Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens have one thing to say: you better werk!Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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:Click here to read Philip Levine's "What Work Is"Read more about Philip LevineRead Ada Límon's poem “How We Are Made” dedicated to Levine, who was her teacher. Límon talks about Levine in this interv...

Snap INTO it, girlarina! The queens re-cast Cher movies with poets.Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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:Read Patricia Smith's "Incendiary Art."Here's Cher's cover of “Shoop Shoop (It's in His Kiss)." And here's Merry Clayton's version.Cher starred in the movie Mask, which was released ...

The queens get all Brenda on that Brenda, you Brenda? Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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:Read more about Brenda Coultas here. Watch Coultas read with Alice Notley here (1 hour). And read this conversation between Coultas and Stacy Szymaszek. Watch the best of Brenda Walsh’s outf...

Join the Salami Sisters for this episode of The Real Housef*gs of Breaking Form. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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:Soufiane Ababri is the artist we talk about whose series of artworks is Bedwork / Yes I AMHere are are versions (one & two & three) of Dickinson's "One need not...

The queens get out their big smooth (crystal) balls to predict the National Book Award shortlist in poetry. Play along! The shortlist is announced Oct. 1. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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:You can find the National Book Awards longlists for fiction, translation, young people's liter...

Your favorite bridesmaids are (drunk and dis)orderly in this episode about writing for special occasions. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESHere's a cinematic example of an epithalamion--an e.e. Cummings poem (from In Her Shoes).James’s poem “A Monument for This Morning” appears on p...

The queens are all lubed up and waiting for you in the badlands that is Breaking Form.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESSee Beckian Fritz Goldberg read poems here (at 1:04 mark)Our friend Maureen Seaton died on August 26, 2023. Watch her read poems for Alaska Quarter...

Go tell it on the mountain, darlings! Join the queens for a special Breaking Form report on the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESIf you don't know about Absolutely Fabulous, which first ran from 1992-95, you're missing out. Catch Edina...

Join the queens for this last poetry salon, where we highlight fabulous poets we haven't discussed much on the show.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Settle in for this fourth poetry salon, a show as jam-packed with radiant pleasure as a dark room in Rehoboth.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

This Summer Salon has zero tan-lines and a ton of fabulous poetry! If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Who wears short shorts? Celebrate summer with the queens as we read poets we haven't focused on before.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 Breaking Form girls are taking a little August break, but we still want to brighten your summer with poems!

Spill all the tea but spill it slant with the Breaking Form queens in this episode dedicated to the art of secrets.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESCougar Town is an American television sitcom that ran for six seasons, from 2009 to 2015. See the best moment of Lauri...

Aaron and James revisit an iconic poem about queer duty and erasure by Essex Hemphill.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESRead Hemphill's biographical sketch on the Poetry Foundation.We reference Hemphill's canonical poem, which you can read: "American Wedding" (listen...

Spill all the tea but spill it slant with the Breaking Form queens in this episode dedicated to the art of secrets.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESMadonna's "Secret" was the lead single off of her sixth album, Bedtime Stories. Watch the video here. Read Sharon...

Knock knock, darlings! Join the queens as we talk about funny poems.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESWatch Stacey Waite give a full reading here (at 38:00); here's Stacey reading one poem: "The Kind of Man I Am at the DMV." Watch Gary Jackson's poem "Tryouts" in Mot...

Celebrating the art of the poetic punch & helping Form Breakers everywhere say "f*ck you" to their nemesissies. If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESListen to Taylor Swift sing a mash-up of "thanK you aIMee" (about Kim Kardashian) and "Mean" on the Eras tour in London he...

Are you a friend of Dorothy? This episode pays tribute to The Golden Girls, but in the most Breaking Form way possible!If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.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 NOTESChristian Wiman's book Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair. It's part memoir and part a collection of his p...

On your knees with the queens in the poetry darkroom, poetic pleasures await! Then we wipe off our kneecaps before hitting the Pride Parade.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books: Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.NOTESTess Gallagher's "Stopping Place" is from her book Willingly.Donna Stonecipher's "Inlay 18 (Sei S...