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New Books in Poetry

New Books in Poetry

New Books Network 409 Episodes Aug 11, 2026

This podcast is a channel on the New Books Network, an academic audio library dedicated to public education. Each episode features scholars discussing their recently published research with another expert in their field, with a focus on poetry. The network offers over 150 channels and 28,000 episodes on its website, and listeners can subscribe to a free weekly newsletter for more content. Support is available through a premium membership.

Episodes

Christopher R. Rogers, "My City Need Something" (Common Notions, 2026)
Christopher R. Rogers, "My City Need Something" (Common Notions, 2026) Aug 11, 2026 Moving between word and image, the call-and-response collaboration between writer Christopher R. Rogers and photographer karim brown improvises a contemporary portrait of present-day Black Philadelphia, replete with the unfinished activism present since the transnational upsurge of the George Floyd Uprising.Arriving five years after the crucible of that period, this experimental essay-as-LP challe
The Letters of Emily Dickinson
The Letters of Emily Dickinson Jul 30, 2026 3318 Emily Dickinson was a letter writer before she was a poet. And it was through letters that she shared prose reflections–alternately humorous, provocative, affectionate, and philosophical–with her extensive community. While her letters often contain poems, and some letters consist entirely of a single poem, they also constitute a rich genre all their own. Through her correspondence, Dickinson appea
Molly Peacock, "The Widow’s Crayon Box" (WW Norton & Co, 2025)
Molly Peacock, "The Widow’s Crayon Box" (WW Norton & Co, 2025) Jul 23, 2026 2211 In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with internationally acclaimed poet and biographer of women’s creativity, Molly Peacock about her collection, The Widow’s Crayon Box (WW Norton & Co, 2025)--a book-length sequence of poems that dares to affirm the vast variety of emotional colors in loss and rejuvenation. After her husband’s death, Molly Peacock realized she
Phillip B. Williams, "Lift Every Voice" (Penguin, 2026)
Phillip B. Williams, "Lift Every Voice" (Penguin, 2026) Jul 14, 2026 3580 Captivating for both its grandeur and intimacy, Lift Every Voice (Penguin Books, 2026) explores the past’s capacity to be both a source of dread and empowerment, an unshakable reminder of violence and an indelible testament to the endurance of love. In virtuosic poems that are wise, musical, richly layered, and saturated with vivid imagery, Williams honors a mother “who knew seven ways to say
In Praise: A Conversation with Texas Poet Laureate & Founder of Torch Literary Arts, Amanda Johnston
In Praise: A Conversation with Texas Poet Laureate & Founder of Torch Literary Arts, Amanda Johnston Jun 30, 2026 In 2006 poet Amanda Johnston went in search of community and, when she didn’t find what she was looking for, Amanda built her own. Today, Torch Literary Arts is a resource and a destination for Black women writers and readers across the diaspora. Fueled by wisdom and writings from poets, novelists, and screenwriters, the organization’s exceptional programming and award-winning magazine amplify Bla
Donna Vorreyer, "Unrivered" (Sundress Publications, 2025)
Donna Vorreyer, "Unrivered" (Sundress Publications, 2025) Jun 20, 2026 2973 In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery speaks with Donna Vorreyer about her poetry collection, Unrivered (Sundress Publications, 2025). Donna Vorreyer strikes gold with Unrivered, a stunning collection of poems that meditate on grief, regret, longing, self-love, and acceptance. Reeling from the loss of her parents, Vorreyer’s speaker is forced to grapple with her own mortality, and with the com
Poet-Prophet of American Democracy: Walt Whitman’s Vital Political Prose
Poet-Prophet of American Democracy: Walt Whitman’s Vital Political Prose Jun 13, 2026 Walt Whitman’s outrage at American politics and politicians was surpassed only by his passionate faith in democracy’s future. Both his anger and his hope fire his visionary prose writings on democracy, gathered for the first time in a new Library of America paperback edited by acclaimed political commentator and literary critic David Bromwich. Join Bromwich, Mark Edmundson (author of Song of Ours
Laurie D. Graham, "Calling It Back to Me: Poems" (Random House, 2026)
Laurie D. Graham, "Calling It Back to Me: Poems" (Random House, 2026) Jun 12, 2026 3041 In this NBN episode, host Hollay Ghadery interviews acclaimed poet Laurie D. Graham about her new book of poetry, Calling it Back to Me (McClelland & Stewart, 2026). A poet’s clear-eyed witnessing of familial history, this is the most personal collection yet from two-time Trillium Book Award finalist Laurie D. Graham. In these searching, spare, and resonant poems, Laurie D. Graham traces th
Jaime Forsythe, "Yield" (Buckrider Books, 2026)
Jaime Forsythe, "Yield" (Buckrider Books, 2026) Jun 10, 2026 2012 In her third collection, Nova Scotian poet Jaime Forsythe has created an elegant long poem with Yield (Buckrider Books, 2026). In these dreamlike lines a mother faces the postpartum void from a porous house by the ocean as the veil between land and sea, and between being lost and being found, grows thinner. With repeated waves of couplets Forsythe brings the reader unforgettable images:
Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh trans., "Baidehisha Bilasa: The Amorous Plays of Sita’s Husband" (Wide Open Window Books, 2025)
Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh trans., "Baidehisha Bilasa: The Amorous Plays of Sita’s Husband" (Wide Open Window Books, 2025) Jun 4, 2026 3275 Amrita Chowdhury and Ujaan Ghosh bring into English for the first time a long-inaccessible masterpiece of South Asian literature Baidehisha Bilasa: The Amorous Plays of Sita’s Husband (2025). Composed in the late seventeenth century by Upendra Bhanja — the Odia prince-poet hailed as Kavi Samrat, the Emperor of Poets — the work is a Ramayana that privileges shringara, the erotic sentiment, over ma
chaun webster, "Without Terminus: untraining an archive" (Greywolf, 2026)
chaun webster, "Without Terminus: untraining an archive" (Greywolf, 2026) May 26, 2026 In his first work of nonfiction, poet chaun webster blends memoir, archival research, visual poetics, and cultural criticism to trace the ways structural anti-Black violence has shaped his inheritance, and grapples with the question of how to know—and mourn—the kin he was never able to meet.webster is particularly drawn to his grandfather Reginald, who worked for years as a Pullman porter, who was
Barry Devine and Ellen Scheible eds., "Teaching James Joyce in the Twenty-First Century" (UP of Florida, 2025)
Barry Devine and Ellen Scheible eds., "Teaching James Joyce in the Twenty-First Century" (UP of Florida, 2025) May 23, 2026 2766 A guide for today’s classrooms, this collection from leading Joyce scholars explores innovative pedagogical approaches to the works of this often-challenging writer Teaching James Joyce in the Twenty-First Century (UP of Florida, 2025) presents examples of bold, innovative pedagogical techniques instructors have used to adapt the study of Joyce’s work for the contemporary classroom. Leading Joyce

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