The Writing Life: A Conversation with Joseph Bathanti

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, which originally aired in radio format on October 20th, 2022, I share a conversation I recently had with award-winning writer and former NC poet laureate, Joseph Bathanti. Mr. Bathanti also happens to be my all-time favorite college professor (he still teaches at App State) and one of my favorite humans in general. Here he  talks about writing as a habit, the role that inspiration plays, the importance of intimately knowing one's geographical place as a writer, how Catholicism still influences his work, why Buddhism appeals to him, and much more -- including the ekphrastic roots of his most recent book of poetry, Light at the Seam, which was largely inspired by a series of photographs taken by Carl Galie. Called "Lost on the Road to Oblivion: The Vanishing Beauty of Coal Country," Galie's photos portray the devastation of mountaintop removal, and in that way they are a form of environmental activism, as are Mr. Bathanti's poems.