New Letters - On the Air - Audio feed

In the second half of our conversation with two time American Book Award-winning poet Al Young, he shares more from his book Something About the Blues: An Unlikely Collection of Poetry as well as a couple of poems included in his earlier books Coastal Nights and Inland Aftern...

Former California Poet Laureate (2005-2008) Al Young has penned 25 books, won two American Book Awards, and was recently included in The Best American Poetry 2016. In the first half of our conversation, he discusses how his family and childhood in Mississippi shaped some of his writing which includes poetry, memoir, and fict...

Kansas blogger Jen Mann talks about her humorous book Spending the Holidays With People I Want to Punch in the Throat. She describes how a viral post about her disdain for Elf-on-the-Shelf brought national attention to her blog "People I Want to Pu...

Poet Marilyn Kallet reads from her book, One for Each Night: Chanukah Tales and Recipes, which she wrote for families, who may need ideas on what to share in lean times. The book features humorous stories about her mother and being Jewish in the deep south, along with tales about traditional Chanukah foods, and provides several recipes taken...

Former U.S. Army Captain Matt Gallagher discusses his novel, Youngblood, which draws from his military service during the Iraq War. Also the author of the memoir, Kaboom, and co-editor and contributor to the collection, ...

Writers Diane Glancy and Linda Rodriguez discuss co-editing the anthology The World Is One Place: Native American Poets Visit the Middle East. The pair, who both have Cherokee ancestry, discuss their interest in the parallels between Native peoples of the US and the Middle East. Glancy, who visited Syria and Jordan as an Arts America Speaker for the United States Information Agency in the early 1990s, shares some...

Poet Michelle Boisseau died November 15, 2017, at age 62. In this interview conducted earlier this year at the Kansas City Public Library, the late Michelle Boisseau discusses her fifth book, Among the Gorgons. The poet, editor, and Guggenheim Fellow reveals how her own aging shed new light on some of the Greek mythology that inspired the Tampa Review Poetry Prize-winning collection. Also a co...

Native American poet Deborah Miranda reads from her award-winning mixed-genre book Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir. She discusses the historical erasure of California Indians and their almost total decimation at the hands of colonial Spanish missionaries. Using this work as a way to piece together the fragmented culture of the Cal...

Bonnie Bolling's award winning poetry collections often tackle tough subject matter, blending tragedy with beauty. The editor-in-chief of Verdad magazine since 2006, she now divides her time between Southern California and The Persian Gulf. Bolling discusses her 2016 John Ciardi Poetry Prize winning collection, The Red Hijab, which reflects on...

In the second half of this interview with poet Geoffrey Brock (shown) and novelist Padma Viswanathan, the husband and wife couple discusses their shared interest in translation. Brock reads a translation of the Italian poet Cesare Pavese from his award-winning book Disaffections: Complete Poems 1930–1950, while Viswanathan reveals how she came to d...

In the first half of this conversation with novelist Padma Viswanathan (shown) and poet Geoffrey Brock, the husband and wife writing duo reveal how they balance their writing careers and family life. Brock reads one of his wife's favorite poems from his Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize-winning collection, Voices Bright Flags, while Viswanathan shares pieces from her novels ...

Poet Susan Aizenberg discusses the use of fiction within poetry, admitting that she draws from real life, but notes that there is a distinction between truth and fact. Recently retired from teaching at Creighton University, she reads from her third collection, Quiet City, honored in the 2016 Nebraska Book Awards. She also discusses the anthology she co-edited called ...

The late Puerto Rican writer Judith Ortiz Cofer talks about how her heritage has influenced her work. This multi-genre writer of poetry, fiction, and memoir was Professor Emeritus of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia, when she died of cancer at the age of 65. In the second half of this 1998 conversation, she discusses the complicated issues involving Puerto Rico’s culture and the vote on statehood, which is still unresolved ...

Discover the stories behind the poetry of John Balaban, who served as a conscientious objector in Vietnam. He returned to the country later to help war-torn children and to collect folk poems, when he discovered the work of an 18th century Vietnamese concubine who was known for her wit and poetry. He reads from his award-winning book of translations called ...

As an attorney for the California Supreme Court, Michael Nava moonlighted as a novelist, authoring seven novels in the Henry Rios mystery series, six of which won the Lambda Literary Awards for Gay Men's Mystery books. (Now retired, he's reimagined the first in the series from 30 years ago into the 2016 Lay Your Sleeping Head.) His 2014 novel,...