Rattle Poetry

Manuel Iris served as Poet Laureate of Cincinnati, Ohio, and as Writer-in-Residence at both the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library and Thomas More University. In 2021, he was named a member of Mexico’s National System of Art Creators, one of the country’s highest honors for artists. Author of six poetry collections, Iris has been awarded the Mérida National Poetry Prize (2009) for Cuaderno de los sueños and the Rodulfo Figueroa Regional Poetry Prize (2014) for Los disfraces del fuego, a book that was also a finalist for Ecuador’s International Poetry Prize Ciudad de la Lira. In 2025, Iris received the Ambroggio Prize from the Academy of American Poets for his book The Whole Earth is a Garden of Monsters/Toda la tierra es un jardín de monstruos. Manuel Iris has given readings, lectures, and talks across Mexico, the United States, and Europe. He currently resides and writes in Cincinnati, Ohio. Find more on Manuel here: https://manueliris.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Think about the biggest improvement you’ve made as a poet this year and write a poem that showcases your skill. Include what you’ve learned in the notes with your submission. Next Week's Prompt: Write a villanelle that involves a trip. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Julia B. Levine has appeared twice in Poets Respond, and she has a new chapbook, Lullaby for the Sixth Extinction, is just out from Wolfson Press. Her poetry awards include the 2015 Northern California Book Award for her fourth collection, Small Disasters Seen in Sunlight (LSU 2014), a 2024 Pushcart Prize, the 2024 Terrain Poetry Prize, the 2023 Oran Robert Perry Burke Award from The Southern Review, as well as a 2022 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship for her work in building resiliency in teenagers in the context of climate change. Her fifth collection, Ordinary Psalms (LSU 2021), won a Nautilus Silver Award in Poetry. Find more on Julia here: https://sites.google.com/view/juliablevine As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that’s all about breaks. Next Week’s Prompt: Think about the biggest improvement you’ve made as a poet this year and write a poem that showcases your skill. Include what you’ve learned in the notes with your submission. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Our scheduled guest, Billy Collins, was sick with a cold, so he postponed to January 19, 2026. Instead, we'll reveal this year's Pushcart Prize winners, and invite you to share your favorite poem that you wrote or published this year. You can still find Billy Collins' new book, Dog Show, here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790238/dog-show-by-billy-collins/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that begins at the kitchen table and interrupts itself. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that’s all about breaks. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Jeff McRae’s debut collection, The Kingdom Where No One Dies, honors the ache and beauty of ordinary life. A contributor to Rattle dating back to 2004, Jeff lives in Vermont with his wife and three children. He earned a Masters in Writing from the University of New Hampshire and a Masters in Fine Arts in poetry from Washington University, St. Louis. Since returning to Vermont, he’s worked as a fly rod builder, a digital marketing copywriter, a youth employment specialist, and for fifteen years as a creative writing and literature instructor. He has been a finalist for several first book awards including the New Issues Poetry Prize, the Gerald Cable Book Award, and the Cider Press Review Book Award. An active musician, he also performs in theaters, clubs, and concert halls throughout New England. Find the book here: https://www.pulleypress.com/the-kingdom-where-no-one-dies As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write an ode to something personal to you without it becoming a “personal poem”—i.e., a poem that only carries meaning to a very select group privy to specific knowledge. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that begins at the kitchen table and interrupts itself. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Richard Gilbert first appeared in episode 6 of the Rattlecast, way back in 2019. He earned a Ph.D. in Poetics and Depth Psychology at the Union Institute and University, 1990. In 1997, he moved to Japan to pursue Japanese haiku research. He is currently Associate Professor, Department of British and American Language and Literature, at Kumamoto University. In 2006, Richard was awarded a two-year grant from MEXT (the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) for research on modern Japanese haiku. His most recent book, Haiku Language Thought, explores haiku as the essence of poetic consciousness. Find the book here: https://www.modernhaiku.org/mhbooks/Gilbert-book-2025.html As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that begins with an ordinary parenting event that snowballs into something more. Next Week's Prompt: Write an ode to something personal to you without it becoming a “personal poem”—i.e., a poem that only carries meaning to a very select group privy to specific knowledge. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Julia Kolchinsky came to the United States as a Jewish refugee when she was six years old, from Dnipro, Ukraine. She is the author of four collections of poetry, most recently Parallax(The University of Arkansas Press, 2025), selected as finalist for the Miller Williams Prize by Patricia Smith. Her other books include of 40 Weeks (YesYes Books, 2023), Don’t Touch the Bones, and The Many Names for Mother. Her next book is When the World Stopped Touching (YesYes Books, 2027), a collaborative collection with Luisa Muradyan. She is Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Denison University and lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her family. Find more Julia's most recent books here: https://www.juliakolchinsky.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write an assay that includes an allusion to at least five senses. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that begins with an ordinary parenting event that snowballs into something more. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Kai Carlson-Wee is the author of RAIL (BOA Editions, 2018). His next book, The Cloudmaker's Key, is coming out in the fall of 2027. He has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Sewanee Writers' Conference, and his work has appeared in Ploughshares, Best New Poets, and the most recent issue of Rattle. His poetry film, Riding the Highline, received the Jury Award at the 2015 Napa Valley Film Festival. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, he lives in San Francisco and is a lecturer at Stanford University. Find more most recent books here: http://kaicarlsonwee.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you found yourself somewhere you didn’t belong, but have the poem turn to somewhere that you do. Next Week’s Prompt: Write an assay that includes an allusion to at least five senses. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

J.R. Solonche has published poetry in more than 500 magazines, journals, and anthologies since the early '70s, including five times in past issues of Rattle. He's the author of 40 books of poetry, most recently Barren Road. Professor Emeritus of English at SUNY Orange, he lives in Hudson, New York. Find more most recent books here: https://servinghousebooks.com/j-r-solonche/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Invent a form that borrows something you love about an existing form—but spins it in a new direction. (Also encouraged to submit this to our call for our invented forms tribute section, due January 15th, 2026.) Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you found yourself somewhere you didn’t belong, but have the poem turn to somewhere that you do. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Crystal Simone Smith is the author of Runagate: Songs of the Freedom Bound (Duke University Press, 2025) and Dark Testament (Henry Holt, 2023). In 2022, her collection of haiku, Ebbing Shore, won The Haiku Foundation Touchstone Distinguished Book Award. Smith is the recipient a Duke Humanities Unbounded Fellowship. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including POETRY Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, Rattle, Poetry Daily, Frogpond, and The Heron’s Nest. She teaches in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University and writes poetry about the human condition and social change. Find more on Crystal at her website: https://www.crystalsimonesmith.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about the influence music has had on you over the years while making the poem itself as musical as possible. Next Week’s Prompt: Invent a form that borrows something you love about an existing form—but spins it in a new direction. (Also encouraged to submit this to our call for our invented forms tribute section, due January 15th, 2026.) The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Al Maginnes has published 15 books of poetry, including Fellow Survivors: New and Selected Poems (Redhawk Publications, 2023) and most recently Second Line, a sonnet sequence which just released this month. He has worked as a mail clerk, a landscaper, an electrician, a carpenter's helper, a hammock weaver, surveyor, and, since 1990, as a teacher. Al has published widely, including issues 63 and 89 of Rattle. He lives with his family in Raleigh, NC. Find his new and selected here: https://redhawkpublications.com/Fellow-Survivors-p529556536 As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a haiku sequence inspired by the seasons. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about the influence music has had on you over the years while making the poem itself as musical as possible. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Chiwenite Onyekwelu’s debut poetry chapbook, EXILED, was published by Red Bird Chapbooks, and his work has appeared in two recent issues of Rattle. He was shortlisted for the 2024 Isele Magazine Poetry Prize. In 2023, he won the Hudson Review’s Frederick Morgan Poetry Prize, and was a finalist for the Alpine Fellowship Prize, as well as the Writivism Poetry Prize. Chiwenite served as chief editor at The School of Pharmacy, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, where he recently completed his undergraduate studies. Find more info here: https://linktr.ee/chiweniteonyekwelu As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you were haunted and how you overcame the experience. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a haiku sequence inspired by the seasons. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

José Enrique Medina is winner of the 2025 Rattle Chapbook Prize for Haunt Me. He earned his BA in English from Cornell University. His poetry and fiction have appeared in Best Microfiction 2019, The Los Angeles Review, The Tahoma Review, Burnside Review, and many other publications. A VONA fellow and frequent poetry slam judge, he writes with heart, heat, and just the right amount of haunt. He is the founder of the Chickens and Poetry Residency for Writers. When he’s not wrangling words, he’s usually on his ranch in Los Angeles, chasing after bunnies and baby chicks. Find more info here: https://medinawrites.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Orange you glad you get to write a prompt poem? Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you were haunted and how you overcame the experience. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Isabella DeSendi is a Latina poet and educator, and a finalist for the 2023 Rattle Poetry Prize. Her debut poetry collection, Someone Else's Hunger, is just out from Four Way Books. Her chapbook, Through the New Body, won the Poetry Society of America's Chapbook Fellowship and was published in 2020. Recently, she has been named a 2025 New Jersey Poetry Fellow, a finalist for the Ruth Lilly Fellowship, and was included in the 2024 Best New Poets anthology, among other awards. Isabella has attended Bread Loaf Writers' Workshop, the Storyknife Writers’ Residency in Alaska, and holds an MFA from Columbia University. She currently lives in Hoboken, New Jersey. Find more info here: https://www.isabelladesendi.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a persona poem that includes the word “prompt.” Next Week’s Prompt: Orange you glad you get to write a prompt poem? The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Roberta Beary (they/she) first appeared on episode 133. Roberta is long-time haibun editor at Modern Haiku and travels the world as Roving Ambassador for The Haiku Foundation. Their new book, Crazy Bitches, includes 80 haibun selected from poems written over a 20-year period, 2004 through 2024. With Lew Watts and Rich Youmans, Roberta Beary is co-author of Haibun: A Writer's Guide (2023). Find more info here: https://robertabeary.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you got more than you bargained for. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a persona poem that includes the word “prompt.” The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

In this special episode of the Rattlecast, we announce the winners of the 2025 Rattle Poetry Prize competition, and most of the 11 poets share their prize-winning work. The annual contest offers $25,000 in awards for individual poems. Find more info on the prize here: https://rattle.com/page/poetryprize/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Pick a specific obscure award and write a poem about it. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about a time you got more than you bargained for. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Matthew Thorburn's latest book is String, a novel in poems, published by Louisiana State University Press in 2023. He’s also the author of five previous books, including The Grace of Distance, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize, and the book-length poem Dear Almost, honored with the Lascaux Prize, and two chapbooks. ​His work has been recognized with a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Mississippi Review Prize, and fellowships from the Bronx and New Jersey arts councils and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference. A native of Michigan and for many years a New Yorker, he lives and works in central New Jersey. Find more info here: https://www.matthewthorburn.net/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that features electricity. Next Week’s Prompt: Pick a specific obscure award and write a poem about it. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Richard Siken is a poet and painter. His book Crush won the 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets prize, selected by Louise Glück, a Lambda Literary Award, a Thom Gunn Award, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. His other books are War of the Foxes (Copper Canyon Press, 2015) and I Do Know Some Things (Copper Canyon Press, 2025). Siken is a recipient of fellowships from Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. Find more info here: https://richard-siken.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that touches on hair. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that features electricity. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Alora Young is a recent college graduate, actor, poet, and author of Walking Gentry Home: A Memoir of My Foremothers in Verse. She was named the 2020-2021 Youth Poet Laureate of the Southern United States, and has performed her poetry on CNN, CBS, the TEDx stage, and more. Young talks with passion and prowess about how the history and impact of spoken word poetry, generational trauma, navigating Black girlhood & womanhood in America, and neurodivergence & creativity. Find more info here: https://alorayoung.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem in which someone is taken to a surprising school. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that touches on hair. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Gregory Orr has written thirteen poetry collections, a memoir, and several books of criticism, most recently A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry. His poetry collections include Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved and The Caged Owl: New & Selected Poems. The recipient of Fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, he lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Find more info here: http://gregoryorr.net/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write an ekphrastic poem based on a well-known painting that you dislike. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem in which someone is taken to a surprising school. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

Sneha Madhavan-Reese is an award-winning writer and author of the poetry collections Elementary Particles and Observing the Moon. Her poems have appeared in publications around the world, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2016. Sneha's second collection, Elementary Particles, is inspired by her South Asian heritage and passion for science, and has themes of identity and belonging, language and loss. Elementary Particles was longlisted for the Raymond Souster Award and was a finalist for the Ottawa Book Award. Find more info here: http://madhavan-reese.com/sneha/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. A Zoom link will be provided in the chat window during the show before that segment begins. For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a sonnet in which someone sings. Next Week’s Prompt: Write an ekphrastic poem based on a well-known painting that you dislike. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.