The Beat Knox County Public Library
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- Arts
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In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves.
The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn.
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Iliana Rocha and Delmira Agustini
Iliana Rocha earned her PhD in Literature and Creative Writing from Western Michigan University. She is the 2019 winner of the Berkshire Prize for her book The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez (Tupelo Press). Her first book, Karankawa, won the 2014 AWP Donald Hall Prize for Poetry. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in the Best New Poets anthology, Poetry, Poem-a-Day, The Nation, Virginia Quarterly Review, Latin American Literature Today, and many others. She has won fellowships from CantoMundo and MacDowell. She serves as Poetry Co-Editor for Waxwing Literary Journal, and she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee.
Delmira Agustini is considered one of the most important South American poets of the 20th century. She was born to upper-middle-class parents in Montevideo, Uruguay in October of 1886. She began writing poetry at the age of 10, and her first major work, El Libro Blanco, was published in 1907, when she was just 20 years old. She went on to publish several other books that were well-received by writers and critics.
Links:
Read "Still Life," "Houston," and "Landscape with Graceland Crumbling in My Hands"
Read "Explosión" in Spanish and English
Iliana Rocha
Iliana Rocha's website
Bio and poems at the Poetry Foundation's website
"The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez" in New York Times Magazine
"Mexican American Sonnet" at Poets.org
"Three Poems" in Latin American Literature Today
“like the building that reflects his death in every window: A Conversation with Iliana Rocha about The Many Deaths of Inocencio Rodriguez” — curated by Tiffany Troy in Tupelo Quarterly
Delmira Agustini
Bio and "The Vampire" at Poets.org
Six Poems by Delmira Agustini (translated by Valerie Martinez) at Drunken Boat -
Harold Whit Williams
Harold Whit Williams is a poet and longtime guitarist for the indie rock band Cotton Mather. He's the recipient of the 2020 FutureCycle Poetry Book Prize, the 2014 Mississippi Review Poetry Prize, the Robert Phillips Poetry Chapbook Prize, as well as multiple Pushcart nominations. Williams is currently cataloging the KUT Radio Collection for the University of Texas Libraries, all the while writing, recording, and performing his solo music under the moniker Daily Worker.
Links:
Read “Early Recordings: Volume 1;” “Caught by the Indian Summer Train;” and “Participation Trophy”
Harold Whit William's website
Daily Worker at Radio Gurl Records
"Holding out for Nothing" music video by Daily Worker
"Premonitions at a Funeral" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" at JuxtaProse
Four poems at The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature
"Blues Dreams," winner of The Mississippi Review Poetry Prize
Follow Harold Whit Williams on Facebook -
Denton Loving and D.H. Lawrence
Denton Loving is the author of Crimes Against Birds (Main Street Rag) and Tamp (Mercer University Press). He is also the editor of Seeking Its Own Level: an anthology of writings about water (MotesBooks). He holds a Master of Fine Arts in Writing and Literature from Bennington College. His work has appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, The Kenyon Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, The Threepenny Review, and Ecotone. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf.
D.H. Lawrence was born in 1885 in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire in England, and he died in 1930 at Vence in the south of France. Though Lawrence is best known for his novels—he’s the author of Lady Chatterley’s Lover and nearly a dozen others—he also published short stories, plays, essays, criticism, and more than a dozen collections of poetry.
Links:
Read "Copperhead," "Foundation," and "Hurtling"
Read "Humming-Bird"
Denton Loving
Denton Loving's website
"Five Poems by Denton Loving" at Salvation South
"Three Poems by Denton Loving" at Harvard Divinity Bulletin
"Under the Chestnut Tree" at Ecotone
Video: WANA (Writers Association of Northern Appalachia) Live! Reading Series featuring Denton Loving
Review of Tamp at Southern Review of Books
D.H. Lawrence
Bio, Poems, and Prose at The Poetry Foundation
Bio and Poems at Poetry.org
Mentioned in this episode:
KnoxCountyLibrary.org
Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.
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Hank Lazer
Hank Lazer has published thirty-four books of poetry; his latest books are P I E C E S, When the Time Comes, and field recordings of mind in morning. In 2014, he retired from the University of Alabama after 37 years as a professor and an administrator. He continues to teach innovative seminars on Zen Buddhism and Radical Approaches to the Arts for the University of Alabama's Blount Scholars Program. In 2015, Lazer won The Harper Lee Award, Alabama’s highest literary award for lifetime achievement.
Read "Duncan Farm November Meditation" and section 8 from The New Spirit
Hank Lazer's website
Recordings at PennSound
Interview on Bookmark with Don Noble
Eleven poems at Plume
Five poems at Interim
"'Furnishings in the House of the Voice': An Interview with Hank Lazer
by Lisa Russ Spaar"
Mentioned in this episode:
KnoxCountyLibrary.org
Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.
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Jenny Sadre-Orafai
Jenny Sadre-Orafai is a poet and essayist and the author of Dear Outsiders and three other poetry collections. Her poetry has appeared in Puerto del Sol, Cream City Review, Ninth Letter, and The Cortland Review. Her prose has appeared in The Rumpus, Fourteen Hills, and The Los Angeles Review. She co-founded and co-edits Josephine Quarterly and teaches creative writing at Kennesaw State University.
Links:
Read "Occupation Interview," "Tragedy Lesson," and "Souvenirs for Locals"
Jenny Sadre-Orafai's website
Three Poems at $
"I Become More Animal When I'm Grieving: A Conversation with Jenny Sadre-Orafi" at The Rumpus
Video: "Hard Hat Reading: Jenny Sadre-Orafai" at Poets House
Video: "Jenny Sadre-Orafai reads at the SAFTA Reading Series"
"In Their Own Words: Jenny Sadre-Orafai on 'Queen of Cups'" at Poetry Society of America
Josephine Quarterly
Mentioned in this episode:
KnoxCountyLibrary.org
Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.
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Anna Laura Reeve and William Shakespeare
Anna Laure Reeve was born and raised in Knoxville, and she earned a Master of Arts in Literature & Poetry Writing from the University of Tennessee. Her poems have appeared in Terrain.org, Jet Fuel Review, Another Chicago Magazine, and many others. She recently won Beloit Poetry Journal’s Adrienne Rich Award, and she was a finalist for the Heartwood Poetry Prize and the Ron Rash Award in Poetry. Her book Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility was recently published by Belle Point Press. She is an assistant editor of Juke Joint, a literary magazine based in Jackson, Mississippi.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, most likely in April of 1564. When he was 18, he married Anne Hathaway with whom he had three children. Shakespeare made his living as an actor and playwright, and his works include 38 plays in addition to 154 sonnets and various other types of poetry. Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616.
Links:
Read an early version of "Tennessee Red Cobb" at Appalachia Bare
Read "Méniére's Disease" at The Racket
Read "Look at Everything" and "Children of Asylum Seekers" at The Racket
Read "That time of year thou mayst in me behold (Sonnet 73)" at Poets.org
Read "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes (Sonnet 29)" at Poets.org
Anna Laura Reeve
Anna Laura Reeve's website
"Poets in Conversation: Anna Laura Reeve" at Beloit Poetry Journal
Two Poems from Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility by Anna Laura Reeve at ACM
"Motherhood Unshorn: A Review of Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility" at Literary Mama
William Shakespeare
Bio and poems at Poets.org
"Shakespeare's Life" at Folger Shakespeare Library's site
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
Mentioned in this episode:
KnoxCountyLibrary.org
Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.
Rate & review on Podchaser
Customer Reviews
An amuse bouche of poetry for your midweek slump
A lovely, eclectic offering of poets and their works from different periods and walks of life. Laconic and just what is needed by Wednesdays.