New Letters on the Air

Sherwin Bitsui

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:50:47 -0500

Navajo poet Sherwin Bitsui won the 2010 American Book Award and the PEN Open Book Award for his collection called FLOOD SONG. He reads from the book and also discusses his 2003 poetry collection, SHAPE SHIFT, which explores various kinds of border-crossings. Raised on the Fort Defiance Navajo reservation, Bitsui says his poetry reflects his connection to nature and ancient traditions but also examines the dichotomy of living in two different worlds with shifting senses of time, language, and culture. Also a visual artist, Bitsui talks about how both his poetry and paintings are informed by the intense imagery of his childhood landscapes.

Anne Enright

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:35:13 -0500

In this interview recorded at the Kansas City Public Library, Irish author Anne Enright reads from her nonfiction book, MAKING BABIES: STUMBLING INTO MOTHERHOOD, and talks about how having children helped organize her writing life. Enright discusses her often dark but humorous approach to writing about both familial and romantic love as well as death and desire. The author of five novels and two short story collections, Enright also reads from her Man Booker Prize-winning novel, THE GATHERING, and from THE FORGOTTEN WALTZ, which was just short-listed for the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.

Luis Alberto Urrea

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 9 May 2012 17:56:02 -0500

Luis Alberto Urrea is perhaps best known for his nonfiction. His memoir, NOBODY'S SON: NOTES FROM AN AMERICAN LIFE, won the 1999 American Book Award and his book THE DEVIL'S HIGHWAY: A TRUE STORY, about a controversial border-crossing, was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction. But Urrea--the author of four novels and a graphic novel, in addition to collections of short stories and poetry--is equally adept at fiction. In this interview, he discusses the craft of writing and talks about how the research for his novels THE HUMMINGBIRD'S DAUGHTER and QUEEN OF AMERICA changed the way he thinks about the intersections of family legend and history.

William Trowbridge

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Thu, 3 May 2012 16:47:33 -0500

National Poetry Month concludes with the new Missouri Poet Laureate, William Trowbridge, who was named to the post on Friday, April 13th, 2012. That's the perfect date for the author who portrays the fool archetype, leading his character through humiliations and sufferings with his signature humor in his 2011 collection, SHIP OF FOOL. The author of three chapbooks and five poetry collections, such as THE COMPLETE BOOK OF KONG, Trowbridge is unafraid of incorporating pop culture in his work, perhaps because he felt deprived of it as a child. In this interview, he discusses his affinity for complex characterizations and descriptive language and his belief that comedy is as necessary as tragedy to great literature.

Missouri Poets of the 2011-2012 Midwest Poets Series

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:03:51 -0500

For the past 29 years, Rockhurst University has brought poets from around the country to do readings for the Kansas City public as part of the Midwest Poets Series. This year featured three very different poets who live in Missouri, including the state's first poet laureate, Walter Bargen, who is the author of more than a dozen books; Michelle Boisseau, who teaches at UMKC and along with her four collections of poetry is the co-author of WRITING POEMS; and poet and translator, Aliki Barnstone, who teaches and edits the Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Discover the poetic variety of Missouri in this National Poetry Month special.

State Poets Laureate

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:07:05 -0500

In March 2011, there was a convergence of State Poets Laureate in Lawrence, Kansas, where current and past holders of the post from states as far-flung as Alaska and Rhode Island gathered to read and talk about their work. This program features excerpts from the first night's reading that was kicked off by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. State Poets Laureate featured from this reading include South Carolina's Marjorie Wentworth, David Romdtvet from Wyoming, Peggy Shumaker of Alaska, Iowa's Mary Swander, Missouri's Walter Bargen and Wisconsin's Marilyn Taylor, and Kansas's first, second, and third laureates, Jonathan Holden, Denise Low, and Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg.

Life Distilled

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:11:41 -0500

The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress is one of the most distinguished appointments for an American poet. From the first consultant in 1937, the poets have represented a wide cross-section of talent and geographies. This program features a little history on the role and some of the poets laureate pulled from our archives, including Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Robert Pinsky, Maxine Kumin, as well as the current laureate, Philip Levine.

Kay Ryan

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 4 Apr 2012 16:36:09 -0500

Ushering us from Women's History to National Poetry Month is former U.S. Poet Laureate and winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, KAY RYAN. She talks with NEW LETTERS magazine editor, Robert Stewart, who gave her a poet's "debriefing" of her experience as United States Poet Laureate from 2008-2010. Ryan reads from her book, THE BEST OF IT: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. She discusses her approach to poetry and her love of rhyme.

Sonia Sanchez

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:56:09 -0500

Women's History Month continues with one of the most important writers of the Black Arts Movement, Sonia Sanchez. The author of more than 20 books of poetry, prose, and drama, Sanchez was named Philadelphia's first poet laureate in December 2011. In this interview, she discusses her 2010 books, a collection of poetry called MORNING HAIKU, and I'M BLACK WHEN I'M SINGING, I'M BLUE WHEN I AIN'T AND OTHER PLAYS, the first-ever collection of her plays. Sanchez co-edited the collection with Dr. Jacqueline Wood, who joins in the conversation. Sanchez also talks about how she discovered poetry, her use of Brechtian theatre techniques, and the ways activism has informed her art over five decades.

Women & Community

ontheair@newletters.org (New Letters magazine) — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:58:52 -0500

In honor of Women's History Month, we present a special anthology that examines how various women writers create art that encourages community and connections across boundaries. Novelist Lisa See shares stories about Chinese women who practiced secret writing in SNOWFLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN; former Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martinez, who works with the nonprofit community organization Littleglobe, describes some of the struggles of women across the border in Juarez, Mexico and reads from her book, EACH AND HER; and Iranian-American writer Azar Nafisi talks about Iranian women and her book, READING LOLITA IN TEHRAN..