Poetry Off the Shelf

Idra Novey on exile, stereotypes, and making art the center of your life.

Helena and Nicholson Baker on drawing your loved ones, the horrors of the world, and finding your way back to beauty.

Perry Janes on Hollywood, ego, and trying not to break his NDA.

E.J. Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive.

Camille Dungy on her garden, writing from the provinces, and the poetry of Anne Spencer. 

Dorothea Lasky on The Shining, writing what you fear, and the ferocity of color.

Merlin Sheldrake on fungi, creativity, and the queerness of nature.

Elisa Gonzalez on bisexuality, humor, and working in finance.

Joyelle McSweeney discusses integrating poetic elements into everyday life, crafting poetry in a peripheral location, creating a crown of sonnets dedicated to John Keats, unveiling hidden atrocities through poetry, recounting personal experiences with hearing loss, recounting a heartbreaking journey through hospital stays, overcoming a writing block through rules and style icons, and reflecting on loss and beauty through tactile memories.

Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief.