Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens get fictional, discussing the poetry equivalents of best supporting actresses with guest Manuel Muñoz.Kay Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her book The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2010).Randall Mann's Deal: New and Selected Poems is currently out from Copper Canyon Press.Watch Olympia Dukakis's famous "Why do men cheat?" scene in Moonstruck.When Anne Hathaway accepted the Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2013, she said, “This is a bittersweet moment for me because I have this award, but you spelled my name wrong." She kind of forgot to thank the Broadcast Film Critics Association for the honor. “It is with an ‘e,’” she clarified, adding, “It’s probably in bad taste for me to point that out here.”Watch Anne Hathaway's cupcake tutorial here. The movie Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough is a 1975 American romance film, directed by Guy Green, starring Kirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, David Janssen, George Hamilton, Brenda Vaccaro, Melina Mercouri, and Deborah Raffin. When Louise Gluck accepted her National Book Award for Faithful and Virtuous Night, she said, in part, "I'm astonished. My thanks to the judges for their mercy. Four times," she said, "This is a difficult evening. It's very difficult to lose. I've lost many times. And it is also, it turns out, is very difficult to win. It is not in my script," she said, to a general scattering of laughter in the audience. Watch it here.   Gary Soto was born April 12, 1952. He published The Elements of San Joaquin in 1977 through the Pitt Poetry Series, which released the book on February 1 that year—so he was actually 24! Read more about Soto here.  He lists his address on his website, in case you want to write to him: https://garysoto.com Heather McHugh read and gave a lecture in April 2009 at the University of Arizona's Poetry Center, which keeps a terrific audio/video recording archive. You can watch the reading here. The poems she reads are:"The Gift""Not to Be Dwelled On""Granny's Song""No Sex for Priests""I Knew I'd Sing""Coming""Etymological Dirge""Glass House""From the Tower""Webcam the World""Hackers Can Sidejack Cookies""Philosopher Orders Crispy Pork""DOMESTIQUE"watch McHugh give a lecture about the design and impact of the ends of poems, including close readings of powerful last lines including examples from the work of Emo Philips, Abd-ar-Rahman III, Su Tung-po, Anthony Hecht, D.H. Lawrence, Paul Valéry, Alan Dugan, Julio Cortázar, Louis Simpson, Samuel Beckett, and John Frederick Nims.Watch Bette Davis chain-smoke on the Dick Cabot Show while praising Gladys Cooper.Watch Mare Winningham in Girl from the North Country and even her recorded performance of "Like a Rolling Stone" is a little flat.

The ladies talk about James's new book, ROMANTIC COMEDY, and James reads the title poem and talks about sex, survival, and Chicago brides.Find us at AWP:Thursday: 10:35-11:50 Panel: Building Virtual Community. Rms 440-442, Level 4, Summit Building. 12-12:30 pm Aaron signs STOP LYING at the U of Pittsburgh Press booth # 301 in the book-fair7pm James reading at Seattle Beer Company1427 Western Avewith authors from Four Way Books, Autumn House, and Barrow StreetSaturday:10:30-11:30 James signs ROMANTIC COMEDY at the Four Way Books booth # 803 in the bookfair.Buy Aaron's new book, STOP LYING.Buy James's new book, ROMANTIC COMEDY.You can read Lucille Clifton's poem "come celebrate with me" here. The Bridesmaids blooper reel Aaron references is here (hit the 9-minute mark). The poem "Pittsburgh" can be found online here. The poem "Romantic Comedy" can be found online in Bloom's archives here. 

Pop off, queen! If poets could be covered by musicians (instead of musicians covering poems), you'd get...POP POETSBuy STOP LYING, Aaron Smith's new book of poems, just out from the Pitt Poetry Series. Aaron will be signing copies of the book at AWP on Thursday, March 9 from 12:00-12:30 at the University of Pittsburgh Press (Booths 303, 301).Buy ROMANTIC COMEDY, James's new book of poems, which will be released on March 15. James will be signing copies of the book at AWP on Saturday, March 11 from 10:30-11:30 at the Four Way Books Booth # 803.Watch Alan's Morrissette read from Rilke's The Book of Hours here. Alanis is definitely a Gemini (June 1). Rilke is her mirror sign (Sagittarius).Gordon Lightfoot wrote and sang “If You Could Read My Mind." Check out the Ultra Nate version recorded for the 1998 film 54 here. Watch Rita Dove sing some jazz here. Watch Lisa Loeb's music video for “Pulling Taffy” here. You can see kd lang slay “Hallelujah” here. Watch Dorianne Laux read her poem, "Cher" here. Bob Hicok's serial killer poem is “Methodical” and you can read it here. The Haim video referenced is for "Want You Back" (which is a great song). The video of them walking down a street is here. 

The queens talk break-up poetry in a special post-Valentine's Day extravaganza!You can see Poem 225 (“I’m ‘wife’ – I’ve finished that”) in Dickinson’s handwriting here Di mentions her essay, “Divine is Mine: Poetry’s Reckless Declarations,” which appears in The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics, edited by Diane Lockward and published in 2018 by Terrapin Books. Take a gander here. You can read Poem 620 (“Much Madness is divinest Sense —”) here, and see her manuscript version (in her handwriting) here.  You can read Poem 372 (“After great pain, a formal feeling comes—”) here, and see her manuscript version (in her handwriting) here. Read Jack Gilbert’s “Failing and Flying” here. And watch Gilbert give a reading (though not from this poem) here.Read Diane Seuss’s “Love Letter,” originally published in River Mouth Review, here

The queens talk love and sex and worm shit--with extra special guest, Diane Seuss!Buy Aaron's new book, STOP LYING.Buy James's new book, ROMANTIC COMEDY.Follow Diane Seuss on Twitter at @dlseuss and on Instagram at @dseussIf you want to sing along with us to Foreigner's “I Want to Know What Love Is” but you don't know the song, you can watch the video here. Read Camille Dungy’s poem “From the First, the Body Was Dirt” here. Dungy is a Capricorn. You can see her read a few other poems from Tropic Cascade at Split This Rock here. Read Richard Siken’s poem “Scheherezade” here. Siken in an Aquarius. Walt Whitman is a Gemini. You can read "We Two Boys Together Clinging" here and "Sometimes With One I Love" here.

The queens play The Poetry Pyramid!Pyramid is the collective name of a series of American television game shows that has aired several versions domestically and internationally. The original series was The $10,000 Pyramid, and it debuted on March 26, 1973. You can read  Jorie Graham’s poem “San Sepolcro” (the first poem in her second book, Erosion) here.  Read more about Flesh-plastique by Denis Hinrichsen and published by Green Linden Press.For more about Sally Mann's Body Farm  project here.  The Body Farm refers to the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee--Knoxville. Read more about the Center here. Read Dorianne Laux's poem “Trying to Raise the Dead” here, first published in the Spring 1998 edition of Ploughshares.

STOP LYING is Aaron's new book of poetry! We discuss its themes, then James gives Aaron the STOP pop quiz.  Stop Lying is just out from the Pitt Poetry Series. Buy it here! You can watch Aaron read from previous work hereRead Aaron’s “My 1990s” online in Allium.Watch Phil Levine read the fabulous title poem from What Work Is here (~2 min)Here’s a video of Britney Spears as a child on Star Search.

The queens show why it matters how you wrap it up.Support Breaking Form! Buy Aaron's new book, Stop Lying. And pre-order James's new book, Romantic Comedy, available from Four Way Books in March 2023. Read Robert Hayden's iconic “Those Winter Sundays” here.Read Sharon Olds’s “I Go Back to May 1937” hereYou can read Louise Glück’s poem “Vita Nova” here. TERF Adrienne Rich’s poem “Diving into the Wreck” can be read here. Read Lucille Clifton’s “why some people be mad at me sometimes” here. Martha Zweig's poem “Burying the Cat” from Vinegar Bone can be read here. Threa Almontaser’s website is https://www.threawrites.com. Read her poem “Hidden Bombs in My Coochie” here.Read Toi Derricotte's poem “On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses” here. If you’d like to read more about “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” here’s a great article in the New Yorker where true-crime scholar Jean Murley discusses the history of it.Read Derrick Austin's poem “Taking My Father and Brother to The Frick."  You can see Derrick Austin read (with Ashley M. Jones) here.Matt Donovan’s poem “Shooting Justin Bieber and bin Laden in the Woods” in the Massachussets Review here.  Visit Matt Donovan online at his website at: https://mattdonovanwriting.comRead James Harms’s poem “Mexican Christmas” here. Eugenia Leigh’s poem “Monsters” from her first book, Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows, can be read  here.  Her 2nd book, Bianca, is getting rave reviews!  Order it now here.  And visit Eugenia Leigh online at https://www.eugenialeigh.com

The queens learn it takes courage to know what you know in this engrossing interview with the writer Lynn Melnick.Dolly Parton's version of “I Will Always Love You” attained commercial success, twice reaching #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart — first in June 1974, and again in October 1982, with her re-recording. Whitney Houston’s 1992 version also went to # 1. Parton recorded it again in 1995 as a duet with Vince Gill, and that version peaked at # 15. Read Dolly Parton's 1978 interview with Playboy here.  Watch the 1977 Parton interview with Barbara Walters (RIP) here.  Dolly sang “I Will Always Love You” for the very first time live on the Porter Wagoner Show. Watch that performance here.  Dolly had an impromptu duet, singing IWALY with Kelly Clarkson on Kelly's show. Watch the duet here. The Southern Gospel Hall of Fame is located in Pigeon Forge, TN.Watch Dolly Parton perform a rousing rendition of “The Seeker” live here. Watch here as Brandi Carlile tells us about writing to Dolly to ask her about covering her song “The Story,” and suggesting Dolly could “drop the key” on the song.Listen to Dolly’s cover of “The Story” here Read Dorianne Laux’s poem “Sunday” from Awake here. 

We talk defiance, joy, and Dolly Parton's closet in Part 1 of our interview with poet and memoirist Lynn Melnick.  Buy Lynn's books here! Lynn Melnick is the author of the memoir, I've Had to Think Up a Way to Survive: On Trauma, Persistence, and Dolly Parton, from the University of Texas Press's American Music Series/Spiegel & Grau Audio (October 2022).  She is also the author of three poetry collections, Refusenik(2022), Landscape with Sex and Violence (2017), and If I Should Say I Have Hope (2012), all with YesYes Books. She co-edited the volume Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation (Viking, 2015). Check out her website here. Dolly Parton starred alongside Sylvester Stallone in the movie Rhinestone (1984), a musical based on the 1975 hit song "Rhinestone Cowboy" written by Larry Weiss. Although a critical and financial failure, the film spawned two top 10 country hits for Parton.Read more about Lucie Brock-Broido on her website here, at the Poetry Foundation here, or read her poem "Domestic Mysticism" here. Watch  the clip of Reese Witherspoon / Dolly Parton’s tea-and-closet moment referenced in the show (and in Lynn’s book).Learn more (and donate to) the Sex Workers Project, a national organization advocating for the human rights of sex workers and others, at https://swp.urbanjustice.org