Poetry Off the Shelf
Producer Helena de Groot talks to poets about language, dreams, love and loss, identity, connection, anger, discomfort, the creative process, the state of the world and the world of the soul. Hard conversations are welcomed—laughter is, too.
Latest episodes
Apr 23, 2024 • 1h 5min
My Heart and Its Borders
Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine.
Apr 9, 2024 • 45min
My Awesome Stoma
April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother.
Mar 26, 2024 • 47min
Working-Class Superheroes
Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end.
Mar 12, 2024 • 55min
All the Shiny Knives
Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors.
Feb 27, 2024 • 1h 10min
Let Light Form
Nam Le on commerce, irony vs. sincerity, and being in the Arctic.
Feb 13, 2024 • 46min
Stay in Character
Gregory Pardlo on improv, therapy, and driving around with his father’s ashes.
Jan 30, 2024 • 50min
Instructions for Divorce
Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self.
Jan 16, 2024 • 1h
Make Art for Me
Blake Butler on complex mourning, the suicide of his wife Molly Brodak, and finding his way back.
Jan 3, 2024 • 45min
Poets We Lost in 2023
Remembering the lesbian poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt, as well as the Palestinian poet and symbol of the resistance, Refaat Alareer.
Dec 12, 2023 • 37min
The Utopian Business
Steve Zeitlin and Bob Holman on the healing act of writing, small frogs, and politics at the fiddle festival.
