A Lovely Wallpaper

Abby Walthausen
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"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem each episode. Proposing memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby delivers an exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest about poetry and memory. In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a special format designed to work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.

  1. 21/12/2025

    Episode 18: "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day" with Robert Harrison

    In this episode, Abby interviews Robert Harrison, professor of Italian and French Literature at Stanford University, about darkness, light, the winter solstice, and his long running radio program "Entitled Opinions (about Life and Literature)." Together they present "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucys' Day" by John Donne. Recitation begins at 36:21.

    52 min

  2. 26/11/2025

    "Try to Praise the Mutilated World" with Selma Asotić

    In this episode, Abby interviews poet Selma Asotić about her English language debut Say Fire, a beautiful book about families, language, and trauma in post-war Sarajevo. Together, they present "Let Us Praise the Mutilated World" by Adam Zagajewski. Recitation begins 1:05:10 Try to Praise the Mutilated World By Adam Zagajewski Translated By Clare Cavanagh Remember June's long days, and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. You must praise the mutilated world. You watched the stylish yachts and ships; one of them had a long trip ahead of it, while salty oblivion awaited others. You've seen the refugees going nowhere, you've heard the executioners sing joyfully. You should praise the mutilated world. Remember the moments when we were together in a white room and the curtain fluttered. Return in thought to the concert where music flared. You gathered acorns in the park in autumn and leaves eddied over the earth's scars. Praise the mutilated world and the gray feather a thrush lost, and the gentle light that strays and vanishes and returns.

    1h 20m

  3. 15/10/2025

    Ghost Story from William Maxwell’s "The Château" — with Christine Schutt

    This special October episode features a ghost story from William Maxwell’s novel The Château. It’s set in a harsh, old-fashioned classroom where kids recite their lessons, and its haunting force is a shapeshifting memory double—very much in our “A Lovely Wallpaper” wheelhouse. Guest reader: Christine Schutt, author of Pure Hollywood, Prosperous Friends, All Souls, and several more. No poem, no interview this time—just understated, literary thrills and chills!

    19 min

  4. 26/09/2025

    "The Garden" with Marie Warsh

    In this episode, Abby interviews art historian Marie Warsh about her book Central Park's Adventure-Style Playgrounds, about growing up surrounded by poetry and art on the Lower East side, and about her work to revive the legacies of unsung female artists. Together, they present an excerpt of “The Garden” by Bernadette Mayer, Marie's mother. Recitation begins at 45:50 from "The Garden" by Bernadette Mayer If all our eyes had the clarity of apples In a world as altered As if by the wood betony And all kinds of basil were the only riders of the land It would be good to be together Both under and above the ground To be sane as the madwort, Ripe as corn, safe as sage, Various as dusty miller and hens & chickens, In politics as kindly fierce and dragonlike as tarragon, Revolutionary as the lily.

    53 min

  5. 08/08/2025

    "Mushrooms" with James Oliver

    In this episode, Abby interviews radical mycologist James Oliver about mushrooms and his work healing post-fire sites with mycelium at The Center for Applied Ecological Remediation (CAER). Together, they present the poem "Mushrooms," by Sylvia Plath. Recitation begins at 47:22 Mushrooms Sylvia Plath Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us! We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible, Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot's in the door.

    1 hr

  6. 18/06/2025

    "The Pity of Love" with Mary Lattimore

    In this episode, Abby interviews harpist and composer Mary Lattimore about her most recent album Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, her musical collaborations, and her instrument in all its epic visceral and metaphorical power. Together, they present “The Pity of Love” by William Butler Yeats. Recitation begins at 34:38 The Pity of Love William Butler Yeats A pity beyond all telling Is hid in the heart of love: The folk who are buying and selling, The clouds on their journey above, The cold wet winds ever blowing, And the shadowy hazel grove Where mouse-grey waters are flowing, Threaten the head that I love.

    43 min

  7. 20/03/2025

    "Zone" with Lucy Sante

    In this episode, Abby interviews writer Lucy Sante about recent books *Nineteen Reservoirs* and *I Heard Her Call My Name*. Together, they present an excerpt of the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire. Recitation begins at 45:07 from "Zone" Guillaume Apollinaire Now you walk in Paris alone in a crowd Herds of buses drive past mooing loud Your throat is gripped with love’s pain As if you should never be loved again If you lived in the past you’d enter a monastery You’re ashamed to catch yourself saying a prayer You jeer at yourself and your laughter crackles like hellfire The background of your life is gilded by the sparks from your laughter It’s like paintings hung in a dark museum Sometimes you step up close to see them

    53 min

  8. 25/02/2025

    "There is a Zone whose even Years" with Lee Ann Brown

    In this episode, Abby interviews Lee Ann Brown, poet and founding editrix of Tender Buttons, about running a small press for 36 years, having Bernadette Mayer as a mentor, setting poems to music, and her own poetry book *In the Laurels Caught*. Together, they present Dickinson’s poem 1056, "There is a Zone whose even Years." Recitation begins at 48:25 1056, "There is a Zone whose even Years" Emily Dickinson There is a Zone whose even Years No Solstice interrupt -- Whose Sun constructs perpetual Noon Whose perfect Seasons wait -- Whose Summer set in Summer, till The Centuries of June And Centuries of August cease And Consciousness -- is Noon.

    55 min
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About

"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem each episode. Proposing memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby delivers an exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest about poetry and memory. In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a special format designed to work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.

Information

  • Creator
    Abby Walthausen
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    18

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