Claim OwnershipBreaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast
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© 2025 Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast
Description
James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.
215 Episodes
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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...
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 h...
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...
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 Randa...
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 ...
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 abo...
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...
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 p...
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 have...
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...
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Iron Maiden actually has a number of songs based on literature. 😁