Join Dion O’Reilly as she chats with Gregg Shapiro about his new book Fear of Muses. We read The Skokie Theater by Edward Hirsch and talk about the power of poetry to change us, the uses of the lyric, and Shapiro’s life in poetry.
S4:E30 The Hive Collective Collected
Join all the members of the 2022 Hive Poetry Collective. Listen to new poems from Victoria Bañales, Julia Chiapella, Farnaz Fatemi, Julie Murphy and Dion O’Reilly in this special group episode.
S4:E29 Farnaz Fatemi hosted by Julie Murphy
Listen to this episode with Farnaz Fatemi, hosted by Julie Murphy, by clicking here.
Farnaz Fatemi, an Iranian American poet and member of the Hive, reads from her debut book, Sister Tongue, that won the 2021 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize (selected by Tracy K. Smith). Julie Murphy and Farnaz Fatemi discuss longing, language, loss, identity and sisterhood as they weave through the remarkable poems in this collection.
Farnaz’s poetry and prose appear in Poets.org (Poem-a-Day), Pedestal Magazine, Grist Journal, Catamaran Literary Reader, Crab Orchard Review, SWWIM Daily, Tahoma Literary Review,Tupelo Quarterly, phren-z.org, and several anthologies (including, most recently, Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and its Diaspora, My Shadow Is My Skin: Voices of the Iranian Diaspora and The BreakBeat Poets Vol. 3: Halal If You Hear Me). She was awarded the Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman Fellowship by Djerassi and has been honored by the International Literary Awards (Center for Women Writers), Poets on the Verge (Litquake SF), Best of the Net Nonfiction, and Pushcart. She is a member of the Community of Writers. Farnaz taught Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, from 1997-2018.
Listen to or read Farnaz’s poem Farnaz, selected for a Poem-a-day in March 2022 by guest editor Brenda Shaughnessy.
S4:E28 Gregory Orr Hosted by Dion O’Reilly
Listen HERE
Gregory Orr reads from his new book Last Love Poem I will Ever Write. Dion O’Reilly and Gregory Orr discuss the “threshold,” the boundary between the tolerable and intolerable and how poetry crafts disorder, revealing tools to survive or, even better, to discover the Beloved. We discuss the lyric poem, the villanelle, and how moments of bliss and pain turn us into poets and lovers of poetry, bringing deeper meaning to our lives. Greg has a new book, Selected Books of the Beloved, that came out in August 2022.
S4:E27 Naomi Helena Quiñonez with Victoria Bañales
Celebrated Chicana poet Naomi Helena Quinoñez reads and discusses poems that thematize divine feminine power, women’s spirituality, racial oppression, social justice, and more.
Naomi Helena Quiñonez is a poet, educator and activist, and author of three collections of poetry, Exiled Moon, The Smoking Mirror, and Hummingbird Dream/Sueño de Colibri. Quiñonez edited several critical and literary publications including Invocation L.A: Urban Multicultural Poetry Anthology, which won the American Book Award, Decolonial Voices, and Caminos Magazine. She holds a Ph.D. in American History and contributes to the scholarship of Latino/as and women of color. Quiñonez has been featured throughout the country, including the Los Angeles Writers Festival, the Nuyrican Café, the De Young Museum, and the Miami Book Festival. She has shared the mic with Quincy Troupe, Octavia Butler, Luis Rodriguez, and Ana Castillo. Her work has appeared in the Colorado Review, Infinite Divisions, Voices of our Ancestors, and Maestrapeace. Recently Quiñonez received the Teyolia Community Award from the San Francisco International Flor Y Canto Festival. She’s also an honoree of the San Francisco Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a recipient of the Berkeley Lifetime Achievement Award in poetry, a Rockefeller Fellowship, the American Book Award, and a California Arts Grant. She is featured in Notable Hispanic Women and the Dictionary of Literary Biography. She currently lives in Oakland.
For more information about the author’s books or to purchase copies, contact Naomi Helena Quiñonez at naomiquinonez@yahoo.com
S4: E26 Rebecca Foust and Susan Cohen hosted by Dion O’Reilly
Listen HERE
Rebecca Foust and Susan Cohen. are longtime friends and have attended the same writing group for years. In this interview with Dion O’Reilly, they both read from their new books: Susan Cohen’s Democracy of Fire and Rebecca Foust’s ONLY.
S4:E25 Cate Kennedy Speaks with Dion O’Reilly
Cate Kennedy chats with Dion O’Reilly and reads from her book, The Taste of Water.
Listen HERE
Cate Kennedy is the author of two short story collections, a novel, three poetry collections and a memoir. Her awards include the Victorian Premier’s Literary Prize for Poetry for her collection “The Taste of River Water” (Scribe, 2011) and the NSW People’s Choice Award for her novel “The World Beneath” (Scribe 2009, published Australia, the U.S.A, the U.K, France and Hong Kong). Her short story collections are both on the Australian school syllabus as study texts. She teaches widely both in Australia and the U.S., and has just completed her PhD in Creative Writing.
S4:E24: Kemi Alabi Talks with Julia Chiapella
Listen HERE:
Kemi Alabi reads and discusses poems from her book Against Heaven which was selected by Claudia Rankine for the 2021 Academy of American Poets First Book Award. Find more about Kemi on her website and at the Academy of American Poets website. Against Heaven can be purchased on Amazon.
S4:E23 Tim Fitzmaurice talks with Farnaz Fatemi
Listen Here
Hear Tim Fitzmaurice talk about and read from his book of poems, The Things We Take With Us: New and Selected. We talk about writing, poodle personas, Santa Cruz, and community in poetry. Bonus tracks: Tim singing and playing guitar!
The Things We Take With Us is available in Santa Cruz at Bad Animal Books and Bookshop Santa Cruz and by contacting him at timfitz@ucsc.edu. That way the book is free with a contribution to the Prison Arts Project at williamjamesassociation.org.
You can find Tim on IG @tim.fitzmaurice1 and on Facebook
S4:E 22 Robert Sward Tribute Hosted by Julie Murphy
Listen HERE.
Please join poets and writers Charles Atkinson, Ellen Bass, Jack Foley, David Swanger, Hannah Sward and Ken Weisner celebrate the life and work of Santa Cruz’s beloved poet Robert Sward who died this past February. Hosted by Julie Murphy, this episode includes the guests’ favorite poems of Robert’s and their remarkable remembrances of him. Robert was a gifted poet, prolific writer, beloved friend, father and husband with a great sense of humor and deep insights.
Robert Sward 1933 – 2022
Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, 2016-2018, Robert Sward has taught at Cornell University, the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and UC Santa Cruz. A Fulbright scholar and Guggenheim Fellow, he was chosen by Lucille Clifton to receive a Villa Montalvo Literary Arts Award. His 30 books include: Four Incarnations (Coffee House Press), now in its second printing; Heavenly Sex; The Collected Poems (1957-2004); and THE TORONTO ISLANDS, a bestseller. Widely published in traditional literary magazines and anthologies, Sward has served as contributing editor to “Web Del Sol,” “Blue Moon Review,” and other online publications since 1995. Born and raised in Chicago, Robert Sward served in the U.S. Navy in the combat zone during the Korean War (1951-1953) and later worked for CBC Radio and as book reviewer and feature writer for The Toronto Star and The Globe & Mail.
S4:E21 Francesca Bell Chats with Dion O’Reilly
Listen HERE
Francesca Bell and Dion O’Reilly read some of their favorite poets and a few poems of the own. Francesca reads from her next book What Small Sound and her previous collection, Bright Stain. Dion reads from her debut collection, Ghost Dogs, and from her upcoming collection Sadness of the Apex Predator. They also read a little Maggie Smith and a few other favorites.
The Hive Poetry Collective 