Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

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: We read poems by Kelli Russell Agodon and Afaa Michael Weaver. Learn more about Afaa Michael Weaver here: https://www.theshipmanagency.com/afaa-michael-weaver Check out Kelli Russell Agodon's website: https://www.agodon.com/index.html

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: We read poems by Jonterri Gadson & Patrica Traxler Check out Jonterri Gadson's website: https://www.jonterrigadson.com/ You can read more about Patricia Traxler on this Wikipedia page.

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: We read poems by Mary Helen Callier & Virginia Chase Sutton Check out Mary Helen Callier's website: https://maryhelencallier.com/ Check out Virginia Chase Sutton's website: https://www.virginiachasesutton.com/

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: We read poems by David Hernandez and Dorian Elizabeth Knapp. Check out Dorian Elizabeth Knapp's website: https://dorianelizabethknapp.com/ Check out David Hernandez's website: http://www.davidahernandez.com/

Nerd tops, dom tops, soft tops: the queens go gaga over a discussion of their top poems by favorite 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. SHOW NOTES: Poems and poets discussed in this episode include: Sharon Olds: "The Race"; "Topography"; "First" Louise Glück: "Widows"; "Celestial Music"; "The Mirror" (text); "The Mir...

Let's get trioleted, girls! The queens delve into some fun poetic forms. 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. Watch TLC's music video for "No Scrubs" Discover more about Jehanne Dubrow's The Arranged Marriage, about which Claudia Rankine writes,"The poet here is positioned to observe, to picture, and to record in order to communic...

Tracy K. Smith joins for the Breaking Form Interview to discuss her new book of prose about poetry, Fear Less. 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: See Tracy K. Smith read from Life on Mars at the Kelly Writers' House . Here's a reminiscence of Lucie Brock-Broido by her student, Stephanie Burt. Read more Brock-Broido-...

Sometimes poetry is a shield. 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 and poets mentioned in this episode include: Galway Kinnell, "Prayer" A. Van Jordan, "Details Torn from MacNolia’s Diary." Read a consideration of the book on Poetry Daily here. Jaime Gil de Biedma, "Contra Jaime Gil de Biedma" and the tra...

The ladies break out the poetry crystal ball and predict the winner of the 2025 National Book Award for Poetry. 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: The 76th National Book Awards Ceremony will be streamed live on Wednesday, November 19, 2025, at 8:00 PM EST. You can watch the free livestream by registering on the National Bo...

The queens revisit and sing the praises of Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Song." 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: You can read the text of "Song" here. And read more about BPK here. James was wrong: "Song" was published in the Autumn 1993 issue of The Southern Review. Thanks to C.Dale Young for the correction! In ...

The queens put the SIS in ekphrasis! 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: The Greek word ekphrasis (ἔκφρασις) is derived from the Greek prefix ek- ("out") and the verb phrazein ("to speak," "to explain," or "to show"). The combination translates to "to speak out," "to speak clearly and completely," or "to show clearly." ...

The queens talk with David Duchovny about poetry, Lacanian psychotherapy, love, the future perfect, and the lost 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. SHOW NOTES: David Duchovny's new book, About Time, is just out from Akashic Books. David was interviewed about the book on PBS--watch it here. You can catch some of David...

The queens select some very poetic bachelors and decide where they'd read them on their date. 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: Poets and poems mentioned include: "blessing the boats" by Lucille Clifton Joe Wenderoth's book, Letters to Wendy, "June 3, 1997" Li-Young Lee, "This Room and Everything In It" Frank O'Hara, "Hav...

The queens descend upon Pittsburgh for a bittersweet (but dishy) tribute for Ed Ochester (1939-2023). 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: For more about the weekend events and about Ed Ochester's impact on American poetry, read here and here and here. The Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize carries a cash award of $5,000 and ...

The ladies pair poets together that prove complementary--or contrarian! 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 Gary Jackson's website. In this interview, Marie Howe talks a bit about Lucille Clifton and feminist poetry. You can listen here to Carl Phillips read and engage in conversation after with Lia Purpura at the Eno...

The judgy Judies play Toss or Keep to help their friend Tommy downsize his poetry library. 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: Some of the poems/poets/people mentioned in this episode include: Robert Creeley, "I Know a Man" which you can read here and listen to Creeley read here. And here's a roundtable discussion of the po...

The ladies get manifesto on that butt! (And mouth.) 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: Read more about D.H. Lawrence here. Read William Carlos Williams's "Paterson" here and "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" here. Jericho Brown writes about A.E. Housman in Mentor to Muse here Read Dylan Thomas's poem "A Refu...

The queens summon lines designed to stop readers in their tracks. 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: Sharon Olds says that early in her poetic career, when she'd send out her poems, "[t]hey came back often with very angry notes." Receipt here. W.H. Auden's "Funeral Blues", or "Stop all the clocks" appeared in ...

The queens are joined by poetry crush Richard Siken, & talk heroes, rabbits, robots, & healing. 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: You can order I Do Know Some Things here. Visit Richard Siken's website here, and read work from the new book. Read Christopher Nelson's review of I Do Know Some Things here. ...

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: P...