Late Night Conversation - Brian Foo

I had such a great conversation with Brian Foo, web developer and artist at NYPL Labs, a few weeks ago. We talked about oral history, data visualization, and the public domain. NYPL Labs has been working on making public domain documents more available, and has created a few examples for creative ways to remix them. My favorite is probably Navigating the Green Book, which maps itineraries for different routes based on data found in The Green Book, a travel guide for black travelers from the 30s to the 60s.

I found it by clicking around the NYPL Public Domain Visualization, so I feel as if fate has brought me to this podcast a bit, since randomly clicking this one fascinating book out of 187,000 seems really fortuitous. I hope you'll have a listen to our conversation!

Listen here: http://latenightlibrary.org/brian-foo-nypl-labs/

Late Night Conversation - Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib

Last month, I was lucky enough to be able to interview poet, essayist, and now MTV columnist Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib about the writing life and his new book, The Crown Ain't Worth Much, out from Button Poetry at AWP next weekend. The book is really great, and if you'll be at AWP, you should definitely stop by their booth and pick up your copy. After asking to interview him about his poetry, I remembered that I'd actually read one of his essays before I knew he was a poet, and so it was really interesting to me to come at his work from both of those angles, and talking to him about it was fantastic. I hope you'll enjoy our conversation as much as I did!

Have a listen here: Hanif Willis Abdurraqib on Late Night Conversation

Congratulations, Robin Coste Lewis!

My incredibly talented and incredibly dear friend Robin Coste Lewis won the National Book Award two nights ago for her unbelievably brilliant first book of poetry, The Sable Venus. She was working on it while we were in graduate school together, so I had the deep privilege of reading it early, and it's stayed with me ever since.

At the reading last night.

So many of our classmates were there!

Last night, she gave a reading at our alma mater with Yusef Komunyakaa, who advised on both of our theses. It was a glittering reading, and I can't think of a better place to celebrate with her. She kept saying, "It's so crazy. It's so fucking crazy." and one of our classmates (Mike? Travis?) said, "It's not crazy at all. It's so deserved."

If you haven't read it already, go pick up The Sable Venus as soon as you possibly can. I love this book almost as much as I love Robin herself, and that's a lot of love. It's staggeringly good, and I'm so glad the National Book Foundation felt the same way!

This was at our graduation, but it's pretty much the exact face I made when I heard she won.

Congratulations, Robin!

Late Night Conversation - Carolina De Robertis

I interviewed Carolina De Robertis, author of The Gods of Tango last month and got to hear more about her beautiful, lush book and her research process. The book is rich with the cultural history of Buenos Aires, tango, and the hidden stories of immigrants. I hope you'll have a listen here.

Late Night Conversation - Kay Wyma

I had such fun talking to Kay Wyma about her second book, I'm Happy For You (Sort Of. Not Really.) last month for Late Night Conversation. The book talks about ways to break free from our culture of comparison, and she has some great suggestions, even as she admits it can be difficult when we're surrounded by social media all day. In our conversation, we talked about some immediate strategies to put in play when you find yourself comparing, about whether artists and writers are particularly susceptible to comparison, and a bit about Kay's incredible career trajectory from banker and White House staffer to mother and author.

I hope you'll have a listen here!

Late Night Debut - Monica McClure and Dorothea Lasky

I was lucky enough to be asked to return to my Late Night Library roots with Late Night Debut this month, and discuss Monica McClure's beautiful debut, Tender Data, with Dorthea Lasky. Dottie and Monica are both incredible people, and it was so fun to talk about Monica's book with Dottie, and then to sit in and listen to their interview. On the subway home, Dottie and I talked about astrology. Is there a better way to pass the time on the L train?

I hope you'll have a listen!

New Late Night Conversations - Rachel Hadas, Gabriel Bamgbose, and Monica Ong

This spring, I had the pleasure of interviewing three fantastic poets for Late Night Conversation.

In April, I spoke to the incomparable Rachel Hadas about inspiration, illness, and language.

In May, I sat down with Nigerian poet Gabriel Bamgbose to talk about oral poetry, music, and how he balances teaching and academic work with creative work.

And most recently, in June, I spoke with Monica Ong about her debut book, medicine, and how the visual arts inspire her work.

I hope you'll have a listen to all three, because each of these poets is incredible in their own way.

Late Night Conversation - Jonathan Lee

I was lucky enough to interview Jonathan Lee about A Public Space and his great work as their associate editor over at Late Night Library last week. They just released their first book, a translation copublication with Greywolf Press, Karate Chop, and so it was great to hear about that project, and to discuss some of Jonathan's own work.

I hope you'll have a listen over here: http://latenightlibrary.org/jonathan-lee-a-public-space-magazine/

Late Night Conversation - James McCorkle

James was one of my partner's advisers in college, and I had the joy of meeting him at a conference we both went to a few years ago. When I read his most recent book, The Subtle Bodies, I know instantly that I wanted to talk to him about his influences, especially the visual art that comes across so powerfully in the book.

I'm very excited to have had the chance to do just that for a recent Late Night Conversation. Have a listen here: http://latenightlibrary.org/james-mccorkle/.

I hope you enjoy the interview, and that you'll check out The Subtle Bodies soon! (And insider tip: no one has won the book giveaway contest yet, so if you don't have a copy, you still have time to enter to win!)

Late Night Conversation - mensah demary

Will I ever post one of these on time again? Perhaps, but today is not the day. Instead, today is the day I post about my great interview with mensah demary, the brilliant editor-in-chief behind Specter.

We spoke about the conception of Specter, based on a practical vision to bring the work of marginalized writers to light, as well as mensah’s personal literary adventures. Have a listen here: http://latenightlibrary.org/mensah-demary-specter-magazine/.

Late Night Conversation - Anne Beate Hovind

When I first heard about the Future Library project, I was immediately enthralled. It's a combination of many things I love: Margaret Atwood, Norway, public art, forests, publishing, and legacy. You can only imagine how excited I was when Anne Beate Hovind agreed to let me interview her for Late Night Conversation about all these things and more. Anne is the project manager on the piece, and it was fascinating to talk to her about the nitty gritty details of what goes into a major project like this.

I hope you'll have a listen here: http://latenightlibrary.org/anne-beate-hovind-future-library/.

Late Night Conversation - Pamela Paul

I was thrilled when Pamela Paul agreed to let me interview her for Late Night Conversation, because she's a person I really respect and whose career path has been an inspiration to me. Pamela is editor of the New York Times Book Review and author of The Starter Marriage and the Future of Matrimony, Pornified, and Parenting, Inc. Most recently, she edited By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review.

 

We had an excellent conversation about her path to becoming an author and editor, the future of book reviews, and how she and the staff are working towards diversity in the reviews. I hope you'll have a listen here. 

Late Night Conversation - Lizzie Harris & Amy Meng Podcast

One of my favorite podcasts yet is up today on Late Night Conversation. I interviewed Lizzie Harris and Amy Meng of Bodega Magazine. In addition to editing poetry for a really incredible online magazine, they're both geniuses, and interviewing them was a blast. I hope you'll have a listen and enjoy! And, there's still time to enter our book giveaway and win a copy of Lizzie's debut book, Stop Wanting, so if you haven't bought your own yet, definitely go ahead and enter right away.

Amy and Lizzie being wonderful

Our recording session at One Thousand Birds studio

Late Night Conversation - Lisa Lucas Podcast

This is embarrassingly delayed, but I didn't want to let another day pass without letting you know that last month, I interviewed the incredible Lisa Lucas, publisher of Guernica Magazine, about the magazine, the obstacles and rewards of the nonprofit publishing world, and Guernica’s new print issue. I hope you'll have a listen!

Ten Books That Have Stayed With Me

Several friends tagged me in that meme that's going around Facebook, that says: "Here's the challenge: list 10 books in your status that have stayed with you in some way. Don't take more than a few minutes and do not think too hard. They do not have to be the "right" books or great works of literature, just ones that have affected you in some way. Tag 10 friends, including me, so I can see your list."

I usually don't love these types of chain-tags, but I'm all for supporting book culture! Here are my top ten, along with three bonus poems that have held my heart and aren't included in the books I'm listing.

Morning in the Burned House by Margaret Atwood
Roger gave me my copy of this for my eighteenth birthday, the year I also received a gorgeous and overwhelming strand of pearls from my parents. I think it's the book that made me a poet. I'd written poems before, but never thought of them as something you could build a life on. They were always funny little things before, or else serious and inaccessible. Reading Atwood, feeling as if this was a person who really understood girlhood with all its rough parts and its beautiful parts, made me realize for the first time that poetry is a thing of marvelous possibility. More than any other book on this list of life-altering books, this book changed the course of my life.

Behind the Attic Wall by Sylvia Cassidy
I've loved seeing how many books on everyone's list are children's books. There were so many that I had to leave off this list—Little Women and Goodnight, Moon are two particularly heartbreaking omissions; Harry Potter, Marvin Redpost, and the American Girl books all stand out, too—so I think that Behind the Attic Wall needs to stand in for what I loved in all books in childhood: lush detail about houses, miniatures or dolls of some sort, magic, and a secret place to escape from an unhappy world. Behind the Attic Wall had it all, and when my lips crack from being chapped in the winter, it's the very first thing I think of.

The Foot Book by Dr. Suess
The first book I ever read by myself. It competes with Goodnight, Moon for my affections as far as picture books go. I memorized Goodnight, Moon and "read" it aloud to my kindergarten class—a moment of pride almost as great as learning to spell the word "because"—but The Foot Book is the first one I ever actually read, and it started a lifetime of devouring books for me. NB: My parents didn't realize I was actually reading for a while; they thought I was quoting from TV programs.

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
A favorite book from a favorite author. Woolf's work has always stunned me in its incredible range, and I think Mrs Dalloway is her opus for its clarity, precision, and ability to capture the entire complexity of existence in a mere 200 pages. Ulysses is incredible, but Mrs Dalloway is better. I don't care what Danny Kaiser says.

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
It was hard for me to choose between The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! here. They're both incredible, complicated, and deeply moving. I think they should be read together, as I read them for conference in a brilliant course on "The World Turned Upside Down: Race and Gender in the Civil War" taught by a brilliant professor, Lyde Sizer. The course changed my life, and so did those books. But The Sound and the Fury wins out for me by standing on its own in such a powerful way. This is the first book that made me think in a real way about masculinity and manhood in America, a topic I would have written my dissertation on, had I gone to a PhD. It's also just beautiful. Faulkner is a genius in the way Woolf and Toni Morrison are geniuses.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
It was hard to choose just one book by Steinbeck, one of my favorite authors. East of Eden and Of Mice and Men are both so, so excellent, also. The Grapes of Wrath wins out, maybe, because of its interspliced chapters on natural beauty, and because I'm obsessed with the Road Novel. But also, if you're using this as a reading list, just read all three of them. They're each stunning in their own way and show the enormous range that Steinbeck employed throughout his writing career.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
I read this my sophomore year of high school, and as sometimes happens with these things, it was the right book at the right time. Reading it was a kick in the gut, and I sobbed at the end. I hardly remember a thing about it now, except how profoundly it moved me, and how much I loved it that year. I'm glad that in college I was introduced to so many incredible works and asked to think deeply about them so quickly, but the luxury of sitting with a book for weeks in high school is unmatched.

Crow by Ted Hughes
A deeply powerful piece of poetry that I think tends to be a bit overshadowed by Sylvia Plath's work. Crow was the first time I'd seen powerful mythologies and histories tied into contemporary poetry, and Hughes's images, gruesome and painful, are seared into my mind as if I'd read them minutes ago, a decade on.

Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
I can't say enough good about this more recent book of poems. Before I read it, I was suspect of collections of poetry with too clear a theme, even a theme as interesting as "the personal story of a family told through outer space and David Bowie references." The incredible pieces here completely changed my mind, though. They stand on their own, but when taken together, they become something truly powerful. Since then I've enjoyed a few other really lovely collections that surround a theme, but in the same way as Life of Mars: Stag's Leap by Sharon Olds and Kyrie by Ellen Bryant Voigt.

Facts for Visitors by Srikanth Reddy
This was one of the first books poetry I read that managed to be both deeply cerebral and profoundly emotionally moving, a line I'm always trying to play with in my own work (with rather less success than Facts for Visitors does, I think). The playful nature of the language throughout the book, combined with a seriousness of study throughout, made this one of my favorite discoveries from my very first workshop in poetry.

Three Bonus Poems:

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost
"Pied Beauty" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
"Men at Forty" by Donald Justice

Ephemera from the Museum of Myself - Poem Kid

I'm making a concerted effort to get my past writings and study-material in order (and out of my filing cabinet) by scanning in everything I worked on in college in an easy-to-understand format. I may have a few things to share here as the process rolls on (turns out scanning this stuff, even with a top-loading scanner at work, is tough business!), and hopefully it will be useful to other writers and readers.

But until I find some of those things, I thought I'd share one of my favorite workshop drawings, the poem kid. He was drawn by Bridget Talone, a super-talented poet (almost ten years later, I'm still thinking about one of the poems she brought to class) and first-rate person. This appeared on a poem I workshopped during Matthea Harvey's class in April 2005, and though I'd forgotten about him over the past nine years, I'm enamored of him all over again.

An unrelated true story: Bridget and I both unknowingly wrote about the same Headless Dutch Boy Figurine for Underwater New York. I think he looks a little like the above poem kid, don't you?

Do you have any workshop drawings that particularly captivated your heart? I won't lie, every one that I've received made mine skip a beat with joy.

Late Night Conversation - Danniel Schoonebeek Podcast

It was a joy to interview Danniel Schoonebeek, a poet and friend I deeply respect, a few weeks ago. We talked about his recent cross-country book tour, and while I'm all about logistics, he's all about the meaning behind it, and it was a discussion that I hope you'll enjoy.

Plus, we're giving away a signed copy of his book, American Barricade, so if you haven't already read it, now is a great chance to get your hands on it. Have a listen here.

Late Night Conversation - Julia Fierro Podcast

A few weeks ago, I had the great pleasure of interviewing the very talented Julia Fierro at her home in Brooklyn. She was one of the kindest people I've ever interviewed, and I really hope her warmth comes across in the interview, the way it does in her debut novel, Cutting Teeth. We spoke for well over an hour, and I know we could have talked for many more, if not for needing to close things down to trim the podcast. We talked about the anxious time that birthed Sackett Street Writers' Workshop, her process of writing, and why women writers get blasted for having unlikeable characters so often.

She was also nice enough to sign a copy of Cutting Teeth and give me a tote bag to pass on to one lucky listener. As of posting, it still hasn't been taken, so feel free to try your luck!

photo by Natalie Brasington

I hope you'll have a listen to the interview at Late Night Library! It was lovely talking to Julia, and I'm so excited to co-host this year's Battle of the Books with her in September. More details on that to come soon!

Late Night Conversation - Charif Shanahan Podcast

A few weeks ago, I interviewed Charif Shanahan of the Poetry Society of America. In addition to being their programs director, he is also a Cave Canem fellow, a recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize ,and a semi-finalist for the “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Charif and I met at NYU, and I was so excited to have this conversation with him, and talk a little bit more about his work with PSA, and his own poems and translations.

You can listen to our conversation here. I hope you enjoy!

Late Night Conversation - Lee Briccetti Podcast

A few weeks ago, I had a lovely time chatting with Lee Briccetti, executive director of Poets House, a 60,000 volume poetry library in Battery Park City. Our interview is now up online as a Late Night Conversation on Late Night Library. I hope you'll hop on over and take a listen!

I interned for Poets House in 2008, and my experience there was incredible. The staff is very welcoming, and Lee is no exception. During our conversation, we talked about ways to make poetry more accessible, more welcoming to a person who may never have liked poetry or may have fallen away from it in recent years. Their programming arches over all readers and writers, from experience poets (they offer master classes with incredible teachers every semester) to brand new readers (with their beautiful children's library and field trips). There's something for everyone in their beautiful space overlooking the Hudson River.

Lee is also a complete powerhouse, and runs the organization with acumen and passion. She's overseen the nonprofit for twenty-five years, and I deeply admire her tenacity and creativity. In addition to opening their new building a few years ago, she also published her first book, Day Mark in 2005.

I'm so glad she was willing to speak with me on behalf of Late Night Library, and that I had the opportunity to learn so much from her during this interview, and from Poets House during that internship at the very start of my career. I hope you'll give it a listen and visit the library if you're ever in New York!