Author: PoetrySays

Ep 56. Getting published.

Past guest Sean Wright joins us again this week to talk about the process of getting his first collection published (!) along with navigating the world of poetry journals. How do you know where to send work? What do you say when you do? We don’t have all the answers but these are our tips on making it out of the slush pile.

Publishers and journals mentioned (by no means exhaustive):
Resources that can help (or cause a meta-fiddling addiction):

 

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Ep 55. Ashbery’s autobiography (in 14 lines)

Ashbery’s poem ‘Your name here’ has been pinned up in my office for almost a decade now. Reading it again in light of his passing, I saw another element of the poem I’d never noticed before.

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Ep 54. Alistair Baldwin on comedy, permission and Milligan

Can poets learn something from the world of improv? After chatting with Alistair Baldwin I’m more convinced than ever that the best elements of poetry and comedy are basically aligned. This episode is also for you if you’ve ever hit a wall writing that dreaded 100-word bio…

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Ep 53. Joanne Kyger is afraid (but also funny)

Feeling a little sketchy, I went back to Joanne Kyger’s On Time, which led me to a poem about why calendars can be so very scary.

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Ep 53. Steve Wasserman on Wallace Stevens and poetic medicine

UK-based psychotherapist Steve Wasserman sees poetry as having a kind of medicinal power, especially when memorised. We chat about using memorisation to step outside the churn of the mind, then Steve recites the very tricky Wallace Stevens poem Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour (newly memorised!).

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Ep 52. Inside a poetry workshop

Would you let a mic into your poetry workshop?

Sydney poets Benjamin Dodds and Mran-Maree Laing were brave enough to let me record while we workshopped three unpublished poems. We wanted to show what the workshop process can be like for those who might feel intimidated by the idea. I think the result is pretty representative of what a top-notch workshop can do for a poem. It was such a pleasure to share work with these two fantastic writers!

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Ep 51. Toby Fitch on Rimbaud’s Bloomin’ Notions

Grab yourself a beverage, pull up a chair and listen in as I ask Toby Fitch to help me understand Rimbaud, figure out where the keys to poetry are hiding and keep my sense of humour about me along the way. Toby reads us a new, very funny poem during this chat and talks a little bit about his latest manuscript-in-progress, along with how he finds ways to make writing happen alongside everything else.

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Ep 50. ‘All the practice you get makes you better.’

For my 50th episode I wanted to talk about how I got started with this podcast, which took me back to a pretty painful decision point in my life. These are the poems (and quotes) that helped me stop being so busy, sit down and actually make something.

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