcast, Israel in Translation. Find more info and all the books here: http://www.marcelasulak.com/ As always, we'll also include live open lines for responses to our weekly prompt or any other poems you'd like to share. For details on how to participate, either via Skype or by phone, go to: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week's Prompt: Write a poem about unrequited love. Next Week's Prompt: A portmanteau is a blend of two words that combines their meaning. For example, brunch, spork, and sitcom are portmanteaus. Write a poem containing one or more portmanteaus. (Feel free to make up your own!) 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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