Close Talking: A Poetry Podcast
1) Episode #179 [Hiatus!] Tune - Kay Ryan
Connor pops in to announce incredibly belatedly what has already been apparent for months: Close Talking is on a hiatus! We've had some big life and career changes that have unexpectedly cut into our ...Show More
2) Episode #178 - Remembering Charles Simic
A slight departure from our regular format. On today's show, Connor and Jack remember the recently departed poet Charles Simic. They read some of his poems, reflect on them, discuss his life and legac...Show More
3) Episode #177 [Flicking off the light switch.] - Sherwin Bitsui
Connor and Jack bid farewell to the year they've taken to calling "Twenty Twenty Poo" and contemplate the complexities of language in a wide-ranging conversation about a spectacular untitled poem by D...Show More
4) Episode #176 Topsoil, In Repentance - Sherry Shenoda
Connor and Jack discuss the sonically and thematically dense poem "Topsoil, in Repentance" by Sherry Shenoda. Shenoda's book MUMMY EATERS was longlisted for the National Book Award in 2022. The conver...Show More
5) Episode #175 - Poetry Spoken Here Ep. 132: Black Lives Matter
After a busy couple weeks at Close Talking headquarters, a slightly different show. This episode is from our sister-podcast, Poetry Spoken Here. The episode first aired in the summer of 2020 and was s...Show More
6) Episode #174 National Book Award 2022 - SPECIAL EPISODE
In this special episode, Connor and Jack discuss the 2022 National Book Awards — the long list, the finalists, and the winner "Punks: New and Selected Poems" by John Keene. They read and explore a mar...Show More
7) Episode #173 The Dancing - Gerald Stern
Connor and Jack discuss a classic poem from a classic poet: The Dancing by the recently departed Gerald Stern. They marvel at how the poem is constructed, get deep into a discussion of encroaching fas...Show More
8) Episdoe #172 A Time - Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
Connor and Jack have a time talking about the poem "A Time" by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. She is a multi-award winning poet whose latest book-length poem "Look at This Blue" is on the short list for t...Show More
9) Episode #171 Not Writing - Anne Boyer
Connor and Jack dig into the list/poem/prose piece/literary mystery Not Writing by Anne Boyer. Along the way they discuss what they are and are not writing themselves, Jack asks about why the poem nev...Show More
10) Episode #170 america MINE - Sasha Banks
Connor and Jack discuss Sasha Banks' poem, america MINE from her collection of the same name. They start by examining some of the poem's formal elements like its lack of traditional punctuation, and q...Show More