Who brings you to praise? Rumi’s great poem of praise to the “you” is to his great friend Shams, and through that friendship, to God. Rumi was a 13th-century Muslim mystic and poet. He left behind a vast body of lyric poetry, metaphysical writings, lectures, and letters, which have influenced Persian, Urdu, and Turkish literature across the centuries. Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and educator of Persian descent born in New York City. She has sung and translated the poetry o...
Dec 12, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 23
What’s it like to be owned by the world, to have populations claiming you, to have millions speaking on your behalf? Naomi Shihab Nye takes a close look — from a distance — at Jesus, and herself. Naomi Shihab Nye is a professor of creative writing at Texas State University. From 2019-2021, Nye was the Young People's Poet Laureate through the Poetry Foundation. She is the author of You & Yours (BOA Editions 2005). Her more recent books include The Tiny Journalist (BOA Editions 2019), Voices i...
Dec 09, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 22
Quiet. Shhh. Softly. Don’t make a fuss. Don’t upset the authorities. Victoria Adukwei Bulley unquiets the quiet. Victoria Adukwei Bulley is a poet, writer, and artist. She is the author of Quiet (Faber Books 2022; Knopf 2023), which was shortlisted for the 2022 T.S. Eliot Prize. Bulley is currently a doctoral student at the Royal Holloway, University of London. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Victoria Adukwei Bulley’s poem, and invite you to connect with ...
Dec 05, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 21
On the day you wake to a broken window in your car, what do you do? And what happens when the woman repairing that window offers a glimpse of something new? Benjamín Naka-Hasebe Kingsley belongs to the Onondaga Nation of Indigenous Americans in New York. He is the author of Dēmos (Milkweed 2021), Colonize Me (Saturnalia 2019) , and Not Your Mama’s Melting Pot (University of Nebraska Press 2018) . Naka-Hasebe Kingsley is an assistant professor of English at Kalamazoo College. Find the transcript ...
Dec 02, 2022•18 min•Season 6Ep. 20
When you move to a new place, everything seems different. Hell’s not hot anymore; it’s freezing. A poem of strangeness and wonder. Dan Vera is a writer, editor, watercolorist, and literary historian. Vera is the author of two books of poetry: Speaking Wiri Wiri (Red Hen Press 2013) and The Space Between Our Danger and Delight (Beothuk Books 2008). His honors include the Oscar Wilde Award for Poetry (2017) and the Letras Latinas/Red Hen Poetry Prize (2012). Find the transcript for this show at on...
Nov 28, 2022•13 min•Season 6Ep. 19
Who decides what’s self care and what isn’t? Who benefits? Who pays? Upon whom does the burden of self care rest? Solmaz Sharif excavates. Solmaz Sharif is the author of Customs (Graywolf Press 2022) and Look (Graywolf Press 2016), and was a finalist for the National Book Award. She holds degrees from UC Berkeley, where she studied and taught with June Jordan’s Poetry for the People, and New York University. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Poetry, The Kenyon Review , the New...
Nov 25, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 18
Some friendships are built on small encounters and last a lifetime. Two women — from across culture, location, and age — spend a lifetime in communication. Dunya Mikhail is an Iraqi-American poet and writer. She is the author of Diary of a Wave Outside the Sea (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2009), The Iraqi Nights (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2014), The Beekeeper (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2018), In Her Feminine Sign (New Directions Publishing Corporation 2019), and...
Nov 21, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 17
At the hingepoint of change, a poet walks through the garden his late father planted. Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is a writer and visual artist. He is the author of two poetry collections: Ubasute (Slapering Hol Press 2021), which won the 2020 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition, and the full-length collection Common Grace (Beacon Press 2022). His honors include a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry, a St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award in Literature, and nominations for the P...
Nov 18, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Firefighting pushes the body to breaking point; Kevin Goodan’s poem locates the “ash-dark art” of firefighting not just in the wilderness where the team worked, but in the muscles of the firefighters. Kevin Goodan was born in Montana and raised on the Flathead Indian Reservation where his stepfather and brothers are tribal members. Goodan earned his BA from the University of Montana and worked as a firefighter for ten years with the U.S. Forest Service before receiving his MFA from University of...
Nov 14, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 15
Sometimes leaving feels like you’re splitting yourself in two, but you leave anyway. What compels us? What holds us together even as we look back? David Whyte’s poem combines pain and promise as someone is both departing and venturing at the same time. David Whyte is the author of many books of poetry and prose. He grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. He now makes his home in the Pacific Northwest of the United ...
Nov 11, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 14
What is the landscape that has most influenced you? When do you go there? In person? Andrés N. Ordorica goes in dreams. Andrés N. Ordorica is a queer Latinx writer based in Edinburgh. His writing attempts to map the journey of his diasporic experience and unpack what it means to be from ni de aquí, ni de allá. His writing has been published widely and he regularly features at festivals around the UK. He is the recipient of a Second Life grant through the Edwin Morgan Trust. In 2021, his fiction ...
Nov 07, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 13
If you were to use a metaphor for your worries, what metaphor would you turn to? Here, the worries have worry babies of their own. And they look back at the poet. What do they see? Laura Villareal is the author of Girl’s Guide to Leaving (University of Wisconsin Press 2022), The Cartography of Sleep (Nostrovia! Press 2018), and Poems to Carry in Your Pocket (L'Éphémère Review 2018). Villareal interviews writers for the series “Writers Talking about Anything But Writing” at F(r)iction . Find the ...
Nov 04, 2022•13 min•Season 6Ep. 12
The search for authentic love is a powerful hunger in humans and, as Stephanie Burt shares, in werewolves. Stephanie Burt is a poet, literary critic, and professor with nine published books, including two critical books on poetry and three poetry collections. Her essay collection Close Calls with Nonsense was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Her other works include We Are Mermaids ; Advice from the Lights ; The Poem Is You: 60 Contemporary American Poems and How to Read The...
Oct 31, 2022•13 min•Season 6Ep. 11
Do you experience disgust at the sight of certain insects? Which ones? Fiona Benson teaches us how to see. Fiona Benson is the author of several poetry collections including Bright Travellers (Jonathan Cape 2014), Vertigo & Ghost (Jonathan Cape 2019), and Ephemeron (Jonathan Cape 2022). She is the winner of the 2015 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for Bright Travellers and the Forward Prize for Vertigo & Ghost . In 2019, Fiona collaborated with sound artists Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas f...
Oct 28, 2022•16 min•Season 6Ep. 10
A man whose baby daughter has died turns to stars, mythology, and imagination for solace. There, he encounters what might help, a little. Saddiq Dzukogi is a poet and professor of English at Mississippi State University. He is the author of Your Crib, My Qibla (University of Nebraska Press, 2021), and winner of the 2021 Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Dzukogi is completing a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to o...
Oct 24, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 9
What do you do when what sustains you no longer sustains you? A poet tries everything he can to reconnect with his art. Adam Zagajewski was a Polish poet and novelist born at the end of World War II. English translations of his books of poetry include Mysticism for Beginners (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 1999), Without End (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2003), Eternal Enemies (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2009), and Asymmetry (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2019). Zagajewski was the recipient of a Guggenheim F...
Oct 21, 2022•13 min•Season 6Ep. 8
The sounds of a city can be overwhelming — but in the imagination of this poem, they are made into something new. Carolina Ebeid is a multimedia poet. Her first book, You Ask Me to Talk About the Interior , was published by Noemi Press as part of the Akrilica Series, and selected as one of ten best debuts of 2016 by Poets & Writers. Her work has been supported by the Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University, Bread Loaf, CantoMundo, as well as a residency fellowship from the Lannan Fo...
Oct 17, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 7
Asking for help is a thing of bravery. A poet describes her journey towards that help. Molly Twomey is a poet and editor from Lismore, County Waterford in Ireland. Twomey graduated in 2019 with a Masters in Creative Writing from University College Cork. Her work has been featured in Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, Banshee, The Irish Times, Mslexia, and The Stinging Fly, among other publications . Twomey is the host of the monthly poetry discussion “Just to Say,” sponsored by Jacar Press. H...
Oct 14, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 6
In the aftermath of disaster, how do you sing a song to mark what’s gone, and praise what’s growing? Hinemoana Baker is a writer and musician living in Berlin, Germany. Baker descends from the Ngāi Tahu tribe in the South Island of New Zealand and from Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa, and Te Āti Awa in the North Island. Baker is the author of several books of poetry including mātuhi | needle (Victoria University Press and Percival Press 2004), kōiwi kōiwi | bone bone (Victoria University Press 2010), a...
Oct 10, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 5
What’s a moment when you grew up? When you realized the help you get might not be the help you want? Jennifer Huang is the author of Return Flight , which was awarded the 2021 Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry from Milkweed Editions. Their poems have appeared in POETRY , The Rumpus , and Narrative Magazine , among other places. They have received recognition from the Academy of American Poets, Brooklyn Poets, and the North American Taiwan Studies Association. In 2020, Jennifer earned their MFA in P...
Oct 07, 2022•15 min•Season 6Ep. 4
After her father’s death, a poet considers her relationship with loss. Gabeba Baderoon is an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and African Studies at Penn State University and is the co-founder of the African Feminist Initiative at the university. She is the author of several collections of poetry, including The Dream in the Next Body (Kwela Books 2005), A hundred silences (Kwela Books 2006), and most recently, The History of Intimacy (Kwela Books 2018). Find ...
Oct 03, 2022•12 min•Season 6Ep. 3
Is there life after death? This poem says yes: where one life is part of a cycle of life that continues. Michael Kleber-Diggs is a poet, essayist, literary critic, and arts educator. His debut poetry collection, Worldly Things (Milkweed Editions 2021), won the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize, the 2022 Hefner Heitz Kansas Book Award in Poetry, the 2022 Balcones Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the 2022 Minnesota Book Award. Since 2016, Michael has been an instructor with the Minnesota Prison Writing W...
Sep 30, 2022•14 min•Season 6Ep. 2
A person is lost, and in panic. A calm voice says strangely comforting things. David Wagoner is the author of 24 poetry collections and 10 novels. He is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes (1977 and 1983) and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize (1991). Wagoner’s final collection of poetry, After the Point of No Return , was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer David Wagoner’s poem, and invite you to connect with Poetry Unboun...
Sep 26, 2022•13 min•Season 6Ep. 1
Poetry Unbound with host Pádraig Ó Tuama is back on Monday, September 26. Featured poets in this season include Rumi, Fiona Benson, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, and many more. New episodes released every Monday and Friday through December 16. Follow us on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Google Podcasts , Overcast , or wherever you listen. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising....
Sep 19, 2022•2 min
How far would you go for great love? And what distances would you cross? Yu Xiuhua is a poet from Hengdian, in Hubei, China. She became well known in 2014 with her online poem “Crossing Half of China to Sleep with You.” In 2015, her debut book sold fifteen thousand copies in one day. The New York Times named her one of the eleven most courageous women around the world in 2017. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Yu Xiuhua’s poem, and invite you to sign up her...
Jun 03, 2022•15 min•Season 5Ep. 16
When all eyes seem to lock on you, how do you cope with self-consciousness? How do you look back? Andy Jackson is a poet preoccupied with difference and embodiment. His first published book of poems, Among the Regulars , was shortlisted for the 2011 Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. Andy’s most recent poetry collection is Human Looking (Giramondo, 2021), shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Prize for Poetry. As he notes on his website, "these autobiographical and biographical poems speak with...
May 30, 2022•13 min•Season 5Ep. 15
Life can feel exhausting sometimes: how do you find rest? Tiana Clark is the author of the poetry collection, I Can’t Talk About the Trees Without the Blood (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2018), winner of the 2017 Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, and Equilibrium (Bull City Press, 2016), selected by Afaa Michael Weaver for the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. We’re pleased to offer Tiana Clark’s poem, and invite you to sign up here for the late...
May 27, 2022•17 min•Season 5Ep. 14
Sometimes when your world changes, it seems like everything turns towards you, fresh, new, and curious. Joshua Bennett is the author of The Sobbing School —which was a National Poetry Series selection and a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. He is also the author of Being Property Once Myself , Owed , The Study of Human Life , and Spoken Word: A Cultural History , which is forthcoming from Knopf. He has received fellowships and awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, the N...
May 23, 2022•14 min•Season 5Ep. 13
How would you tell your own creation myth? Who — or what — would be in it? Abigail Chabitnoy is the author of How to Dress a Fish (Wesleyan 2019), winner of the 2020 Colorado Book Award for Poetry and shortlisted in the international category of the 2020 Griffin Prize for Poetry. Most recently, she was the recipient of the Witter Bynner Funded Native Poet Residency at Elsewhere Studios in Paonia, CO, and is a mentor for the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA in Creative Writing. She is a Koni...
May 20, 2022•11 min•Season 5Ep. 12
In the face of wonder, we can sometimes lose ourselves. M. Soledad Caballero is Professor of English and chair of the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Allegheny College. Her first collection, titled I Was a Bell , won the 2019 Benjamin Saltman Poetry Award. Her scholarly work focuses on British Romanticism, travel writing, post-colonial literatures, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, and interdisciplinarity. She splits her time between Pittsburgh and Meadville, Pennsylvania. Fi...
May 16, 2022•15 min•Season 5Ep. 11
