Join Chris and Courtney of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Jae Nichelle, poet of page and stage, in a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! With over 50 million views on Facebook and 1 million on YouTube, Jae Nichelle is a viral spoken word artist based in Atlanta by way of Louisiana. Her work has been featured in Best New Poets 2020 and on several poetry platforms, and she's been winning poetry slams since she was 16. Her guilty pleasures include crop tops, taco bel...
Feb 16, 2022•25 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Join Chris and Courtney in a sit down with Praise Osawaru, Contributing Editor at Barren Magazine, Reader for Chestnut review, and 1st place winner of the 2021 Valiant Scribe Poetry Prize. Praise Osawaru (he/him) is a writer of Bini descent. A Best of the Net, Pushcart Prize, and Nina Riggs Poetry Award nominee; his work appears or is forthcoming in Agbowó, FIYAH, Frontier Poetry, Down River Road, The Maine Review, and Savant-Garde, among others. He's the first-place winner of the 2021 Valiant S...
Feb 14, 2022•25 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Join Chris, of The Poetry Question, in a one-on-one with KB, author of How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press), about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! KB Brookins (also known as KB) is a Black/queer/transmasculine poet, essayist, artivist, and cultural worker from Stop Six, Fort Worth, Texas. Their poems are published or forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Electric Literature, Cincinnati Review, and other places; their essays are published in Teen Vogue, Autostradd...
Feb 09, 2022•20 min•Season 2Ep. 3
Join Chris and Courtney of The Poetry Question as they sit down for a talk with Seema Reza about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Seema Reza is the author of A Constellation of Half-Lives & When the World Breaks Open. Based in Maryland, she has led writing workshops within correctional facilities, military and civilian hospitals, elementary and secondary schools, and universities. She is the CEO of Community Building Art Works, a unique arts organization that encourages the use of th...
Feb 07, 2022•24 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Join Chris and Courtney of The Poetry Question in a sit down with Gabrielle Bates about passion, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Gabrielle Bates is a writer and visual artist originally from Birmingham, Alabama. Her debut collection of poems, JUDAS GOAT, is forthcoming from Tin House in 2023. Bates's work has appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Ploughshares, APR, Virginia Quarterly Review, New England Review, Gulf Coast, Mississippi Review, Black Warrior Review, the Best of the Net antho...
Feb 02, 2022•21 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Chris and Courtney sit down with Joel Leon, storyteller, father, poet, and recovering rapper, to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Joel L. Daniels, also known as Joel Leon, is a performer, author and story-teller who writes and tells stories for Black people. Born and raised in the Bronx, Joel specializes in moderating and leading conversations surrounding race, masculinity, mental health, creativity and the performing arts, with love at the center of his work and purpose. He i...
Dec 29, 2021•28 min•Season 1Ep. 26
Chris sits down with Darius Simpson, winner of the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship, to talk about all things passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Darius Simpson is a writer, educator, performer, and skilled living room dancer from Akron, Ohio. He received his BA in Political Science from Eastern Michigan University and his MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Mills College. Darius was a recipient of the 2020 Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fello...
Dec 27, 2021•25 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Chris and Courtney sit down with poet, screenwriter, and essayist, Melissa Lozada-Oliva, to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Melissa Lozada-Oliva is a Guatelombian (Guatemalan-Colombian) American poet and screenwriter living in Brooklyn by way of Massachusetts. Their book peluda (Button Poetry 2017) explores the intersections of Latina identity, feminism, hair removal & what it means to belong. Their novel-in-verse Dreaming of You is about bringing Selena back to life thro...
Dec 22, 2021•17 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Chris and Courtney sit down with Kazim Ali, Editor/Founder of Nightboat Books, and Department Chair for Literature at UC San Diego, about all things passions, process, pitfalls, poetry... and Choose Your Own Adventure! KAZIM ALI was born in the United Kingdom and has lived transnationally in the United States, Canada, India, France, and the Middle East. His books encompass multiple genres, including the volumes of poetry Inquisition, Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far ...
Dec 20, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 23
Chris sits down for a one-on-one with Reagan Myers, author of Afterwards (Button Poetry), to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, poetry... and YA lit! Reagan Myers Instagram @reagancmyers | Facebook @reagancmyers | Twitter @reagancmyers Reagan is the youngest Grand Slam champion to ever come out of Nebraska, and was the first woman to hold the title in seven years. She’s been to two National Poetry Slams as a member of the Omaha team, founded and represented the University of Nebraska-Lincol...
Dec 15, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 22
Chris and Courtney sit down with Charles K. Carter, author of Salem Revisited (WordTech Poetry), to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Charles K. Carter is a queer poet and educator from Iowa. He shares his home with his artist husband and their spoiled pets. He enjoys film, yoga, and live music. Melissa Etheridge is his ultimate obsession. Carter has an MA in creative writing with a poetry concentration from Southern New Hampshire University and an MFA in writing from Lindenwoo...
Dec 13, 2021•15 min•Season 1Ep. 21
Chris sits down with Alan Chazaro, author of Piñata Theory and This Isn't a Frank Ocean Cover Album (Black Lawrence Press), to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Alan Chazaro's Website Bio: I write about things. After 10 years working as a public high school teacher in Louisiana, Massachusetts, and California, I decided to pursue my creative interests more seriously and have been living as a freelancer who travels when I can to enjoy cultures around the world. I'm a San Francisc...
Dec 08, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 20
Courtney and Chris sit down with Hannah Cohen, author of Year of the Scapegoat (coming Spring of '22 from Glass Poetry), to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Hannah Cohen resides in Virginia with her two cats. She's a graduate of the Queens University of Charlotte MFA program. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks: YEAR OF THE SCAPEGOAT (Glass Poetry Press, 2022) and BAD ANATOMY (2018). Hannah is one of the co-editors of the online literary journal Cotton Xenomorph. Publica...
Dec 06, 2021•22 min•Season 1Ep. 19
Chris sits down with Patrick Roche, author of A Socially Acceptable Breakdown (Button Poetry), for a one-on-one conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Patrick Roche (he/him) is an award-winning poet, performer, mental health advocate, and Carly Rae Jepsen enthusiast from New Jersey. Videos of Patrick’s work have amassed over 9.5 million views on YouTube, making him one of the most popular spoken word poets. Patrick has competed or been featured at multiple national and inter...
Dec 01, 2021•26 min•Season 1Ep. 18
Chris and Courtney sit down with Ashley Elizabeth, author of You Were Supposed to be a Friend (Nightengale & Sparrow), for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Ashley Elizabeth (she/her) is a writing consultant, teacher, and poet. Her works have appeared in SWWIM, Rigorous, and Kahini Quarterly, among others. Her chapbook, you were supposed to be a friend, is available from Nightingale & Sparrow. When Ashley isn’t serving as assistant editor at Sundress Publicati...
Nov 29, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 17
Chris sits down for a one-on-one conversation with Taylor Byas, author of Bloodwarm (Variant Lit), for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Taylor Byas is a Black poet and essayist. Originally from Chicago, she moved to Alabama for six years, where she received both her Bachelor’s degree in English and her Master’s degree in English (Creative Writing concentration) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Taylor currently lives in Cincinnati, Ohio where she is a thi...
Nov 24, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Join Courtney and Chris Margolin for a sit down with DeMisty D. Bellinger, author of Peculiar Heritage (Mason Jar Press), for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! DeMisty D. Bellinger is the author of the poetry collections Rubbing Elbows (Finishing Line Press, 2017) and Peculiar Heritage (Mason Jar Press, 2021), and the forthcoming novel New to Liberty (Unnamed Press, 2022). A graduate of the MFA program at Southampton College and the PhD program at the University of Ne...
Nov 22, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Chris sits down for a one-on-one conversation with Jose Hernandez Diaz on passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Jose Hernandez Diaz is a 2017 NEA Poetry Fellow. He is the author of a collection of prose poems: The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). He holds degrees in English and Creative Writing from UC Berkeley and Antioch University Los Angeles. His work appears in The American Poetry Review, Cincinnati Review, Georgia Review, Huizache, Iowa Review, The Nation, Poetry, and in The Best ...
Nov 17, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Courtney & Chris Margolin sit down with Rita Mookerjee of Honey Literary to discuss all things passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Rita Mookerjee is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Iowa State University. Her research interests include postcolonial women's literature, food studies, and queer theory. She holds a PhD in Literature from Florida State University. In 2019-2020, she was a Fulbright Fellow to Jamaica. Her critical work has been featu...
Nov 15, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Chris Margolin sits down one-on-one with Ariana Brown for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! ARIANA BROWN is a Black Mexican American poet with ten years of experience writing, performing, and teaching poetry. She offers a list of services for college events, poetry slams, and local organizations. Her work focuses on Black relationality, queer kinship, and imagining a world where Black girls are free. She is currently on tour with Alan Pelaez Lopez as part of the We Ar...
Nov 10, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Courtney and Chris Margolin sit down with Chen Chen for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry. They might also talk about Russian literature, Buffy, and the horrors of getting sucked down a mall escalator. This is quite the conversation! 陳琛 / Chen Chen’s second book of poetry, Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in Sept. 2022. His debut, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017), was l...
Nov 08, 2021•24 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Courtney and Chris sit down with Dare Williams for a conversation about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Dare Williams: A 2019 PEN America Emerging Voices Fellow, Dare Williams is a Queer HIV-positive poet, artist, rooted in Southern California. He has received fellowships from John Ashbury Home School and The Frost Place. He is a co-producer of the reading series Word of Mouth which raises money for communities facing food and nutrition inequities and was the co-curator of the WeHo Read...
Nov 03, 2021•16 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Chris and Courtney sit down with Deesha Philyaw to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Deesha Philyaw’s debut short story collection, The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, won the 2021 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, the 2020/2021 Story Prize, and the 2020 LA Times Book Prize: The Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction and was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. The Secret Lives of Church Ladies focuses on Black women, sex, and the Black church, and is being ada...
Nov 01, 2021•19 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Chris sits down for a one-on-one conversation with Sarah Kersey about passions, process, pitfalls, and Poetry! Sarah Kersey is a poet and x-ray tech from New Jersey. Her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Hellebore, Mortar Magazine, Ghost City Review, The Harpoon Review, and elsewhere. She is an Associate Editor of South Florida Poetry Journal. She tweets @sk__poet.
Oct 27, 2021•20 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Chris and Courtney sit down with Denzel Scott to discuss passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Denzel Xavier Scott earned his BA in English from the University of Chicago and received his Writing MFA at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in his hometown of Savannah, GA. His works appear in Spillway, Decomp, Euphony Journal, and Blacklight Magazine of the University of Chicago, Bombay Gin literary magazine of Naropa University, the Missing Slate literary magazine, Apeiron Review, based ...
Oct 25, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Chris sits solo with Todd Dillard to discuss passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! Todd Dillard grew up in Houston, Texas, completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Houston with a concentration in creative writing and poetry. From there, he moved to New York to study in the creative writing program at Sarah Lawrence College, where he received his MFA in poetry in 2008. After living for a few years in Brooklyn and the Bronx, Todd moved to Philadelphia with his wife to start a fa...
Oct 20, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Courtney and Chris sit down with George Abraham, author of Birthright (Button Poetry), to talk about passions, process, pitfalls, and poetry! George Abraham is a Palestinian American poet and writer from Jacksonville, FL. Their debut poetry collection Birthright (Button Poetry, 2020) won the Arab American Book Award and the Big Other Book Award in Poetry, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Bisexual Poetry, and was named on Best of 2020 lists with The Asian American Writers' Workshop...
Oct 18, 2021•27 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Chris sits down for a one-on-one with Elizabeth Horan. Elisabeth Horan is a poet, mother, and small press publisher living in the wilds of Vermont. She is the author of numerous poetry chapbooks and collections, and the Editor-In-Chief of Animal Heart Press. Elisabeth is passionate about discovering new voices and mentoring emerging poets. She is also a fierce advocate for those impacted by mental illness.
Oct 13, 2021•21 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Chris and Courtney sit down with Danez Smith to talk about Passion, Process, Pitfalls, and Poetry! Danez Smith is a Black, Queer, Poz writer & performer from St. Paul, MN. Danez is the author of “Homie” (Graywolf Press, 2020), "Don’t Call Us Dead" (Graywolf Press, 2017), winner of the Forward Prize for Best Collection, the Midwest Booksellers Choice Award, and a finalist for the National Book Award, and "[insert] boy" (YesYes Books, 2014), winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the Lam...
Oct 11, 2021•23 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Courtney sits down with the legendary Ebony Stewart for a special one-on-one edition of TPQ20 Ebony Stewart is an international touring poet and performance artist. Her work speaks to the black experience, with emphasis on gender, sexuality, womanhood, and race, with the hopes to be relatable, remove shame, heal minds, encourage dialogue, and inspire folks in marginalized communities. As one of the most decorated poets in Texas, Ebony is a respected coach & mentor, one of the top touring poe...
Oct 06, 2021•18 min•Season 1Ep. 2
