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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

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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.

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Journal X poets Carla Schick, Claudia Ramírez Flores, and GusTavo A. Guerra Vásquez read and discuss their poems, touching upon themes of racial oppression, jazz, homophobia, border violence, culture, ancestry, “Watsón(ville)”, and more. Journal X, also known as Xinachtli Journal, is a literary/arts magazine focusing on social justice issues. To read the journal, visit https://www.cabrillo.edu/journal-x/.

About the poets:

Carla Schick is a Queer activist for liberation, educator and union activist, lover of jazz and language. They have worked for an education system that empowers our students. Published in SF City College’s Forum, Milvia Street, Sinister Wisdom, Earth’s Daughters, and online, at The Write Launch and A Gathering of the Tribes, they received their Certificate in Creative Writing/Poetry from Berkeley City College. 

Claudia Ramírez Flores is a poet, fearless writer and Mexican immigrant who highlights crucial social issues in our world by writing about immigration, mental health, death and healing. She seeks to give a voice to the thousands of missing people in México. She has studied at Cabrillo College, UC Berkeley and Yale University. 

GusTavo Adolfo Guerra Vásquez (he/him) is a multimedia artist whose work has been featured in La Raíz, Fingir, Arte Latino Now, The Coiled Serpent, and The Wandering Song. A GuatemaLAngelino, GusTavo facilitates artistic workshops on poetry and social justice through his consulting work on inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility leadership. You can see his work at IDEALbridges.com or follow him on instagram as @poetartista. You can subscribe to his YouTube channel at gMeing. GusTavo lived in Santa Cruz and Watsonville during the 1990’s where he organized cultural events like “Noche de Artistas” and the “Sabor a Chocolate” art exhibit.

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Join host Julia Chiapella and guest teacher, writer, and poet Patrice Vecchione as they chat about grief, feminism, and reckoning with a parent’s death. Julia will also share poems by students participating in the Young Writers Program’s Word Lab.

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Joe Millar chats with Dion O’Reilly about the value of emotion and feeling in poetry. He reads from his fabulous new collection Dark Harvest.  

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Kelli Russell Agodon Chats with Dion O’Reilly about her newest book, Dialogues with Rising Tides (Copper Canyon Press) and her previous book Hourglass Museum, finalist for the Washington State Book Award  and the Julie Suk Prize. They discuss eco-poetry and read one of Kelli’s favorite poems, Small Kindnesses by Danusha Laméris.

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Please listen to this episode of the Hive with Rick Barot interviewed by Julie Murphy.  Rick reads a poem by Joy Harjo’s as well as several of his new poems. Join our conversation of poetry as elegy, the power of image and metaphor, and writing in difficult times. 

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Shara McCallum reads from and discusses her book No Ruined Stone, a finalist for the 2022 Rilke Prize. Join us as we explore this riveting alternate history that spans Scotland and Jamaica, colonialism and self-determination, the literary tradition and the individual poet. Hear Shara’s wonderful stories about the making of her sensitive and searching new collection.

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Reading from her debut poetry collection, Earth, My Witness, Magdalena Montagne discusses the power of poetry and nature in her healing journey as a survivor of child sexual abuse. “When I despaired, Earth held me,” she writes in her eponymous poem. Magdalena also shares recent poetry about BLM and social oppression. 

A long-time facilitator of drop-in writing workshops, Magdalena Montagne has collaborated with libraries throughout northern California to bring her Community Poetry Circles to participants of all ages. She has also worked with elders in assisted living facilities for almost a decade, bringing her WisdomVerse curriculum to those with Alzheimer’s and other cognitive and physical impairments. Magdalena has worked with California Poets in the Schools, Poetry Out Loud, the Arts Council Santa Cruz County, and more. Her poetry has been published in literary journals and her first book, Earth, My Witness, was published in 2020 by Finishing Line Press.

To order the book: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/earth-my-witness-by-magdalena-montagne/

Website: https://www.poetrycirclewithmagdalena.com/To be added to her email list for announcements and teaching schedule: magdamontagne@gmail.com

Perhaps our most appropriate guest ever on The Hive: former Santa Cruzan Erica Gillingham discusses her debut poetry chapbook, The Human Body Is a Hive, a rich collection about queer love and queer family-making. Listen to Erica read from the book and share her pursuit of telling lesbian love stories in poems, “making a baby with science,” and other revealing topics. With a guest cameo from her newborn son.

For U.S. orders, check out bookdepository.org

Follow Erica on IG or Twitter @ericareadsqueer

Listen HERE as Shelley Wong reads from and talks about her debut collection, As She Appears, out May 10 from Yes Yes Books. Shelley talks with Farnaz Fatemi about the making of the book, building your own canon of self-love, and how poems help when the world erases or distorts. Find out why Electric Lit called Shelley Wong “the poet-queen the world needs right now.” 

Shelley Wong is the author of As She Appears (YesYes Books, May 2022), winner of the 2019 Pamet River Prize. Her poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Best American Poetry, Kenyon Review, and New England Review. She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from Kundiman, MacDowell, and Vermont Studio Center. She is an affiliate artist at Headlands Center for the Arts and lives in San Francisco.