The Hive Poetry Collective

Nicelle Davis is a California poet, collaborator, and performance artist. Her poetry collections include The Language of Fractions (Moon Tide Press 2023). The Walled Wife (Red Hen Press, 2016), In the Circus of You (Rose Metal Press, 2015), Becoming Judas (Red Hen Press, 2013), and Circe (Lowbrow Press, 2011).Penguin Noir recently won the Changing Light Novel in Verse Prize from Livingston Press and will be released Summer of 2025. Her poetry film collaborations with Cheryl Gross have been shown across the world. She has taught poetry at Youth for Positive Change, an organization that promotes success for youth in secondary schools, MHA, Volunteers of America in their Homeless Youth Center, Red Hen’s WITS program, and with MEP. She currently teaches Middle School in the High Desert of southern California.Also mentioned in the episode: Plants Painting and Poetry, A Youtube Channel by Nicelle Davis and Anthony M Sannazzaro.

Julie Murphy, Addie Mahmassani, and Dion O'Reilly read poems from En•Trance Journal , a journal dedicated to altered states and the lyric moment. We read and discuss poems by Ellen Bass, Dorianne Laux, Julie Murphy, Deborah Gorlin, Emily Ransdell, Jessica Cuello, and Jim Moore. There are fifteen fabulous poets in the the first issue of Entrancejournel.net. We wish we could have discussed them all at length, but we had less than an hour to plumb the depths of pure being!!! To read the rest of them go here. The first issue of En*Trance Journal also features art by Frank Galuszka and a podcast component, where poets read and discuss their poems.

Recorded in June 2025, during the 6th month of the Trump administration, while American bombs rained down on Iran, Addie and Dion read war poems. They read "We Lived Happily During the War," by Ilya Kaminsky," Convergence," by Joseph Stroud, "The People of the Other Village," by Thomas Lux, "Anywhere you Look," Jane Hirshfield, Samuel Hazo's "Intifada," and Khải Đơn's "Daughter of Many Wars."

Content Warning: Discussion of eating disorders Courtney Le Blanc reads from her latest book, ⁠Her Whole Bright Life and also the poem, ⁠"Where No One Says Eating Disorder⁠" by ⁠Kelly Grace Thomas⁠ from Thomas's collection ⁠Boat Burn ⁠ ⁠ Courtney LeBlanc⁠ is the author of the full-length collections ⁠Her Whole Bright Life; Exquisite Bloody, Beating Heart; and Beautiful & Full of Monsters.⁠ She is the Arlington County Poet Laureate, a Virginia Center for Creative Arts fellow, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Riot in Your Throat, an independent poetry press. She loves nail polish, tattoos, and a soy latte each morning.  Dion plugs the podcast Maintenance Phase, an excellent source of information on fat shaming, bogus diets, and our society's screwed up attitudes toward body size and food.

Emilie joins Farnaz Fatemi to discuss her new book, how poetry helps her stay in touch with "moments [she] felt truly like herself," and giving oneself permission to be in the state--like butterflies in chrysalis--of goo. Moving, wise, and funny thoughts are everywhere when you're talking with Emilie Lygren. Hive Live! hosts Emilie Lygren and Stephen Kuusisto at 7pm, November 4, at Bookshop Santa Cruz. Emilie discussed the Soul Bone/Maharishi International University MFA in Creative Writing. Find out more. Emilie Lygren's Once I Was a Stone is an intimate portrait of gender nonconformity rooted in the context of childhood and the natural world. Lygren grapples with the complexities of selfhood, power, and loss, offering a gentle yet unflinching look at what it means to be in relationship with place. Emilie Lygren is a nonbinary poet and educator whose work is grounded in curiosity and reverence. Her poems have appeared in over twenty literary journals and anthologies, and her first book of poetry, What We Were Born For, was selected as the Poetry Foundation’s monthly book pick in 2022. Currently, Emilie is a professor of creative writing, a poet in the schools, and at work on an anthology of poems on mental health for teens. For more of her work and words, visit: https://emilielygren.com/ 

We read and discuss [It is abominable, unquenchable by touch] by Diane Seuss and then read from Kim's newest book Exit Opera. Kim Addonizio  is the author of nine poetry collections, two novels, two story collections, and two books on writing poetry, The Poet’s Companion (with Dorianne Laux) and Ordinary Genius. She has received fellowships from the NEA and Guggenheim Foundation, Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and the essay, and her work has been widely translated and anthologized. Tell Me was a National Book Award Finalist in poetry. Her new poetry collection, Exit Opera, is out from W.W. Norton. She lives in Oakland, California.

Poet Roger Reeves, author of King Me, Best Barbarian and Dark Days: Fugitive Essays, is a National Book Award finalist, Griffin Poetry Prize Winner, Whiting Award winner and professor at UT Austin. His frank and gracious discussion of poetry, growing up in the Pentecostal church, parenthood, and the importance of silence, carves a path encouraging us toward the revelation that the life we want is already here, reaching out for our hand.

Joseph Millar's first collection of poems, Overtime, was a finalist for the 2001 Oregon Book Award. His second collection, Fortune, appeared in 2007, followed by a third, Blue Rust, in 2012. Kingdom was released in early 2017, and Dark Harvest, New & Selected Poems, was released in 2021. His latest collection, Shine, was published in October of 2024.Millar grew up in Pennsylvania and attended Johns Hopkins University before spending 30 years in the San Francisco Bay area working at a variety of jobs, from telephone repairman to commercial fisherman. It would be two decades before he returned to poetry. His work—stark, clean, unsparing—records the narrative of a life fully lived among fathers, sons, brothers, daughters, weddings and divorce.He has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as a Pushcart Prize and has appeared in such magazines as DoubleTake, TriQuarterly, The Southern Review, APR, and Ploughshares. Millar teaches in Pacific University's low-residency MFA Program.

Susan Browne and Dion read from Susan's new book, Monster Mash⁠, and talk about Nicole Sealey's poem Object PermanenceSusan Browne is the author of four poetry collections, including Monster Mash (Four Way Books, 2025) and Just Living (Catamaran Literary Reader, 2019), winner of the 2019 Catamaran Poetry Prize. She is a recipient of the Four Way Books Intro Prize, the James Dickey Poetry Prize and a Fine Arts Work Center Fellowship. She was an English Professor for 34 years and currently teaches poetry workshops online. She lives in Northern California. 

Julia Chiapella interviews the teen editors of the newly published anthology Waking Up (Sixteen Rivers Press). Editors Simon Ellefson and Sylvi Kayser are joined by project advisor, Farnaz Fatemi. The poets read and discuss contributions from the anthology, reflecting a range of themes which matter to young people in the current climate. Waking Up is a poetry anthology from youth throughout Santa Cruz County, available now from Sixteen Rivers Press. “The world needs this collection of poems right now to help us wake up to the truth of the world as it exists and to imagine the change and growth our country so urgently needs. The teen voices in Waking Up have much at stake in our collective future, and they are rising to this need with the eloquence and nuance that poetry provides. I know that once you hear these voices, you’ll agree.” (From Farnaz Fatemi).

Award-winning poets and founding editors of the groundbreaking journal, New American Writing, Maxine Chernoff and Paul Hoover talk with Roxi Power about their most recent books from MadHat Press and how poetry canreveal then reconstitute the brokenness of the world.  Hoover says of writing poetry, “You have to purposefully break a few dishes along the way. The brokenness and emotional force bring the pieces back together.”   Chernoff, writing under the shadow of Covid, says, “We stand at the margins of this bustling, often cruel but beautiful world and, in a way, the poem writes itself because the world gives us conditions to think about at the same time—the ecology of the world, governments falling apart, etc.  It’s happening to all of us.  Part of being a writer is simply noticing the moment you’re in, personalizing and capturing it in a way that only your particular words at this particular time can do.” These beloved Bay Area poets collage philosophy, film, history, and—in Hoover’s newest work—Old Testament stories and cadences in poems that redesign rather than restore theshattered surfaces of the world in new forms—like poetic wabi-sabi.  Peter Johnson recently called Chernoff the most important contemporary prose poet born during his generation. Marjorie Perloff wrote of Paul Hoover’s most recent book, “He’s atthe top of his game.”  Tune into this interview with two of the most articulate poets about their own craft.  It’s part 1 of a two-part interview.  More to come!   Maxine Chernoff is professor emeritus of creative writing at San Francisco State University. She is the author of 19 books of poetry and six of fiction, including recent collections from MadHat Press:  Light and Clay: New and Selected Poems (2023) and Under the Music: Collected Prose Poems (2019).  She is a recipient of a 2013 National Endowment for the Arts in Poetry and, along with Paul Hoover, the 2009 PEN Translation Award for their translation of The Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin. In 2016 she was a visiting writer at the American Academy in Rome. A former editor of New American Writing, she lives in Mill Valley.  Paul Hoover is the author of over a dozen collections of poetry; his most recent book of poetry is O, and Green: New and Selected Poems (MadHat Press, 2021). He has also published a collection of essays and a novel, and translated or co-translated a few books, including Black Dog, Black Night: Contemporary Vietnamese Poetry.  Founding and current Editor of theliterary annual, New American Writing–now published by MadHat Press–and two editions of the indispensable Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, Hooverteaches at San Francisco State University.  He’s also won an NEA and numerous awards, including the Carl Sandberg Award in poetry which Chernoff has also won.   

How to access the mind’s expansiveness? Geraldine Connolly reads poems from her new book, Instructions at Sunset, and talks about this as well as excavating the past, family, and how poetry serves as a means of interrogating the self. A two-time recipient of NEA fellowships and the author of four previous books of poetry, Connolly has taught workshops for the Maryland Poetry-in-the-Schools Program and the Graduate Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University in Washington D.C. Find out more about Connolly here.

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, host Julie Murphy talks with Leigh Sugar about her debut poetry collection FREELAND. Leigh’s poetry weaves memory, intimacy, and incarceration into lyric that’s as unflinching as it is tender.We chat about language, erasure, love under surveillance, and the ethics of naming. We’ll also discuss the poem Claiming Language by Shane McCrae, a poet who continues to shape how many of us understand rupture and reclamation in American poetry. Leigh Sugar (she/her) is a poet, editor, teacher, movement artist, and, most importantly, learner. Her debut collection, FREELAND (Alice James Books, 2025), was a finalist for both the Alice James Award and the Jake Adam York Prize, and she created and edited the anthology That’s a Pretty Thing to Call It: Prose and Poetry by Artists Teaching in Carceral Settings. (New Village Press, 2023). She has taught writing in various settings, including New York University, Hugo House, The Institute for Justice and Opportunity, and Michigan state prisons.  A disabled artist, Leigh lives with her pup in Michigan. Say hi on Instagram @lekasugar, or via her website at www.leighksugar.com.

Meet Santa Cruz County’s 2025-26 Youth Poet Laureate, Finn Maxwell along with the four inspiring finalists who are part of this year's cohort: Noemi Romero, Xander Shulman, Mason Leopold, and Sylvi Kayser.Each of these teens from different corners of Santa Cruz County will share two poems and talk about their experiences with poetry.To keep up with this year's events and otherwise support these inspiring poets, follow the YPL program on Instagram @youthpoetlaureatesantacruz or the YPL website here.Noemi’s spoken word TikTok is available here.  

Francisco Aragón, Director of Letras Latinas, the literary initiative at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies, talks about his most recent book, After Rubén, and the queering of iconic Nicaraguan poet, Ruben Darío. Hear Francisco’s exquisite voice bring his own and Darío’s words alive as we talk about the Neorealism movement, Federico Lorca, and giving new breadth and depth to Darío’s work. You can find After Rubén at Red Hen Press. Read more about Francisco Aragón here.

Dorianne Laux reads her poem "Fear" as well as poems from her new craft book Finger Exercises for Poets. Dorianne Laux’s sixth collection,  Only As the Day is Long: New and Selected Poems  was named a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Her fifth collection, The Book of Men, was awarded The Paterson Prize. Her fourth book of poems,  Facts About the Moon,  won The Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize.  Laux is also the author of Awake;  What We Carry, a finalist for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award;  Smoke; as well as a fine small press edition,  The Book of Women.  She is  the co-author of the celebrated text  The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry. Her latest collection of poetry is Life On Earth and was released in January of 2024. Finger Exercises for Poets, a book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets was released in July 2024.

In this episode of The Hive Poetry Collective, host Julie Murphy talks with Santa Cruz poet Cynthia White about her award-winning chapbook Glossogenesis. The show begins with Cynthia's reading of Susan Firer's poem, Transubstantiation. They explore how language shapes experience, how poetry holds memory and transformation, and what it means to write with clarity and care. A rich conversation on craft, intimacy, and the power of the poetic voice. From intimate images of family life to meditations on wonder and memory, this episode is a deep dive into the craft and heart of contemporary poetry as exemplified in Cynthia's spare and startling poems.

Nin and Dion read from her new book Son of a Bird, now available from Etruscan Press. They also read and discuss "Unrest," by Emily Fragos.Nin Andrews is the author of the six chapbooks and ten full-length poetry collections including The Last Orgasm (2020),Miss August (2017), and Why God is a Woman (2015). She isthe recipient of two Ohio individual artists grants, the PearlChapbook prize, The Wick Chapbook Prize, and the GeraldCable Award. Her collection, Why God is a Woman won theOhiona Prize for Poetry in 2016. Her work has been featuredin numerous journals and anthologies includingPloughshares, Agni, The Paris Review, four editions of BestAmerican Poetry, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to thePresent, and The Best American Erotic Poems. Her poetry hasbeen translated into Turkish, performed in Prague andanthologized in England, Australia, and Mongolia.

Dion and Denise chat about her new book, Pink Lady. We read and discuss "His Terror" by Sharon Olds and also reference Olds's poem "Satan Says."Denise Duhamel has published numerous collections of poetry, including Second Story (2021), Scald (2017), Blowout (2013), which was a finalist for a National Books Critics Circle Award, Ka-Ching! (2009), Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (2001), all of which were published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, and Kinky, published by Orchises Press in 1997. Citing Dylan Thomas and Kathleen Spivack as early influences, Duhamel writes both free verse and fixed-form poems that fearlessly combine the political, sexual, and ephemeral.She co-edited, with Nick Carbó, Sweet Jesus: Poems about the Ultimate Icon (The Anthology Press, 2002), and, with Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry (Soft Skull Press, 2007). Duhamel has also collaborated with Seaton on several poetry collections, including Caprice (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2015), Little Novels (Penguin, 2002), Oyl (Pearl Editions, 2000), and Exquisite Politics (Northwestern University Press, 1997).Duhamel’s honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. Her work has been included in several volumes of Best American Poetry, where she was a guest editor in 2013, and has also been featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered and Bill Moyers’s PBS poetry special Fooling with Words.A distinguished university professor at Florida International University, she lives in Hollywood, Florida.

Kirk Glaser's book, The House That Fire Built, has been 25 years in the making following a suspicious house fire and the characters both prior to and following the incident. Join us as we talk of ghosts, poet James Murray, and the many ways fire exists as metaphor. You can find the House That Fire Built at Mad Hat Press.