The hosts get familiar with the poetry of three Hof(f)man(n)s--Carlie, Michael, and Richie. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Visit Carlie Hoffman on the web here . She is the author of three books, most recently One More Like This World (Four Way, 2025). We read these poems by Carlie: Point of View Where Orpheus Makes a Pit Stop a...
Aug 18, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 11
How do poets write about place, and how does place shape a poet? Play along as the queens place these poems! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Poems/Poets mentioned in this week's show include: Traci Brimhall, " Shelter in Place. " Visit Brimhall's website here . And you can watch her craft talk on revision here (1 hour). José Oliv...
Aug 11, 2025•28 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Touchstones part 1 hit so good, we decided to go another round! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Poems mentioned in this episode: Tomas Transtromer: " The Name " (translated by May Swenson with Leif Sjöberg) Cornelius Eady: " My Heart " Eady also turned Brutal Imagination into a play, too, and you can read the Variety review here . Wayne Koes...
Aug 04, 2025•32 min•Season 3Ep. 9
The queens play poetry matchmakers and nine months later, boom, there's a poetry baby! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Robyn Schiff's most recent book is Information Desk: An Epic (Penguin Poets, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024). Read more about Karyna McGlynn's book I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl Check out Randall Mann'...
Jul 28, 2025•25 min•Season 3Ep. 8
The gals talk foundational poems--and they might just surprise you! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Quan Barry's "The 1986 Apple Super Bowl Commercial as Intervention" refers to this iconic 1984 Apple Computer commercial aired during the SuperBowl. The Brigit Pegeen Kelly poem we mention is "Three Cows and the Moon" was originally published ...
Jul 21, 2025•30 min•Season 3Ep. 7
The library is open--to prose the queens find indispensable for poets! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. You can find John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason here. Check out an excerpt in the NYT from Michael Schmidt Lives of the Poets. Here's an NPR review of Olivia Laing's Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. For more about Agnes Martin by Olivia Lai...
Jul 14, 2025•33 min•Season 3Ep. 6
The queens put the "arch" in "archive" and rediscover some favorite poetry blasts from the past. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Listen to a reading Scott Cohen gave with poet Tom Weatherly at St. Mark's Poetry Project in 1968. Read his poem " Coke " from a 1971 issue of The Paris Review. David Henderson was raised in Harlem and helped to fo...
Jul 07, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 4
The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Read a bit more about Spencer Williams's Tranz, including from the poem "Laramie" in the book, here . Watch this reading celebrating the Transgender Day of Visibility, featuring some poets from our episode...
Jun 30, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 3
The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Check out Toni Morrison's 1987 eulogy for James Baldwin in the New York Times. We read from Fran Lebowitz's remembrance of her friend Toni Morrison, printed in the Paris Review. If you haven't already, rea...
Jun 23, 2025•31 min•Season 3Ep. 2
The Breaking Form broads recount their poetic travels abroad in this Season 3 opener. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: The David Hockney retrospective in Paris is on view until August 31. For more about his painting "Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy," click here . For more about Hockney and the Muse, read " David Hockney's Literary Influen...
Jun 16, 2025•32 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Jun 09, 2025•26 min•Season 2Ep. 22
Jun 02, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 21
May 26, 2025•24 min•Season 2Ep. 20
May 19, 2025•28 min•Season 2Ep. 19
The queens boil down the essence of some favorite poems and poets in this game that decides what poetry is *really* about. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Read the NY Times review of Michael Schmidt's The Lives of the Poets Listen to James Merrill read his poem " For Proust " and while we're on the subject, here's a madeleine recipe ....
May 12, 2025•27 min•Season 2Ep. 18
If you're looking to submit, the queens have some advice for you! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Check out On the Seawall: a community gallery of new writing, art and commentary hosted by poet Ron Slate. Here's some great advice about submitting & publishing poetry. Here's another good article about submitting to literary magazin...
May 05, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 17
The ladies ask AI to write poems about Brad Pitt's butt. It’s not so bad Brad, sad Brad, is it? Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Aaron's "Brad Pitt" appeared in his first book, Blue on Blue Ground . Read the poem here. Here's the official video for the Miley Cyrus song "End of the World" and here's a remix that is rocking our worlds, t...
Apr 28, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 16
The queens discuss and revise a recent list of "best poetry," adding other tops (& bottoms & verses & sides, you get the point, miss thing). Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: For a few lists of best 21st Century poetry: The Atlantic (which we read in the show). The New York Times Read Mark Strand's titular poem " Man and Cam...
Apr 21, 2025•39 min•Season 2Ep. 15
The queens dish this year’s AWP Conference! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Notes: The Association of Writers and Writing Programs can be found online at www.awpwriter.org Marcela Fuentes is the author of the award-winning novel Malas and you can find her online at https://www.marcelafuentes.com Check out the exhibit Flesh World at Central S...
Apr 14, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 14
Get in, gurl, we're reading poetry at your unfriendly neighborhood leather bar. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Learn more about Tom of Finland , the artist name of Finnish Touko Laaksonen who signed his erotic work "Tom." Follow messygayspod on Instagram, or @messygays.bsky.social on Blue Sky, or on FB at MessyGaysPod Read Heather Mc...
Apr 07, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 13
The queens super-gay it up with Stephanie Burt, the editor of the new poetry anthology, SUPER GAY POEMS. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Check out SUPER GAY POEMS: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall , edited by Stephanie Burt, out on April 1, 2025. Read Hera Lindsay Bird's " Bisexuality " Check out Best New Zealand Poets and 20 Contempor...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 12
We're talking resistance, joy, and queer communities with Brenda Shaughnessy! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Click here for Brenda’s Queer Resistance Playlist 2025 (Spotify). Check out Brenda's poem " Panopticon " from Interior with Sudden Joy . Visit Brenda Shaughnessy’s website . And hear her read from her newest book, Tanya here ....
Mar 24, 2025•53 min•Season 2Ep. 11
The queens get to the poetic essence with the help of erasure and re-envisioning. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: The Nicole Sealey poem we read at the end of the episode comes from the first four pages of her book The Ferguson Report: An Erasure We revise poems by: Robert Bly, " The Beauty of Women " George Herbet, " Death " Dean You...
Mar 17, 2025•29 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Join the thirsty queens for a gin & Sextonic, in this tribute to the iconic work of Anne Sexton. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. NOTES: Click here for a pdf from the Poetry Society that includes a folio of essays about Sexton's life and work by David Trinidad, Lois Ames, and Maggie Nelson. (Originally published in Crossroads, fall 2001.)...
Mar 10, 2025•31 min•Season 2Ep. 9
The queens talk with gay literary icon Edmund White about his new book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. (Miguel Murphy joins in the fun, too!) Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Miguel's SHORE DITCH is available from Barrow Street. You can purchase Edmund White's new book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir , at BookWoman here. Bookwoman wa...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 8
The queens prove that it's not the size of the ship but the motion etc etc in this episode devoted to short poems. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please with Aaron's cherry on top..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. Poems we mention in the show include: A.R. Ammons's " Their Sex Life " Rae Armantrout's " Anti-Short Story " and " Custom " Mahogany L....
Feb 24, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Get out your UV lights & swabs--the queens play a game that fuses poems, then guess the poetic DNA samples. Then we spark up a fusion of a different strain! Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Watch Jools Lebron get mindful and demure here , diva Don't soak tampons in vodka. Poems we discuss in t...
Feb 17, 2025•30 min•Season 2Ep. 6
The queens get sassy and sissify toxic cisheteronormative gender ideas about poetry. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. The site in such desperate need of sissification (and better poets) can be found here. Or just skip to a queer critique here and/or to Esther Wang's super smart deep-dive takedown " My Brief H...
Feb 10, 2025•32 min•Season 2Ep. 5
The queens discuss gay icon status with Brenda Hillman--and then launch in to a revisit of several of her poems, including her fabulous "Male Nipples." Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. You can see readings by Brenda Hillman here (one poem, ~4 min, 2020), here (20min, 2012), and here (2024, poetry and conversa...
Feb 03, 2025•54 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Candle-extinguishing butts, 3am afterparties, collections of seamen (and semen)--this dishy tour of Langston Hughes's love life will leave you gagging with the gays. Please Support Breaking Form! Review the show on Apple Podcasts here. Pretty Please..... Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books. SHOW NOTES: Watch Hughes recite his poem, " The Weary Blues " to jazz accompaniment on tv in 1958. You can chec...
Jan 27, 2025•33 min•Season 2Ep. 3
