Knox Pods

Knox County Public Library
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Library programs on a variety of topics―mostly book and author talks―and some Knoxville, Tenn. history.

  1. The Beat: Chris Barton and Peter Gizzi

    9 SEPT

    The Beat: Chris Barton and Peter Gizzi

    Chris Barton is the author of the poetry chapbook A Finely Calibrated Apocalypse, published by Bottlecap Press in 2024. His writing has appeared in Epiphany, Peach Magazine, The Plenitudes, Hotel, and elsewhere. From 2016 to 2019, he co-hosted the Electric Pheasant Poetry in Knoxville, TN.  Peter Gizzi grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His many books of poetry include Artificial Heart, Threshold Songs, In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987–2011 and Archeophonics, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. His book Fierce Elegy, published in 2023, won the T. S. Eliot Prize. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  “In Defense of Nothing” from In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987–2011 © 2015 by Peter Gizzi. Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission. Links: Read "our free trial lives," "last supper," and "the bafflement" by Chris Barton Read "In Defense of Nothing" by Peter Gizzi Chris Barton A Finely Calibrated Apocalypse by Chris Barton (Bottlecap Press) "2 Poems by Chris Barton" in Peach Magazine "Ouroboros as a Treat" in The Plentitudes "Three Poems" in Potluck Magazine Peter Gizzi Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at Poets.org "Peter Gizzi Talks About His Work" (YouTube Video--T.S. Eliot Prize) Mentioned in this episode: KnoxCountyLibrary.org Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org. Rate & review on Podchaser

    9 min
  2. The Beat: Charles Douthat and Robert Frost

    1 AUG

    The Beat: Charles Douthat and Robert Frost

    Charles Douthat is a poet, retired litigator, and visual artist. Born and educated in California, he practiced law for many years in New Haven and began writing poems during a long mid-life illness. His first collection, Blue for Oceans, received the PEN New England Award, as the best book of poetry published in 2010 by a New England writer. Concerning Douthat’s newest book, Again, the poet Alan Shapiro writes, “This book is impossible not to love.” Douthat lives in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, the artist Julie Leff. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco. When he was just ten years old, his father died, and Frost’s family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with his paternal grandparents. Though Frost attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University, he never earned a formal degree. He spent much of his twenties and thirties farming and teaching. In 1912, he moved, with his wife and children, to England where publishers were more receptive to his work. But he moved back to the States in 1915 after the start of the First World War. He lived for the rest of his life mostly in Massachusetts and Vermont. Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died in Boston in 1963. Links: Read "Polk Street" and "Mercy" by Charles Douthat Read "After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost Charles Douthat Charles Douthat's website "Charles Douthat Unbound," Authors Unbound podcast "A Few Minutes After Nine" in The Los Angeles Review "The Planting" in The Nature of Our Times "Grounds" in Leon Literary Review Robert Frost Bio and poems at Poets.org Bio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation's website Mentioned in this episode: KnoxCountyLibrary.org Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org. Rate & review on Podchaser

    13 min
  3. The Beat: Matthew Minicucci and Brigit Pegeen Kelly

    3 JUL

    The Beat: Matthew Minicucci and Brigit Pegeen Kelly

    Matthew Minicucci is an award-winning author of four collections of poems including his most recent, Dual, published in 2023 by Acre Books. His poetry and essays have appeared widely in various publications, including American Poetry Review, the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series, the Kenyon Review, Poetry, and The Southern Review. His work has garnered numerous awards including the Stafford/Hall Oregon Book Award and the Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize, along with fellowships from organizations including the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the National Parks Service, and the James Merrill House, among others. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Blount Scholars Program at the University of Alabama. Brigit Pegeen Kelly was born in 1951 in Palo Alto, California. Her first book, To the Place of Trumpets, won the Yale Younger Poets Prize and was published in 1987. Her poems appeared in Best American Poetry, The Nation, The Yale Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, and others. She won awards and fellowships from the Poetry Society of America, the Whiting Foundation, and the Academy of American Poets. Her third book, The Orchard, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Kelly taught at the University of California-Irvine, Purdue University, Warren Wilson College, and the University of Illinois. She died in October of 2016, in Urbana, Illinois.    Special thanks to Boa Editions, Ltd, for permission to record Brigit Pegeen Kelly's poem "Song," which appeared in her book Song, and "Brightness from the North," which was published in The Orchard. Links: Matthew Minicucci Matthew Minicucci's website Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation "Nostalgia" at poets.org Two poems in Poetry Northwest Brigit Pegeen Kelly Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at poets.org "Dead Doe" in The Kenyon Review Reading at Breadloaf Writers' Conference Mentioned in this episode: KnoxCountyLibrary.org Thank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org. Rate & review on Podchaser

    20 min
  4. The Beat: Sara Pirkle and Anya Krugovoy Silver

    3 JUN

    The Beat: Sara Pirkle and Anya Krugovoy Silver

    Sara Pirkle is a Southern poet, an identical twin, a breast cancer survivor, and a board game enthusiast. Her first full-length collection of poetry, The Disappearing Act, won the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry and was published by Mercer University Press in 2018. In 2019, she was nominated for Georgia Author of the Year in Poetry, and in 2022 she was shortlisted for the Oxford Poetry Prize. She also dabbles in songwriting and co-wrote a song on Remy Le Boeuf’s album, Architecture of Storms, which was nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category. Pirkle's poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize five times, the Best of the Net Anthology twice, and the Independent Best American Poetry Award. She earned a PhD in English from Georgia State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Georgia College & State University. She is an Associate Director of Creative Writing at The University of Alabama. Anya Krugovoy Silver was born in Media, Pennsylvania in December of 1968, and she grew up in Swarthmore. The child of immigrants, her first two languages were German and Russian. She graduated from Haverford College, and she earned a PhD in literature from Emory University in Atlanta. In 1998, Silver and her husband began teaching at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. While pregnant with their son in 2004, she was diagnosed with and treated for inflammatory breast cancer. After five years of remission, her cancer returned as bone metastasis in 2010. She published four books of poetry and one book of criticism in her lifetime. She won the Georgia Author of the Year Award in 2015, and she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellow for Poetry in 2018, the same year in which she died. At the time of her death, she was in the process of editing her fifth book, Saint Agnostica, which was published in 2021 by Louisiana State University Press. The following poems were recorded with permission from Louisiana State University Press: Silver, Anya Krugovoy. “Blush” and “The Poem in My Childhood.” The Ninety-Third Name of God: Poems, Louisiana State University Press, 2010 Silver, Anya Krugovoy. “There’s a River.” I Watched You Disappear: Poems, Louisiana State University Press, 2014 Silver, Anya Krugovoy. “From Nothing.” From Nothing: Poems, Louisiana State University Press, 2016 Silver, Anya Krugovoy. “Being Ill.” Saint Agnostica: Poems, Louisiana State University Press, 2021 Links: Sara Pirkle Sara Pirkle's website "Weighing the Options" in Delta Poetry Review "Not Prometheus" in Eclectica "Pretend You Don’t Owe Me a Thing" in Rattle "Evolution of the Writing Process: A Conversation with Dr. Sara Pirkle Hughes"--University of Alabama Anya Krugovoy Silver Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation "Anya Krugovoy Silver, 1968-1018" in New Georgia Encyclopedia a...

    22 min
  5. The Beat: Denton Loving Joins us Live for All Over the Page!

    23 APR

    The Beat: Denton Loving Joins us Live for All Over the Page!

    Recorded live, April 14, 2025. In celebration of National Poetry Month, Denton Loving joined us for Lawson McGhee Library's monthly book discussion group, All Over the Page. Denton Loving is the author of the poetry collections Crimes Against Birds and Tamp, recipient of the inaugural Tennessee Book Award for Poetry. He is a co-founder and editor at EastOver Press and its literary journal Cutleaf. His fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews have appeared in numerous publications including The Kenyon Review, Iron Horse Literary Review and Ecotone. His third collection of poems, Feller, is forthcoming in 2025 from Mercer University Press. Links: Denton Loving's website "Loving Wins Tennessee Book Award," Lincoln Memorial University" "The Secret Signal to Wake," an interview and poems at Salvation South "Two Poems by Denton Loving" at The Museum of Americana: A Literary Review "Tamp--Denton Loving" at Griffinpoetry.com Video: WANA (Writers Association of Northern Appalachia) Live! Reading Series featuring Denton Loving

    38 min
  6. The Beat: Jennifer Horne and Thomas Hardy

    26 MAR

    The Beat: Jennifer Horne and Thomas Hardy

    Jennifer Horne served as the twelfth Poet Laureate of Alabama from 2017 to 2021. The author of four collections of poems, Bottle Tree, Little Wanderer, Borrowed Light, and, most recently, Letters to Little Rock, she also has written a collection of short stories, Tell the World You’re a Wildflower. She is the author of a literary biography, Odyssey of a Wandering Mind: The Strange Tale of Sara Mayfield, Author, described as “mesmerizing”  and “a beguiling tale of madness and literature” by Publisher’s Weekly. She has edited or co-edited five volumes of poetry, essays, and stories.  Thomas Hardy was born on June 2, 1840, in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, England. Hardy is best known for his novels, including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Far from the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and Jude the Obscure. His first book of poems, Wessex Poems, was published when Hardy was in his late 50s. He published seven more collections, and over 1,000 poems in his lifetime. In January of 1928, he died peacefully at his home in Dorchester, Dorset, England. Links: Jennifer Horne A Map of the World (Jennifer Horne's website) Bio and work at The Poetry Foundation A review of Letters to Little Rock at Alabama Writers Forum “Old Enough: Southern Women Artists and Writers on Creativity and Aging: Life-, Age-, and Art-Affirming Manifestos" at Southern Review of Books "Two Poems by Jennifer Horne" at Deep South Magazine Thomas Hardy Bio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation The Thomas Hardy Society

    9 min
  7. The Beat: A Reading and Conversation with Cornelius Eady

    27 FEB

    The Beat: A Reading and Conversation with Cornelius Eady

    Cornelius Eady is a Professor of English and John C. Hodges Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From September 2021 to December 2022, he served as interim Director of Poets House in New York City. Eady published his first collection, Kartunes, in 1980. His second collection, Victims of the Latest Dance Craze (1985), was chosen as winner of the Academy of American Poets’ Lamont Poetry Award by Louise Glück, Charles Simic, and Philip Booth. He has published eight other collections, including The Gathering of My Name (1991), nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Brutal Imagination (2001), a National Book Award finalist; and Hardheaded Weather: New and Selected Poems (2008), nominated for an NAACP Image Award. In addition to his poetry, Eady has written musical theater productions, collaborating with jazz composer Diedre Murray. The two worked together on Running Man, a roots opera libretto that was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama, and Brutal Imagination, recipient of Newsday’s Oppenheimer Award. Eady is also a musician, and he performs with the literary band Rough Magic and the Cornelius Eady Trio, which recently released the album Don't Get Dead: Pandemic Folk Songs. (June Appal Recording, 2021). Eady has published five mixed-media chapbooks with accompanying CDs, including Book of Hooks (Kattywompus Press, 2013), Singing While Black (Kattywompus Press, 2015) and All the American Poets Have Titled Their New Books The End (Kattywompus Press, (2018). With poet Toi Derricote, Eady founded Cave Canem, a beloved nonprofit organization that supports emerging Black poets via a summer retreat, regional workshops, prizes, events, and publication opportunities. In 2016, Eady and Derricote were honored with the National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community on behalf of Cave Canem, and, in 2023, they won the Pegasus Award for service in the field of Poetry by the Poetry Foundation. Eady’s other honors include the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. Links: Bio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at Poets.org "Poet Cornelius Eady on exploring the everyday lives of Black people in America"--PBS News Hour Cornelius Eady Group website "Emmett Till's Glass Top Casket" at the Poetry Society of America Cave Canem

    49 min
  8. The Beat: Cassandra de Alba and Amy Lowell

    8 JAN

    The Beat: Cassandra de Alba and Amy Lowell

    Cassandra de Alba has published several chapbooks including habitats by Horse Less Press in 2016, Ugly/Sad by Glass Poetry Press in 2020, and Cryptids, which was co-authored with Aly Pierce and published by Ginger Bug Press in 2020.  Her work has appeared in The Shallow Ends, Big Lucks, Wax Nine, The Baffler, Verse Daily, and others.  Amy Lowell was born in 1874 in Brookline, Massachusetts. She was educated in private schools in Boston and at her home. Lowell’s first significant poetry publication came in 1910 when her poem “Fixed Idea” was published in the Atlantic Monthly. Two years later, her book A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass was published by Houghton Mifflin. She went on to write several other books of poetry, and she was a key figure in the Imagist movement led by Ezra Pound. She wrote a major biography of the poet John Keats, which was published in 1925, the same year in which she died. Lowell’s book What’s O’Clock won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1926.   Links: Cassandra de Alba Cassandra de Alba's website Three poems in Dear Poetry Journal "Self-Portrait with Rabbit Ears and Seventeen" at Verse Daily "Miniatures" in Ghost City "End Times Fatigue" at Sweet Amy Lowell Bio and poems at Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at Poetry.org

    7 min
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About

Library programs on a variety of topics―mostly book and author talks―and some Knoxville, Tenn. history.

Information

  • Creator
    Knox County Public Library
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Knox County Public Library. All rights reserved. Audio licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • Show Website
    Knox Pods