Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

The queens talk bisexual poetics and genius with Nicky Beer, before getting all dolled up in a game of real vs fake Dolly. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Visit Nicky Beer’s website: http://www.nickybeer.comRead this conversation with Nicky Beer published in The Adroit Journal in 2022.Read this review of Beer’s The Octopus Game in F(r)iction.Nicky mentions the Las Culturistas podcast and you can check that out here.Read Nicky’s fabulous 3-line poem “Sawing a Lady in Half” Learn more about Jim Steinmeyer’s Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear.Read Nick’s poem “The Demolitionists”“Death is god’s apology for suffering”--a line Aaron mentions in the show--is from Nicky’s poem “The Poet Who Does Not Believe in Ghosts.”Nicky mentions Steel Magnolias, in which Dolly Parton starred as Truvy Jones. Watch the trailer for the movie here.Visit the HRC’s Resource Guide to Coming Out Bisexual. Also check out Bi.Org’s coming out guide.Learn more about June Thomas’s A Place of Our Own 

The queens have one thing to say: you better werk!Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Click here to read Philip Levine's "What Work Is"Read more about Philip LevineRead Ada Límon's poem “How We Are Made” dedicated to Levine, who was her teacher. Límon talks about Levine in this interview.Read the iconic and heartbreaking James L. White poem "Making Love to Myself"You can watch Jimmy Merrill read from his 560-page epic poem “The Changing Light at Sandover” in this 12-minute clip.Read more about the Academy of American Poets's Poem-a-Day series here.Read Carl Phillips’s Poem-a-Day that James loves: “That Part in the Music” And check out Poetry Daily: https://poems.com

Snap INTO it, girlarina! The queens re-cast Cher movies with poets.Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Read Patricia Smith's "Incendiary Art."Here's Cher's cover of “Shoop Shoop (It's in His Kiss)." And here's Merry Clayton's version.Cher starred in the movie Mask, which was released in 1985. Mask won the Academy Award for Best Makeup at the 58th ceremony, while Cher and Stoltz received Golden Globe Award nominations for their performances. Watch the scene where Rusty Dennis (Cher) barges into a high school to fight for her son. The director, when asked a question about the most difficult actor he'd worked with, replied it was Cher. If you haven't read Mary Oliver's "The Summer Day," go here.For more about the Future Library, read an article here. One of Jorie Graham's poems that make James cry is "At Luca Signorelli's Resurrection of the Body." Read Marie Ponsot's poem "Language Acquisition"You can read Jericho Brown's iconic poem "Track 5: Summertime" here. Or watch a video of him reading it here.Here's the trailer for The Witches of Eastwick, which is also a 1984 novel by John Updike.Read Sandra Beasley's blog here. Listen to Beasley read her poem "Peaches" (first published in Cherry Tree).Read more about Rigoberto González here. Cher was just inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Watch her induction speech and a live performance of "Believe" here. 

The queens get all Brenda on that Brenda, you Brenda? Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Read more about Brenda Coultas here. Watch Coultas read with Alice Notley here (1 hour). And read this conversation between Coultas and Stacy Szymaszek. Watch the best of Brenda Walsh’s outfits from Season 3 of Beverly Hills, 90210You can find Brenda Hillman's website here. Hear her read “Species Prepare to Exist After Money." Read Jesse Nathan’s conversation with Hillman (in his “Short Conversations with Poets” series) here in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. Follow Brenda K. Starr on Instagram @officialbrendakstarr. Watch Mariah Carey recall singing backup with Starr here. And here is Mariah’s official video for “I Still Believe” (covering BKS).Visit Brenda Shaughnessy’s website. Hear her read from her newest book, Tanya. And read Hilton Als’s essay, “Brenda Shaughnessy’s Ferocious Mother Poems” in the New Yorker here.Watch Brenda Blethyn get humped by her dog during a This Morning television interview.For the craziest trip, visit Brenda Walsh Ministries online at https://brendawalsh.com  

Join the Salami Sisters for this episode of The Real Housef*gs of Breaking Form. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:Soufiane Ababri is the artist we talk about whose series of artworks is Bedwork / Yes I AMHere are are versions (one & two & three) of Dickinson's "One need not be a Chamber—to be Haunted—”Learn more about the etymology of the word “faggot."Read John Donne's “The Flea”Watch Cher on Graham Norton. 

The queens get out their big smooth (crystal) balls to predict the National Book Award shortlist in poetry. Play along! The shortlist is announced Oct. 1. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTES:You can find the National Book Awards longlists for fiction, translation, young people's literature, and poetry here. Watch Lena Khalaf Tuffaha read her poem "Mountain, Stone" here. You can find the text of the poem here. Check out this NY Times article, "The Inscrutable Brilliance of Anne Carson." Or check out this Lannan conversation with Carson.Here is an hour-long conversation, "Aesthetics of Return: Palestinian Poetry," with Fady Joudah and Prof. Fida Adely, moderated by Bassam Haddad.Watch Elizabeth Willis give a reading at the Univ. of Georgia in Feb. 2024.Watch this fabulous reading and interview with Diane Seuss, conducted by Ron Charles. Watch Rowan Ricardo Phillips read his poem "Boys" at the Griffin Prize ceremony.Watch Octavio Quintanilla read his poem "Exiliados"Dorianne Laux appeared on Grace Cavalieri's fabulous The Poet and the Poem series July 2024. Watch here. Watch m.s. RedCherries give a reading as part of the Fellows Reading of the Indigenous Nations Poets here.  

Your favorite bridesmaids are (drunk and dis)orderly in this episode about writing for special occasions. Support Breaking Form!Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTESHere's a cinematic example of an epithalamion--an e.e. Cummings poem (from In Her Shoes).James’s poem “A Monument for This Morning” appears on p. 4 here. It’s not supposed to be centered on the page. But oh well. Signed copies of Cher’s book The First Time is a collectible, being sold here for $600. We did find copies in the more affordable $300-range too.Mike and the Mechanics’s song “The Living Years” was their biggest hit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGDA0Hecw1kHere's the video for the song. The name “Shayla” was Charlotte’s secret baby name, and her friend Laney stole it for her baby. The episode appeared in Season 1, E. 10. Watch the scene, including a great bit from Samantha, here. You can pre-order Invisible Strings: 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift, which includes work by both of us, as well as Carl Phillips, Diane Seuss, Joy Harjo, and others.

The queens are all lubed up and waiting for you in the badlands that is Breaking Form.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTESSee Beckian Fritz Goldberg read poems here (at 1:04 mark)Our friend Maureen Seaton died on August 26, 2023. Watch her read poems for Alaska Quarterly here. You can listen to our tribute episode to Maureen here, and our Breaking Form episodes with her here and here. Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart have actually reunited and will tour all over the US in 2024. Watch them sing with Kelly Clarkson here.Here's a short interview with Ellen Bryant Voigt.Here's a short interview and reading with Frank O'Hara.Crisco is 113 years old. Watch this 1981 ad for it, featuring Loretta Lynn.Throb Magazine can be found online at: https://www.throbmag.com/aboutListen to Ander Monson in this short poetic video "PREDATOR vs. Alien vs. Predator"Here are three clips from Julianne Moore that we reference in the show:Julianne Moore and Robert Pattinson (Maps to the Stars) talking about gloves and sex.Maps to the Stars: bleeding on the $12,000 couchHeather Graham and Julianne Moore doing coke together in Boogie Nights.

Go tell it on the mountain, darlings! Join the queens for a special Breaking Form report on the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.SHOW NOTESIf you don't know about Absolutely Fabulous, which first ran from 1992-95, you're missing out. Catch Edina and Patsy's best moments here. Mona van Duyn taught at Bread Loaf at least once--according to this poster. Check out audio recordings of Bread Loaf readings and lectures here. I can also recommend the reading by Adrian Matejka & Paul Lisicky, both of whom read from work about celebrity icons (it was like a class on how to do that well).The t-slur has been recognized as an offensive slur for at least 10 years, if not more, as this Advocate article about the slur indicates.Daniel Mendelsohn's review ("A Striptease Among Pals") of Hana Yanagihara's A Little Life can be read here (sorry about the paywall!) and the whole dustup gets further press in this Guardian article.For more information about and to apply to the Bread Loaf Writers' Conferences (there are other conferences in environmental writing and in translation), visit their website here.

Join the queens for this last poetry salon, where we highlight fabulous poets we haven't discussed much on the show.If you'd like to support Breaking Form:Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.Buy our books:     Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.     James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.