Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens take on two impossible topics: death, and mothers.Support Breaking Form by reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Aaron mentions the Marie Howe poem "Letter to My Sister" from The Good Thief, which Howe talks about here. Aaron reads his poem "After My Mother Apologized for My Childhood, We Went to Brunch," which you can hear him read again here -- on his cd Outside the Lines. You can read James's poem "Family Portrait" here. 

Come with the queens as they travel back to a time of gay bookstores, queer anthems, and a boom in LGBT+ publishing: the gay 90s! Support Breaking Form by reviewing the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Check out Michael Nava's wonderful essay "Creating a Literary Culture: A Short, Selective, and Incomplete History of LGBT Publishing, Part II"Learn more about Gendertrash zineRead Melvin Dixon's essay "I'll Be Somewhere Listening for My Name." Read more about Texas Tech's limitations on studying gender and sexuality.Sabah as-Sabah's work appears in many 90s anthologies, including In the Tradition: An Anthology of Young Black Writers (1992; edited by Kevin Powell & Ras Baraka), Catch the Fire!!: A Cross-Generational Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry (1998), and The Road Before Us: 100 Gay Black Poets (ed. Assotto Saint, 1991).  Read Audre Lorde's "The Electric Slide Boogie" in The Marvelous Arithmetic of Distance: 1987-1992.Read Marilyn Hacker's "The Boy"Justin Chin's "Cocksucker's Blues" is included in his first book of poems, Bite Hard (1997). Watch a tribute to Chin here. Here's the table of contents (with some hyperlinks) of The World in Us, edited by Elena Georgiou and Michael Lassell.You can read Maureen Seaton's "Blonde Ambition" (and the entirety of Furious Cooking)Read Dennis Cooper's "After School, Street Football, Eighth Grade"Read Gerry Gomez Pearlberg's "Marianne Faithfull's Cigarette" Some queer poets/poems we mention: Eileen Myles, "American Poem"JD McClatchy, "My Mammogram"David TrinidadRafael Campo, The Other Man Was MeEloise Klein HealyFrank Paino, The Rapture of MatterPaul Monette, 18 Elegies for RogJoan LarkinJudy GrahnRobin BeckerMaggie AndersonRichard McCann, Ghost LettersWayne Koestenbaum, The Queen's ThroatChrystosCheryl Clarke

Let's talk about Sex! Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Poems we read and texts we mention include:Dorianne Laux, "The Lovers" (Visit Laux's website here).Jenny Johnson, "Daddy Scene" (published in Cherry Tree Issue 11). Subscribe here. Read Jenny's essay "Butch Blowjob" in Bomb Magazine.sam sax, "Ode to the Belt" can be read in The Nation Sept 2023--or you can watch sam perform the poem here. If you're looking for a theory reading about sexuality, might we recommend Sigmund Freud's "Three Contributions To The Theory Of Sex"Jericho Brown's "Host" appears in The New TestamentTimothy Liu's "The Size of It" appeared in The Paris Review Fall 1994Maya Abu Al-Hayyat's "Sex" Sophie Cabot Black, "Interrogation"You can read Minnie Bruce Pratt's "Peach" here (just scroll down/search for "peach").Aaron reads from this article ("50 interesting sex facts...") in the fact check. 

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

All the queens want is boundless love in this episode about the love life of Frank O'Hara.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Read Frank O'Hara's "Homosexuality"For more about Chester Kallman, read here. Kallman was a poet, librettist, and writer who was also Auden's partner (and, later, his estate's executor). He published three collections of poems: Storm at Castelfranco (1956), Absent and Present (1963), and The Sense of Occasion (1971). Grace Hartigan's relationship with Frank O'Hara is detailed a bit more in this Sebastian Smee essay in Washington Post: "Portrait of a Poet." Read O'Hara's "In Memory of My Feelings"Much of Frank O'Hara's papers are at the Museum of Modern Art in NYCRead a review of Ada Calhoun's memoir "Also a Poet," about her father, art critic Peter Schjeldahl, who was working on a memorial project about O'Hara when he died. Calhoun believes that her father’s book was torpedoed by O’Hara’s sister and literary executor, Maureen Granville-Smith Calhoun. For more about The Glory Hole Café in Buenos Aires (which we mention in the show), go here. 

The queens talk about writing through sadness and grief in order to move forward and gain a different vantage point. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Take a look at the Tracey Emin sculpture "My Bed." It was sold at auction by Christie’s in July 2014 for £2.5 million to German collector Count Christian Duerckheim.Read Larry Levis's poem "Boy in Video Arcade"Read Dickinson's 670 ("One Need not be a Chamber to be Haunted"). For more variations she included on the fascicle, visit the Emily Dickinson Online archive at Harvard's Houghton Library here. In an interview with Melanie Brooks and published in Creative Nonfiction (Winter 2017), Mark Doty says about grief: "It was like just pushing my way up this very tall, spirally staircase. I'd write and cry and write and cry and write and cry." Read the essay here (jstor access required).

Dress shopping is cardio & life for the Breaking Form fashionistas. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Paul Tran's "Provenance" appeared first February 22/March 1, 2021 issue of The Nation and was included in All the Flowers Kneeling, which was published by Penguin in 2022 and was a finalist for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Visit Tran's website here: https://iampaultran.com/The poem "'What Do Women Want?'" is from Kim Addonizio's Tell Me (2000)Read "Boy in a Stolen Evening Gown" by Saeed JonesRead "Esta Noche" by Mark DotyThe poem we read of Allison Benis White's is from “Please Bury Me in This” [Maybe my arms lifted ...]"In recollection of a first memory in A Sketch of the Past, Virginia Woolf wrote: "My mother would come out onto her balcony in a white dressing gown. There were passion flowers growing on the wall; they were great starry blossoms, with purple streaks, and large green buds, part empty, part full."Read torrin a. greathouse's "Ekphrasis on My Rapist's Wedding Dress" and visit their website: https://www.torringreathouse.com/Read Victoria Chang's "OBIT [The Blue Dress]" from her 2020 book, Obit. You can watch Chang read from Obit here (~43 min).  

Get set for a poetry gabfest for the ages! The fabulous Joy Priest joins us for the Breaking Form Interview.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Buy Joy's prizewinning collection of poems, Horsepower, from the University of Pittsburgh Press here or from Loyalty Books, a  Black, Queer, and Asian owned independent bookstore in DC.Visit Joy Priest's website: https://www.joypriest.comYou can see Joy reading from her work here, here, and here. Or read this interview with her here.Read Joy's ode to Whitney Houston, "When I See the Stars in the Night Sky"Nikky Finney won the 2011 National Book Award for her book Head Off and Split. Watch her iconic speech here. Read more about American Honey, a film by Andrea Arnold starring Sasha Lane We mention a few forms, including the Abecedarian and the Sestina. Click the links for more information about them. Poets we mention:Emily Dickinson and Poem 269 ("Wild nights!")Hear poet Jane Kenyon read her poem "Otherwise."Donald HallTerrance HayesRoss GayLouise Glück's "Anniversary"                

The queens kindly request your presence for some piping hot tea as they recap the AWP Conference in Baltimore. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:James posted some AWP tips on Facebook here. For the curious, AWP has posted its "Community Participation in #AWP26 Conference & Bookfair" stats here.The journals mentioned on the "Editing for Change and Community" panel were:Small Orange edited by Carlie Hoffman. Carlie's poems were included in our Breaking Form episode "The Hof[f]man[n]s" which you can listen to here.Georgia Review edited by Gerald Maa. Brink edited by Nina Lohman Hopkins Review edited by Dora MalechCherry Tree: A National Literary Journal at Washington College, by James. AWP has said it will post the video of John Waters's keynote address for conference registrants to view, but we can't find it yet. But if you're curious, here's a written recap of the event by Baltimore Fishbowl.You can find The Adroit Journal online at  https://theadroitjournal.org. They're open for submissions currently (til April 1, 2026). They are a paying market.   

That which you call death, the queens remember in this episode that revisits The Wild Iris, Louise Glück's Pulitzer-Prize winning volume from 1992.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:While the recording released by the Academy of American Poets of Glück reading from The Wild Iris and other work can be purchased online, you can also hear many of these poems read on SoundCloud here.  Much of our information about Glück's process comes from this interview with the poet Devin Becker, who was also her former student.Read Richie Hofmann's remembrance here.  Some of the poems from The Wild Iris that we mention (and links to read them) are:WitchgrassThe Red PoppyClear MorningThe GardenVespersRetreating LightThe White Lilies, which you can hear read by Glück here.We also mention the poem "Purple Bathing Suit" from Meadowlands, the book which follows The Wild Iris. Louise' Glücks astrological chart is here. (Taurus sun, Leo rising, Scorpio moon.)Watch interviews with Glück:1982, for Kalliope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAB-JqABvq82004, at Smith College: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw0nlVYZ39A 2012, Academy of Achievement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1rpGy8XRzU 2016, with Peter Streckfus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeoaLNGy_Ms2020, for NYPL with Colm Tóibín, on writing The Wild Iris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kQGM_KhHQ

What nanty narking our Reginas have with some slang from the Victorian era. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Marilyn Nelson's poem in The New Yorker that Aaron was thinking of is "Pigeon and Hawk."Poets we mention include (with a poem by each):Marie HoweCleopatra MathisLinda GreggLucie Brock-BroidoAdrienne RichYvor WintersFrank O'HaraAnna AkhmatovaLynn MelnickMary Jo BangJean Valentines, "Ghost Elephants"Larry Levis and Aaron's poem "Elegy" which references Levis's "The Smell of the Sea"James MerrillBrenda HillmanRichard HowardShaon OldsHenry David ThoreauLaura KasischkeLucille CliftonAracelis GirmayKenneth KochRupi KaurJacques J. RancourtTerrance Hayes

The queens read for filth another toxic masculinist article before we play a saucy game based on a gay novel. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Heather Christle's post sparked this episode's discussion and can be found here. Christle's most recent book of poetry is Paper Crown (Wesleyan UP, August 2025)While there isn't an out gay character in Dead Poets Society, there is some gay-coded stuff going on. Read Kaeya Merchant's fabulous essay on the topic: "Dead Poets Society is Queer; Here’s Why" The Garth Greenwell essay on Andrew Holleran's Dancer from the Dance which Aaron references was also published in the Yale Review. Check out Garth's website at https://www.garthgreenwell.comAt the end of the show, we quote the line "What did you think, that joy was some slight thing?" which is from Mark Doty's "Visitation"Other poems or poets we reference are:Garret Hongo's "What For"e.e. cummings, "somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond"David Bottoms, "Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt"A.E. Stallings, "Sea Girls"Jorie Graham, "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body"Emily Dickinson, Poem 591

"Dawns are heartbreaking," as is the queer love story of Arthur Rimbaud & Paul Verlaine.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:Paul Verlaine was born in 1844. Read more about him here. Verlaine was an Aries sun, Leo Moon, and Scorpio ascendant.Arthur Rimbaud was born on October 20, 1854, and you can read more about him here. Rimbaud was a triple Libra (sun, moon, ascendant). Rimbaud met Verlaine in September 1871, a month before his 18th birthday. Following his tumultuous relationship with Paul Verlaine, which ended in 1873, Rimbaud traveled extensively through Europe, often on foot. He became a trader/merchant, selling coffee, hides, and eventually guns, becoming a "soldier of fortune." In 1891, a tumor developed on his right knee and forced him to return to Paris and died later that year at 37, without knowing how popular his poems had become in Symbolist circles.  The gun Verlaine used to shoot Rimbaud recently went up for auction.One of the poems Rimbaud sent to Verlaine in 1871 was "Le Dormer du Val," which you can watch recited as part of the Favorite Poem Project here. (Recited by chef Jacques Pépin.) Rimbaud and Verlaine wrote a collaborative poem, "Sonnet to the Asshole" which you can read (and read about) here.  In 2016, the poet Eileen Myles told The New York Times, "I think men should stop writing books. I think men should stop making movies or television. Say, for 50 to 100 years. Sounds great." Read the interview here.When we reference "tongue in the butt," we are talking about a segment from an early Breaking Form season 1 show called "Bad Animals." Check it out here, and hit the 14:30 mark. If you've never read Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," stop what you're doing and read it here.

James has to choose his favorite from an array of poetic Dicks.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:Read Richard Wilbur's "The House" from Anterooms: New Poems and Translation (2010). Watch Wilbur read his iconic poem, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World"Here is Richard Howard's "Oystering" from The Damages (1967). You can watch Howard give a reading here. And check out Howard's sequel to Browning's "My Last Duchess" here.Read Richard Blanco's "Burning in the Rain" from Looking for The Gulf Motel (1998). Watch Blanco deliver the inaugural poem here. Read Richard Brautigan's "Love Poem" and watch Brautigan give a reading and interview here.Check out Richard Aldington's poem "Images" from Images Old and New (The Four Seas Press, 1916). Watch an introduction to Aldington here.  Here is Jana Prikryl's poem "To Tell of Bodies Changed" from The After Party (2016). Watch a reading Prikryl gave at the Hammer Museum here.  Read Richard Newman's "Coins." Watch Newman give a reading here.The Richard Jones poem we read is "Rest" from The Correct Spelling and Exact Meaning (2010). Watch Jones give a reading for Smartish Pace here.  

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Show Notes:Read the London Review of Books praising Aracelis Girmay's volume, How to Carry Water: Selected Poems by Lucille Clifton. Watch Girmay read Clifton's poem "praise song."Learn more about Lucille Clifton here, here, and here. Explore more about The Clifton House, and learn more about Clifton's life in Baltimore. Watch Debby Boone sing her 1977 hit, "You Light Up My Life" Listen to Deborah Ann Gibson sing "On My Own" from Les Misérables. Here is the trailer for Boxing Helena, directed by Jennifer Lynch.Read more about the friendship between Toni Morrison and James Baldwin.For more about Clifton's children's book series, Everett Anderson, read here.Here is a partial list of the poems we read and discuss on the show:"my friends""a poem written for many moynihans""5/23/67 RIP" (for Langston Hughes)"alabama 9/15/63" (which appeared in a 1999 special folio of Callalo)"jasper Texas 1998" in Ploughshares Issue #78 Spring 1999https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49491/jasper-texas-1998"If I should (to clark kent)""further note to clark""hag riding""to my last period" 

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:Gwendolyn Brooks published "The Bean Eaters" in Poetry Magazine in 1959. Check out the video of this interview with Gwendolyn Brooks. Here is Sylvia Plath's "Aftermath." Listen to this October 1962 interview with Plath by Peter Orr for the British Council. Read Gary Soto's "Avocado Lake." Linda Pastan published her poem "Waiting Room" in the October 1984 issue of Poetry. Here's Suji Kwok Kim's "Occupation" which appeared in the July 1994 Poetry. Here is a 2008 reading by Kim (~28 min).Watch Cher introduce her song "Just Like Jesse James" during her Farewell Tour.Read "The Speed of Darkness" by Muriel Rukeyser.

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:Read "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. And watch a here's a video enactment/reading of "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. And watch a reading/enactment of the poem here. Read a terrific essay about Hardy's poem published by the Thomas Hardy Society here. Thomas Hardy wrote 947 poems, and you can read them all online here.  For more about Taylor Swift's newest album's variations, read this piece in Vareity.Tom Brady does not have a brother who plays football. Gayle King interviewed Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams at the Golden Globes. See the viral-video exchange here. Here's a reddit thread on being rejected on Christmas Eve.  

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Amy Lowell and Jubi Arriola-HeadleyCheck out Jubi Arriola-Headley's website here, and an obituary here. Learn more about Amy Lowell here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/amy-lowell

Happy New Year! Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Giada Scodellaro and Natalie Louise Tombasco.Check out Giada Scodellaro's website here: https://giadascodellaro.com/Check out Natalie Louise Tombasco's website: https://natalielouisetombasco.com/

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Kelli Russell Agodon and Afaa Michael Weaver.Learn more about Afaa Michael Weaver here: https://www.theshipmanagency.com/afaa-michael-weaverCheck out Kelli Russell Agodon's website: https://www.agodon.com/index.html

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Jonterri Gadson & Patrica TraxlerCheck out Jonterri Gadson's website: https://www.jonterrigadson.com/You can read more about Patricia Traxler on this Wikipedia page.

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by Mary Helen Callier & Virginia Chase SuttonCheck out Mary Helen Callier's website: https://maryhelencallier.com/Check out Virginia Chase Sutton's website: https://www.virginiachasesutton.com/

Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:We read poems by David Hernandez and Dorian Elizabeth Knapp. Check out Dorian Elizabeth Knapp's website: https://dorianelizabethknapp.com/Check out David Hernandez's website: http://www.davidahernandez.com/

Nerd tops, dom tops, soft tops: the queens go gaga over a discussion of their top poems by favorite poets. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Poems and poets discussed in this episode include:Sharon Olds: "The Race"; "Topography"; "First" Louise Glück: "Widows"; "Celestial Music"; "The Mirror" (text); "The Mirror" (audio only); "Parable of the Dove"Jorie Graham: "Masaccio's Expulsion"; "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Dead"; "Salmon" Mark Doty: "Visitation"; "Lament-Heaven" Vijay Seshadri: "The Disappearances" & an essay about the poem here. Linda Gregg: "Summer in a Small Town"; "Sigismundo"; "Let Birds"; "We Manage Most When We Manage Small"Etheridge Knight: "Feeling Fucked Up" C. Dale Young: "Torn"; check out this review of the book by Dilruba Ahmed in Kenyon Review here.

Let's get trioleted, girls! The queens delve into some fun poetic forms.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Watch TLC's music video for "No Scrubs" Discover more about Jehanne Dubrow's The Arranged Marriage, about which Claudia Rankine writes,"The poet here is positioned to observe, to picture, and to record in order to communicate coherence in the face of incoherence."Aaron reads: Sonia Sanchez "Haiku and Tanka for Harriet Tubman." Learn more about Tubman here.  Read  Agha Shahid Ali's ghazal, "Tonight". Shahid died in 2001. Here's more about the triolet.  For a few examples of the form, here's Gabriel Fried's "Parenting Triolet" and Rachel Hadas's "Fortress" Read more about the Golden Shovel here, and read Terrance Hayes's "Golden Shovel." Read more about the Duplex, or watch Jericho Brown explain it here. Read Jericho Brown's "Duplex" or watch him read the poem here.  

Tracy K. Smith joins for the Breaking Form Interview to discuss her new book of prose about poetry, Fear Less.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:See Tracy K. Smith read from Life on Mars at the Kelly Writers' House .Here's a reminiscence of Lucie Brock-Broido by her student, Stephanie Burt. Read more Brock-Broido-isms on writing & wonderment here.Read Diane Seuss's "My Education," first published in Massachusetts Review and which appeared later in her 2024 book Modern Poetry.Joy Harjo's poem "She Had Some Horses" was published in the book of the same name by Thunder's Mouth Press in 1983 and reissued in 1997. The link is to the original poem Tracy reads on the show.Read reviews of Fear Less: Poetry in Perilous Times here, here, and here.Visit Tracy's website here. Two more poets who appear in Fear Less are Victoria Adukwei Bulley (Read her "The Ultra-Black Fish" & follow her on Instagram) and Francisco Marquez (read his "Provincetown") 

Sometimes poetry is a shield.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:Poems and poets mentioned in this episode include:Galway Kinnell, "Prayer"  A. Van Jordan, "Details Torn from MacNolia’s Diary." Read a consideration of the book on Poetry Daily here.Jaime Gil de Biedma, "Contra Jaime Gil de Biedma" and the translation here. Read this LitHub article considering the life and poetry of de Biedma by Spencer Reece.Gregory Orr writes about the accident in which his brother died here. Aaron posted a photo of "Poem for My Dead Mother" on his FaceBook here. The poem was first published in the Antioch Review in Vol. 31, No. 1, Spring, 1971Ethna McKiernan, "Washing My Mother's Hair." Read an obit for the poet in The Irish Times here . Kathy Fagan's "A Vocabulary of Icons" was first published in Southwest Review Vol. 83, No. 3, 1998Julia Kasdorf's "Eve Curse" is from her book Eve's Striptease. Visit her website.Jane Kenyon, "Let Evening Come"Toi Dericotte's poem "Clitoris" was first published in Kenyon Review, Spring 1994, Vol. XVI No. 2

The ladies break out the poetry crystal ball and predict the winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:The 76th National Book Awards Ceremony will be streamed live on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 8:00 PM EST. You can watch the free livestream by registering on the National Book Foundation's website at nationalbook.org/awards. It will also be available on Facebook and YouTube. The poem we read of Calvocoressi's is "Praise House: The New Economy"; check out their website: https://www.gabriellecalvocoressi.com/ Read the poem by Ross Gay that Calvocoressi references: "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude" We talked about Cathy Linh Che on our show "(Taylor's Version)"; read the title poem  "Becoming Ghost." Visit Che's website: https://www.cathylinhche.com/Tiana Clark maintains an online presence at https://www.tianaclark.com. Read "After the Reading" here. We interviewed Richard Siken in episode 12 of this season (season 3). "Flevato" is from I Do Know Some Things, though it was first published in Four Way Review. Visit Siken online at https://richard-siken.com. Read Patricia Smith's poem "70." And feel free to read more work on her website: https://www.wordwoman.ws/

The queens revisit and sing the praises of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Song." Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:You can read the text of "Song" here. And read more about BPK here. James was wrong: "Song" was published in the Autumn 1993 issue of The Southern Review. Thanks to C.Dale Young for the correction!In ancient Greece, a tragoidia was a poem or play that was written and performed in formal language and that had an unhappy ending. The word combines tragos ("goat") and oide ("song").  A tragedy is literally a “goat song.”The journal West Branch published "This Long Winding Line: A Poetry Retrospective" about Kelly's book Song. The collection includes essays by Amit Majmudar, David Baker, C. Dale Young, Gabrielle Bates, and Shara Lessley, who also edited the portfolio. Watch Hiba Tahir on "Song" (including a prompt)Read this remembrance of BPK by two friends in Plume. And read this remembrance by Ryo Yamaguchi (who was BPK's student) in Michigan Quarterly Review. Gabrielle Bates talks about "Song" on Keep the Channel Open PodcastNickole Brown reads and discusses "Song" here.Read GC Waldrep's essay on another poem from the book Song ("All Wild Animals Were Once Called Deer") here. Emilia Phillips reads and discusses "Song" here. You can hear Brigit Pegeen Kelly read (unfortunately, not "Song") here, at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 2004. 

The queens put the SIS in ekphrasis!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Show Notes:The Greek word ekphrasis (ἔκφρασις) is derived from the Greek prefix ek- ("out") and the verb phrazein ("to speak," "to explain," or "to show"). The combination translates to "to speak out," "to speak clearly and completely," or "to show clearly." In the movie Showgirls, Kyle MacLachlan's character, Zack Carey, corrects Nomi Malone (played by Elizabeth Berkley) when she mispronounces "Versace" as "Ver-sayce." Watch the iconic scene here."Faithfully" is a song by American rock band Journey, released in 1983 as the second single from their album Frontiers. Go behind the music with some more info about the song's origin story.The receipts about Karl Lagerfeld's hateful (racist, fat phobic) ass are here.Some of the poems and poets we mention include:Jorie Graham, San SepolcroPaul Tran, Like Judith Slaying Holofernes -- and listen to Tran talk about their inspiration for this poem.Rainer Maria Rilke, "Archaic Torso of Apollo"Tommye Blount, "Karl Lagerfeld’s line of beauty"Amy Gerstler, "Dear Boy George"Anne Sexton, "Starry Night" David Trinidad's "Peyton Place: A Haiku Soap Opera" (excerpt)Walta Borawski, "Watching Sting on Saturday Night Live." Check out this review of Borawski's Collected Poems.  

The queens talk with David Duchovny about poetry, Lacanian psychotherapy, love, the future perfect, and the lost past. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:David Duchovny's new book, About Time, is just out from Akashic Books. David was interviewed about the book on PBS--watch it here. You can catch some of David's music here. For more about the Aymara of the Andean highlands, check out this NPR story.Randall Jarrell's poem "The Woman at the Washington Zoo" ends, "You see what I am: change me, change me!" Read it here.Check out the Fail Better Podcast interviews with Aimee Mann, Melissa Febos, and Jack HalberstamFor more about Lacan's short therapy sessions, click here.  For more about the future perfect tense, read here. Christopher Walken talks here about his resentment of punctuation.David talked with writer Chris Carter about ellipsis and his writing of the character Fox Mulder here. If you'd like to check out Matthew McConaughey reading his poems, here's a link for you.

The queens select some very poetic bachelors and decide where they'd read them on their date.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Poets and poems mentioned include:"blessing the boats" by Lucille CliftonJoe Wenderoth's book, Letters to Wendy, "June 3, 1997"Li-Young Lee, "This Room and Everything In It"Frank O'Hara, "Having a Coke with You" Carolina Ebeid, "Reading Celan in a Subway Station"Raymond Antrobus, "Echo""Why Whales Are Back in New York City" by Rajiv MohabirArthur Sze, "At the Equinox"Jim Whiteside, "Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature"Ari Banias, "The Feeling"Steven Duong, "Ho Chi Minh City""Offerings Iphis Pledged as a Girl and Paid as a Boy" by Oliver Baez Bendorf James Ciano, “Coney Island Baby” Oak Morse, "A Portrait of Black Man Wrestling with His Secret Self (or, an inner cosplay ode to the singer Brandy" 

The queens descend upon Pittsburgh for a bittersweet (but dishy) tribute for Ed Ochester (1939-2023).Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:For more about the weekend events and about Ed Ochester's impact on American poetry, read here and here and here.The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and publication by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of the Pitt Poetry Series. Submissions are accepted March 1--April 30. For more about Southern Methodist University's Project Poetica, read here. Read more about the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature here. Damon Young is a writer, critic, humorist, satirist, and (as he says on his website) "professional Black person." He's a co-founder and editor in chief of VerySmartBrothas—coined "the blackest thing that ever happened to the internet" by The Washington Post and recently acquired by Univision and Gizmodo Media Group to be a vertical of The Root—and a columnist for GQ. Visit his website at https://www.damonjyoung.comAccording to CruisingGays.com, the Cathedral of Learning's 2nd and 8th floor bathrooms were popular cruising spots. The International Poetry Forum launched in 1966 with a reading that featured Archibald MacLeish. Since then, alumni of the series include nine Nobel Laureates, 14 Academy Award recipients, 28 U.S. Poets Laureate, 39 National Book Award winners, and 47 Pulitzer Prize winners.Joy Priest is the author of HORSEPOWER (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), selected by the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey as the winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry, and the editor of Once a City Said: A Louisville Poets Anthology (Sarabande, 2023). Visit her website here.Check out Pittsburgh's City of Asylum here: https://cityofasylum.orgMonroeville is about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh. Read Ed's poem titled "Monroeville"; several others can be found online at the Poetry Foundation here.Thanks to Nancy Krygowski and Jeffrey McDaniel and Terrance Hayes for putting together an incredible, moving weekend to a brilliant editor, mentor, and friend. We miss you, Ed.

The ladies pair poets together that prove complementary--or contrarian!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Visit Gary Jackson's website.In this interview, Marie Howe talks a bit about Lucille Clifton and feminist poetry.You can listen here to Carl Phillips read and engage in conversation after with Lia Purpura at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in February 2021. Read this great, short essay by Carl Phillips on Linda Gregg.Read Irene McKinney's poem "The Only Portrait of Emily Dickinson"Visit Jehanne Dubrow online at https://jehannedubrow.comRebecca Lindenberg's website is https://www.rebeccalindenberg.com. Read "Catalogue of Ephemera."Visit Erika Meitner's website. And read her poem "Jesus is the Reason." You can watch Ange Minko read her villanelle "Escape Architecture"  or read it here. Essex Hemphill's new and selected is called Love Is a Dangerous Word. Finally, Charlie Sheen does indeed identify as bisexual, and apparently there is a lot of ick in the new Netflix documentary about him. 

The judgy Judies play Toss or Keep to help their friend Tommy downsize his poetry library.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Some of the poems/poets/people mentioned in this episode include:Robert Creeley, "I Know a Man" which you can read here and listen to Creeley read here. And here's a roundtable discussion of the poem (~11 minutes, with a recording of Creeley reading it during a visit to Harvard).The poet Ai's book, Vice. Experience a video that includes her reading her poem "The Good Shepherd" here. Matthew Dickman, All-American PoemElizabeth (betsy) Cox, I Have Told You and Told You.   Read more about Cox's books with Penguin/Random House here. Loiuse Glück. "First Memory" is the last poem in Ararat. Watch this dramatic reading of the poem by Eisa Davis. Diane Gilliam Fisher, Kettle Bottom. Read more about Fisher here. Carrie Fountain, Burn Lake. Read the title poem here.Bob Hicok, Words for Empty, Words for Full. Read the poem "A Primer" mentioned in the show.James's poem "Portrait as My Mother as the Republic of Texas" appears in their first book, Now You're the Enemy (U of Arkansas, 2008). Read that poem and a short interview about it here. Watch this shady interview conducted with Paulina Porizkova about being fired by America's Next Top Model. The comic Beth Littlefield conducted very funny interviews forThe Daily Show in which her interviewer persona sent up Barbara Walters's interviews. In her interview of Dionne Warwick, she started one question this way:"In 1985, you participated in 'We Are the World,' which gathered together some of the top performers of our day, and Latoya Jackson." Watch Warwick fall out here, at the 2:30 mark.

The ladies get manifesto on that butt! (And mouth.) Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Read more about D.H. Lawrence here. Read William Carlos Williams's "Paterson" here and "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower"  here.Jericho Brown writes about A.E. Housman in Mentor to Muse hereRead Dylan Thomas's poem "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London"Here's a link to Stevie Smith's poem "Not Waving But Drowning"For more about Keith Douglas, visit: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/keith-douglasAaron tosses off a quote from "Mayakovsky" by Frank O'Hara, which you can read here. Read poems by Louise Bennett here. Read Charles Olsen's "I, Maximus of Gloucester, to You"Here's Alan Dugan's "Internal Migration: On Being on Tour"Learn more about Judith Wright here.     

The queens summon lines designed to stop readers in their tracks. Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Sharon Olds says that early in her poetic career, when she'd send out her poems, "[t]hey came back often with very angry notes." Receipt here.  W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues", or "Stop all the clocks" appeared in his book Another Time. The poem experienced renewed popularity after being read in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). "Funeral Blues" has since been cited as one of the most popular modern poems in the United Kingdom. Watch the poem read in the movie here. Auden's "First Things First" appeared in The New Yorker in 1957. Hear Auden read the poem here. Watch the incredible Michael Sheen read Auden's "September 1, 1939" here. Receipts about Auden's struggle with the end are here. Read Gwendolyn Brooks's "The Mother" and listen here to Diane Seuss talk about this poem with us on Breaking Form. Read Robert Lowell's "Skunk Hour" or listen to him read it here. (It'll be a memorable experience!)The poem we reference of Lynda Hull's is "Chiffon" which opens her book The Only World (HarperCollins 1995).Read Robinson Jeffers's "Birds and Fishes"Here's Frost's "Birches"Aaron Smith's poem is "Jennifer Lawrence" can be read here.Mark Doty's poem "Visitation" first appeared in The Paris Review. Aiden Shaw appeared in Roll in the Hay, but did not grace the sets of Big River.

The queens are joined by poetry crush Richard Siken, & talk heroes, rabbits, robots, & healing.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:You can order I Do Know Some Things here. Visit Richard Siken's website here, and read work from the new book.Read Christopher Nelson's review of I Do Know Some Things here.Some interviews with Richard we can recommend:   This one in Adroit Journal   This one in BOMB Magazine   And this one in Gulf Coast from 2005, with James Allen Hall.Paratext is the text surrounding the main published text (like the book jacket copy, the blurbs, the cover text, etc).For more about War of the Foxes, check out this short video "Postcards from Richard Siken"Louise Glück (1943-2023) selected Siken's first book Crush for the Yale Series of Young Poets Prize. For more about Glück, including her period of silences, read here.For more about the tester straw we mention, click here.

The hosts get familiar with the poetry of three Hof(f)man(n)s--Carlie, Michael, and Richie.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Visit Carlie Hoffman on the web here. She is the author of three books, most recently One More Like This World (Four Way, 2025). We read these poems by Carlie:     Point of View Where Orpheus Makes a Pit Stop at a Fortune Teller in St. Germain     The Year Made Out of a Cut in Your Civilization     Panorama After Foreclosure     After Translating the Women of the Twentieth CenturyRead more about Michael Hofmann here. He is a Virgo born in Germany to a novelist and a teacher. The Guardian has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English." We read these poems by Michael:     Author, Author     Night     White Noise     Sentence     For AdamRichie Hofmann is the author of 2 books, in addition to the forthcoming The Bronze Arms (Knopf). Visit his website at https://www.richiehofmann.com. Read his poem "Male Beauty," which we quote in the episode, here. We read the following poems from Richie:     Breed Me     Arms     Young People     Keys to the City     Things that Are Rare   

How do poets write about place, and how does place shape a poet? Play along as the queens place these poems!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES: Poems/Poets mentioned in this week's show include:Traci Brimhall, "Shelter in Place." Visit Brimhall's website here. And you can watch her craft talk on revision here (1 hour). José Olivarez, "Eat the Rich." Watch Olivarez read his poem "Guapo" here. And visit him online: https://joseolivarez.com/Jayne Cortez, "I Am New York City"Peter Oresick, "When in 2009 the G20 Summit Convened in Pittsburgh"James Wright, "Autumn Begins in Martin's Ferry, Ohio"Adrian Matejka, "16 Bars Poetica." Listen to a fascinating reading and talk Matejka gave at Bread Loaf in 2024 on his newest book, Last on His Feet, a graphic novel about the boxer Jack Jackson. Matejka's website is https://www.adrianmatejka.com/ Megan Pinto, "Tonight it is Snowing in Rome." Megan Pinto is the author of Saints of Little Faith (Four Way Books, 2024). Visit her online at https://www.meganpinto.com/. And watch her give a reading for Massachusetts Review.Ezra Pound, "In a Station of the Metro"Denis Johnson's "Now" Watch Johnson read in 2016 at Cornell here (~40 min).Naomi Shihab Nye, "Jerusalem"

Touchstones part 1 hit so good, we decided to go another round!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Poems mentioned in this episode:Tomas Transtromer: "The Name" (translated by May Swenson with Leif Sjöberg)Cornelius Eady: "My Heart" Eady also turned Brutal Imagination into a play, too, and you can read the Variety review here.Wayne Koestenbaum's "Rhaposdy" from Rhapsodies of a Repeat Offender. Read a review of the book and check out Koestenbaum's website here. Lucia Perrillo: "Skin" Read more about Perrillo. Or watch her read from Inseminating the Elephant, which won the 2010 Bobbit Prize, at the Library of Congress here.Visit Dorianne Laux's website here. James asked folks to name their touchstone poems (with links) and this Facebook post was born..... check out some other incredible poetry touchstones! 

The queens play poetry matchmakers and nine months later, boom, there's a poetry baby!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Robyn Schiff's most recent book is Information Desk: An Epic (Penguin Poets, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024).Read more about Karyna McGlynn's book I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a GirlCheck out Randall Mann's latest book, a new and selected, from Copper Canyon.Do yourself a favor and buy Laura Newbern's book A Night in the Country (also available on the awful conglomerate) and check out Newbern's website.Watch this tribute to Eavan Boland. You can find many poems of Richard Siken's on his website. Watch this half-hour interview with Mark Strand (from when he was Poet Laureate). 

The gals talk foundational poems--and they might just surprise you!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Quan Barry's "The 1986 Apple Super Bowl Commercial as Intervention" refers to this iconic 1984 Apple Computer commercial aired during the SuperBowl.The Brigit Pegeen Kelly poem we mention is "Three Cows and the Moon" was originally published in New England Review in 1993. You can hear Kelly read the poem here (~10 minutes). It's fucking worth it!William Stafford, "Traveling Through the Dark" was the title poem of Stafford's 2nd book, published in 1962, which won the 1963 National Book Award. To look at some drafts of this poem, check out the Stafford archive online. Hear him read it here.Read more about Kevin Killian's Selected Amazon Reviews.  And check out this brief (~1min) Instagram post of Killian reading from it here. The poem by Linda Gregg that James mentions (with women standing in the trees knocking down figs) is "The Poet Goes About Her Business." You can read Kate Daniels "War Photograph" here. For more about the photograph and the people in it, read this article.Read Nazim Hikmet's "On Living" and learn more about Hikmet here. 

The library is open--to prose the queens find indispensable for poets!Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.You can find John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason here.Check out an excerpt in the NYT from Michael Schmidt Lives of the Poets. Here's an NPR review of Olivia Laing's Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. For more about Agnes Martin by Olivia Laing, check out this interview. Maggie Nelson engaged in this conversation with Laing about Laing's book Everybody. Check out this reading and conversation between Adam Moss, the author of The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing, and two of his subjects: Marie Howe and Michael Cunningham. Purchase Rebecca Brown's The Gifts of the Body, which Publisher's Weekly called "beautifully controlled, immensely affecting." It is 176 pages.You can get Brown's What Keeps Me Here (stories) here.Read this review of Annie Ernaux's The Use of Photography, which includes some excerpts from the book.Read James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son."For more about Kevin Killian's Selected Amazon Reviews, click here.Here's an NPR "Fresh Air" interview with Toni Morrison about writing Beloved. Watch Wayne Koestenbaum's "Why I Make Mini-Movies"

The queens put the "arch" in "archive" and rediscover some favorite poetry blasts from the past.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.Listen to a reading Scott Cohen gave with poet  Tom Weatherly at St. Mark's Poetry Project in 1968. Read his poem "Coke" from a 1971 issue of The Paris Review.  David Henderson was raised in Harlem and helped to found the Black Arts Movement. Henderson’s books include Neo-California (North Atlantic Books, 1998) and De Mayor of Harlem (E. P. Dutton, 1970). His first poetry collection, Felix of the Silent Forest, was published by Diane di Prima for Poets Press in 1967 with an introduction by Amiri Baraka. Read 3 of his poems here, or check out his Poem-A-Day selection (from Dec. 19, 2024) here.Also, check out David Henderson reading his poems with comment in the Recording Laboratory, May 3, 1978Carter Ratcliff's books on art include examinations of John Singer Sargent, Robert Longo, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol. He won a Guggenheim for his fine art scholarship, and his articles and criticism have appeared widely in such magazines as Art in America, ARTnews, and Artforum. Check out his novel, Tequila Mockingbird and this poem from The Baffler. Read more about Iris Rifkin-Gainer here and watch an interview with her regarding her work in dance therapy. Read a poem of hers here too.Read Edwin Denby's bio as well as three poems here.David Denby is indeed an American journalist and reviewed films until 2014 for The New Yorker.  

The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:Read a bit more about Spencer Williams's Tranz, including from the poem "Laramie" in the book, here. Watch this reading celebrating the Transgender Day of Visibility, featuring some  poets from our episode, including Amir Rabiyah and Stephanie Burt. Rabiyah's first    book, Prayers for My 17th Chromosome, is available through Sibling Rivalry Press.Here is "Queer Facts About Vegetables" by Oliver Baez Bendorf. Read Jameson Fitzpatrick's poem "How to Feel Good" (and scroll for an essay by the poet).Read Cameron Awkward-Rich "Lucille's Roaches" and visit the poet's website at https://www.cawkwardrich.com/Read Joshua Jennifer Espinoza's sonnet from the episode.Watch Espinoza read from her first book, I Don't Want to Be Understood, with guest D.A. Powell.Read Taylor Johnson's "Trans is Against Nostalgia" and order Inheritance (Alice James).Read Stephanie Burt's "Inside Out Stephanie" and check out the Breaking Form interview with Stephanie about the anthology she edited, Super Gay Poems.Subhaga Crystal Bacon's "Crossings" appears in Transitory (Boa Books; purchase it here). Check out Bacon's website. Read torrin a. greathouse's "There’s No Trace of the Word “Transgender” in Adrienne Rich’s Biography"Anthologies:Troubling the LineWe Want it AllSubject to Change

The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:Check out Toni Morrison's  1987 eulogy for James Baldwin in the New York Times.We read from Fran Lebowitz's remembrance of her friend Toni Morrison, printed in the Paris Review.If you haven't already, read Brenda Hillman's "Male Nipples" Read "The Curious Friendship of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell" from The Atlantic.Check out this exploration of the dynamics in literary friendships published in Esquire. 

The Breaking Form broads recount their poetic travels abroad in this Season 3 opener.Please Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTES:The David Hockney retrospective in Paris is on view until August 31. For more about his painting "Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy," click here.For more about Hockney and the Muse, read "David Hockney's Literary Influences" For a map that names the regions comprising Italy, go here. Jorie Graham's poem "San Sepolcro" first appeared in Erosion, and it concerns Piero della Francesca's iconic fresco "Madonna del Porto," on view at the Musei Civici Madonna del Parto, in the tiny Umbrian village of Monterchi, Italy. (In fact, the only work on view at the museum is the Madonna, which is worth the trip).For more about Civitella Ranieri, visit https://civitella.org, and follow them on Instagram @civitellaranieri or on Facebook. Civitella livestreams presentations by these world-class artists on IG Live.