The Beat

Knox County Public Library
  • 5.0 (8)
  • Performing Arts
  • Updated Bimonthly

In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves. The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn. Rate and review The Beat: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-beat-1664614

  1. 5d ago

    David Baker and Stanley Plumly

    David Baker is a poet, educator, editor, and literary critic. His most recent books are Swift: New and Selected Poems, Whale Fall, and Transit. In 1984, he began teaching at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio, where he now serves as an emeritus professor. He has also taught in writing programs and writers’ workshops around the country, including the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College, and others. For many years he was Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review. Stanly Plumly was born in Barnesville, Ohio in 1939, and he grew up in Virginia and Ohio. He earned a BA from Wilmington College and a PhD from Ohio University. He published numerous books of poetry, and his work won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and eight Pushcart prizes. He taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Houston, and the University of Maryland. He was poet laureate of Maryland from 2009 to 2018. Links: David Baker Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at Poets.org "Rather Than Nothing: On David Baker’s Transit: Poems" at Literary Matters A review of Transit in Publishers Weekly Video: "David Baker--Great Writers, Great Readings", a reading at Hofstra University Stanley Plumly Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation Bio and poems at Poets.org Stanley Plumly Memorial Digital Archive at GR2 Video: "Poet Stanley Plumley Reads from His Collection Orphan Hours"--PBS News Hour

    David Baker and Stanley Plumly

  2. Jun 17

    Jesse Graves Reading (Recorded Live, April 13, 2026)

    In celebration of National Poetry Month, Jesse Graves joined us at Lawson McGhee Library for a reading of his work. Jesse Graves is the author of five poetry collections, including Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, Basin Ghosts, Specter Mountain, Merciful Days, the forthcoming A Little Light in the Grave, and a book of prose, Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place. His work received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Philip H. Freund Prize for Creative Writing from Cornell University, as well as two Weatherford Awards in Poetry from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. Graves has served as co-editor for several collections of poetry and scholarship, including four volumes of The Southern Poetry Anthology and The Complete Poetry of James Agee. He teaches at East Tennessee State University, where he is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English. Links: Jesse Grave's website "Jesse Graves and the Cosmic Appalachian Boogie," in Salvation South Six Poems by Jesse Graves in Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature "Two Stones" in New Verse Review "Above Johnson City" in As the Crow Flies Three poems in Cutleaf

    Jesse Graves Reading (Recorded Live, April 13, 2026)

  3. May 13

    Donovan McAbee and Kathleen Jamie

    Donovan McAbee is a poet, songwriter, and essayist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Hudson Review, The Sun, Garden & Gun, Poetry London, and others. McAbee grew up in a small town in South Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in Creative Writing and Contemporary Poetry from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. McAbee lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two children. Kathleen Jamie was raised in Currie, Scotland, and she studied philosophy at Edinburgh University. Her awards include the Forward Prize for best poetry collection of the year, a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, a Paul Hamlyn Award, and a Creative Scotland Award. From 2021 to 2024, Kathleen Jamie served as Scotland’s Makar (a title given to the national poet). "The Whale-watcher," "The Buddleia," and "The Wishing Tree" were recorded with permission from Kathleen Jamie. Links: Donovan McAbee Read "The Tunnel," "Holy the Body," and "Sightings" in The Sun Magazine Read "Coming Back Down" in Reflections Donovan McAbee's website Hear Major Jackson read McAbee's "Desert Sayings" on The Slowdown Kathleen Jamie Read "The Whale-watcher," "The Wishing Tree," and other poems at Scottish Poetry Library Bio and poems at The Poetry Foundation Hear 19 poems by Jamie at The Poetry Archive

    Donovan McAbee and Kathleen Jamie

  4. Mar 5

    Matt Broaddus

    Matt Broaddus is the author of Deeper the Tropics and Temporal Anomalies. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Annulet, Denver Quarterly, and The Paris Review. He lives in Colorado and serves as an Advisory Poetry Editor for The Paris Review. Links: Matt Broaddus' website "'Blue Prints' and Other Poems" at Changes "The Seal of Approval" at American Poetry Review "The Sun Is a Disembodied Thought: An Interview with Matt Broaddus" at Poetry Daily "These Lit Particulars: On Matt Broaddus’ Deeper the Tropics" at Cleveland Review of Books 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

    Matt Broaddus

  5. Feb 9

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood teaches writing workshops, doodles with Sharpies and acrylic paint, and is raising two poodles and a dwindling number of orchids. Her books include Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough (Press 53, 2023) and Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Sun, and Rattle. Links: Shuly Xóchitl Cawood's website "Poem in Which I Fail to Teach My Dog How to Fetch" at The Sun Two Poems at Have Has Had Interview and four poems at Does It Have Pockets Video: Cawood reading her poem "You Are Not a Cat" 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

    Shuly Xóchitl Cawood

  6. 11/15/2025

    Arlene Keizer's Poems for Beauford Delaney

    Arlene Keizer, an Afro-Caribbean American poet and scholar, writes about the literature, lived experience, theory, and visual culture of the African Diaspora. The recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize, she later earned an MA in English and Creative Writing (Poetry) at Stanford University and a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Black Subjects: Identity Formation in the Contemporary Narrative of Slavery (Cornell UP), and her poems and articles have appeared in African American Review, American Literature, The Kenyon Review, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, PMLA, Poem-a-Day, TriQuarterly, and other venues. Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black, her collection of poems about the African American painter Beauford Delaney, won the 2022 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and was published in 2023 by the Kent State University Press. She is a professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Links: Arlene Keizer   Arlene Keizer’s page at Pratt Institute  Interview with Arlene Keizer at Speaking of Marvels  “Canopy” in Poem-A-Day  Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black at Kent State University Press   Beauford Delaney   Bio and artwork at Knoxville Museum of Art   Bio and Artwork at the Smithsonian    Bio and artwork at Studio Museum in Harlem   Artwork at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery   “Beauford Delaney in Knoxville” at Knoxville History Project  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

    Arlene Keizer's Poems for Beauford Delaney

  7. 09/09/2025

    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

    Chris Barton and Peter Gizzi

  8. 08/01/2025

    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

    Charles Douthat and Robert Frost
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In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves. The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn. Rate and review The Beat: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-beat-1664614

Information

  • Creator
    Knox County Public Library
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    58
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright Knox County Public Library. All rights reserved. Audio licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
  • Show Website
    The Beat