Rattle Poetry

Latest Episodes:

ep. 96 - Melissa Balmain Jun 07, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #96 features the editor of Light poetry magazine, Melissa Balmain. As always, the first half-hour will feature Poets Respond Live. Melissa Balmain is a humorist, journalist, and teacher. Since 2012 she has edited Light, the country's longest-running journal of light verse (founded in 1992 by John Mella). Balmain's poems have appeared in The American Bystander, American Life in Poetry, The Hopkins Review, Lighten Up Online, Literary Matters, Measure, Mezzo Cammin, The New Criterion, The New Verse News, Poetry Daily, Rattle, The Spectator (UK), Verse Daily, The Washington Post, and many anthologies; her prose in The New Yorker, The New York Times, McSweeney’s, Weekly Humorist, and elsewhere. A former columnist for Success magazine and other publications, she's the author of a memoir, Just Us: Adventures of a Mother and Daughter (Faber and Faber). Balmain has received national honors for her journalism, including the National Society for Newspaper Columnists humorous columnist award and multiple Pulitizer Prize nominations. She teaches at the University of Rochester and lives nearby with her husband and two children. Her poetry collection Walking in on People was chosen by X.J. Kennedy for the Able Muse Book Award. Her newest collection is The Witch Demands a Retraction: Fairy-Tale Reboots for Adults, illustrated by Ron Barrett (Humorist Books). For more on the author, and to order the book, visit: https://www.melissabalmain.com/ Visit Light poetry magazine here: https://lightpoetrymagazine.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 a poem in which an inanimate object or concept is personified. (See “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath for a great example.) Next Week's Prompt: A pivotal moment in your childhood. 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. 95 - Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal May 31, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #95 features a contributor to last winter's issue, Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal, and her debut collection The Yak Dilemma. She'll join us at noon EDT, but we'll start with a half-hour of Poets Respond Live. Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal was born in the Himalayan town of Palampur, India. She studied at St. Bede’s College, Shimla; Trinity College, Dublin; and Queen’s University, Belfast. Her poems have been translated into Arabic, German and Italian, and have recently appeared in Ambit, Banshee, Gutter, Poetry Ireland Review, Poetry Jukebox, Poetry London, The Bombay Literary Magazine, The Irish Times, The Lonely Crowd, The Pickled Body, The Tangerine and elsewhere. In 2018, she was one of the twelve poets selected for Poetry Ireland’s ‘Introductions’ series. She is the 2021 Charles Wallace India Trust Fellow at the University of Kent. The Yak Dilemma is her first full-length collection. For more on the author, and to order the book, visit: https://www.supriyakaurdhaliwal.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 a parasite—be as literal or figurative as you wish. Next Week's Prompt: Write a a poem in which an inanimate object or concept is personified. (See “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath for a great example.) 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. Segments: 3:03 Richard Westheimer: "An American Jew Fails to Make Sense of the Carnage in Gaza" 12:35 Poets Respond Live continues 30:00 Featured Guest: Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal 1:33:15 Open Lines

ep. 94 - Kerrin McCadden May 26, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #94 features frequent contributor Kerrin McCadden and her new book, American Wake. Kerrin McCadden is the author of American Wake, coming in March, 2021, from Black Sparrow Press. Her debut collection, Landscape with Plywood Silhouettes, won the Vermont Book Award and the New Issues Poetry Prize. Her chapbook, Keep This to Yourself, was awarded the Button Poetry Prize. McCadden has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the Sustainable Arts Foundation Writing Award. Her poems have appeared in Best American Poetry and the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, and in such journals as American Poetry Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, New England Review, Ploughshares, and Prairie Schooner. She is associate director of the Conference on Poetry and Teaching at The Frost Place and associate poetry editor at Persea Books. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Montpelier High School in Vermont and lives in South Burlington. For more on the author, visit: https://www.kerrinmccadden.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: Use the random article option on Wikipedia (go to Wikipedia.com and click on the “random article” link on the left-hand side of the page) and write a poem based on your results. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem about a parasite—be as literal or figurative as you wish. 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. 93 - Martin Willitts Jr. May 19, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #93 features frequent contributor Martin Willitts Jr. and his new book, Harvest Time. Martin Willitts Jr. is a retired Librarian living in Syracuse, New York. He was nominated for 15 Pushcart and 13 Best of the Net awards. Martin Willitts Jr. has 25 chapbooks including the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, The Wire Fence Holding Back the World (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 21 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, The Temporary World. His recent book is Unfolding Towards Love (Wipf and Stock, 2020). He is an editor for The Comstock Review, and he is judge for the New York State Fair Poetry Contest. His newest book, Harvest Time, was just published by Deerbrook Editions. Buy Harvest Time here: https://www.deerbrookeditions.com/harvest-time/ 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 reverse poem—a poem with lines that can be read both forward and backward. Next Week's Prompt: Use the random article option on Wikipedia (go to Wikipedia.com and click on the “random article” link on the left-hand side of the page) and write a poem based on your results. 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. 92 - Michael Mark May 12, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #92 features frequent contributor Michael Mark. Michael Mark’s poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in Alaska Quarterly Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Pleiades, Ploughshares, Poetry Daily, River Styx, Salamander, The Southern Review, The New York Times, The Sun, Verse Daily, Waxwing, American Life in Poetry, and other places. He was the recipient of the Anthony Hecht Scholarship at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. He’s the author of two books of stories, Toba and At the Hands of a Thief (Atheneum). Michael Mark lives with his wife Lois in San Diego. For more info on the poet, visit: http://www.michaeljmark.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: This Lithub article details the 32 “most iconic” poems in the English language. Read, or reread, a few and write a poem that replies to one of these works. https://lithub.com/the-32-most-iconic-poems-in-the-english-language/ Next Week’s Prompt: Write a reverse poem—a poem with lines that can be read both forward and backward. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, then becomes an audio podcast.

ep. 91 - Tanya Ko Hong May 05, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #91 features Tanya Ko Hong and her latest book, The War Still Within: Poems of the Korean Diaspora. Tanya Ko Hong (Hyonhye) is a poet, translator, and cultural curator who champions bilingual poetry and poets. Born and raised in South Korea, she immigrated to the US at the age of eighteen. She is the author of four books, most recently The War Still Within: Poems of the Korean Diaspora (KYSO Flash Press, 2019), and is the recipient of the Yun Doon-ju Korean-American Literature Award. Tanya has an MFA from Antioch University and is a Ph.D. student in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute. She lives in southern California with her husband and three children. For more info on the poet, visit: https://www.tanyakohong.com/ Buy the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Still-Within-Tanya-Hong-Hyonhye/dp/0998037567/ 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 an ekphrastic poem after one of the ten cards from Hermann Rorschach’s original 1921 inkblot test. Next Week's Prompt: This Lithub article details the 32 “most iconic” poems in the English language. Read, or reread, a few and write a poem that replies to one of these works. https://lithub.com/the-32-most-iconic-poems-in-the-english-language/ The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, then becomes an audio podcast.

ep. 90 - Janée J. Baugher Apr 28, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #90 features Janée J. Baugher and her new book on the creative process, The Ekphrastic Writer. In addition to The Ekphrastic Writer, Baugher is the author of two ekphrastic poetry collections, Coördinates of Yes (Ahadada Books, 2010) and The Body’s Physics (Tebot Bach, 2010). Her writing has been published in journals such as Tin House, The Southern Review, The American Journal of Poetry, Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Nano Fiction, and The Writer’s Chronicle, and she’s read from her books at the Library of Congress. She regularly collaborates with choreographers, dancers, composers, and visual artists, and her work has been adapted for the stage and set to music at University of Cincinnati–Conservatory of Music, Contemporary Dance Theatre in Ohio, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Dance Now! Ensemble in Florida, The Salon at Justice Snow’s in Colorado, and University of North Carolina-Pembroke. Baugher teaches Creative Writing in Seattle, is the columnist at The Ekphrastic Review, and an assistant editor for the literary journal, Boulevard. For more info on Janée, visit: https://www.janeebaugher.com/ Buy the book here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/the-ekphrastic-writer/ 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 starts and ends with the same line. Next Week's Prompt: Write an ekphrastic poem after one of the ten cards from Hermann Rorschach’s original 1921 inkblot test. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rorschach_test The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, then becomes an audio podcast.

ep. 89 - Eugenia Leigh Apr 21, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #89 features 2013 Neil Postman Award winner Eugenia Leigh and her book Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows. Eugenia Leigh's Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014), was winner of the Late Night Library's 2015 Debut-litzer Prize in Poetry as well as a finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications including The Rumpus, Ploughshares, Waxwing, Pleiades, North American Review, the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day, the Best New Poets 2010 anthology, and the 2017 Best of the Net anthology. Eugenia received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College, where she was awarded the Thomas Lux Scholarship for her dedication to teaching, demonstrated through her writing workshops with incarcerated youths and with Brooklyn high school students. Since her time at Sarah Lawrence, Eugenia has served as a teaching artist with a variety of organizations including the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund's undocumented youth group, RAISE. For more info, visit: https://www.eugenialeigh.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 begins with the following sentence: Pull over at the next stop. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that starts and ends with the same line. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, then becomes an audio podcast.

ep. 88 - Kim Addonizio Apr 14, 2021

Show notes

Rattlecast #88 features Kim Addonizio and her new book Now We're Getting Somewhere. Kim Addonizio is the author of seven poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry: The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. Her poetry collection Tell Me was a finalist for the National Book Award. Her poetry has been translated into several languages including Spanish, Arabic, Italian, and Hungarian. Collections have been published in China, Spain, Mexico, Lebanon, and the UK. Addonizio’s awards include two fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim, two Pushcart Prizes, and other honors. Her latest books are a poetry collection, Mortal Trash, and a memoir, Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life. A new book of poems, Now We’re Getting Somewhere, has just been published. For more info, visit: https://www.kimaddonizio.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 the following randomly-selected adjectives: large, knotty, salty. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that begins with the following sentence: Pull over at the next stop. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast.

ep. 87 - Alice Pettway Apr 07, 2021

Show notes

Alice Pettway is the author of The Time of Hunger (Salmon Poetry, 2017), Moth (Salmon Poetry, 2019) and Station Lights (forthcoming 2021). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in AGNI, The Bitter Oleander, The Colorado Review, Poet Lore, Rattle, River Styx, The Southern Review, The Threepenny Review and many others. She is a former Chulitna Artist and Lily Peter fellow. Currently, Pettway lives and writes near Seattle, Washington. For more info, visit Alice's website: https://www.alicepettway.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 letter poem to an abstract concept. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that contains the following randomly-selected adjectives: large, knotty, salty. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Periscope, then becomes an audio podcast.

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