Of Poetry Podcast

Han VanderHart
  • 5.0 (31)
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Kitchen table conversations with poets, hosted by Han VanderHart.

  1. 3D AGO

    J.D. Ho (Of Mystery and Empathy, Cover Design, and Foraging in Winter)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Read: the title essay "Backyard Alchemy" (The Common) Purchase: Backyard Alchemy: on life with other creatures in a time of salvage (River River Books, 2026) J.D. Ho was born by the sea, raised on a rock, schmoozed in Hollywood, drove to Austin, Texas for an MFA, and now lives among foxes and deer on a sliver of east coast green. J.D.’s work has appeared in Georgia Review, Missouri Review, Ninth Letter, and other journals. Reading Recommendations Mushroom at the End of the World by Anna Tsing  The Fall of Iris Henley by Jennifer Graham Brilliant Minds (tv show) Alban Fischer (Designer and editor) Pastoral, 1994 by Joe Wilkins Scythe by Elizabeth Sylvia Your Mother’s Bear Gun by Corrie Williamson EcoTheo Review

    55 min

  2. FEB 16

    Elizabeth Sylvia (Of Gardens, Marie Antoinette, and Loving What is Flawed)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).-- Read: "On Learning that Kim Kardashian Exceeded her Water Allowance by 232,000 Gallons in June" (Passengers Journal) Purchase: Scythe (River River Books, 2026) Elizabeth Sylvia’s first book, None But Witches: Poems on Shakespeare’s Women (2022), won the 2021 3 Mile Harbor Press Book Award. Her chapbook My Little Book of Domestic Anxieties (2025) is available from Ballerini Books, and her second full-length collection, Scythe, is available now from River River Books. She has been a finalist or semi-finalist in competitions sponsored by the Burnside Review, C&R Press, DIAGRAM, Thirty West, Rare Swan, and Wolfson Press, and is a reader for SWWIM Every Day. Elizabeth has received fellowships from the New York Public Library, the West Chester University Poetry Center, and the Longleaf Writers Conference, and is the winner of the 2023 riverSedge Poetry Prize. Elizabeth grew up on Martha’s Vineyard and currently teaches in Southeastern Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband, two daughters, and an extravagantly demanding garden. Recommended Reading: Richard Siken's CrushLady Wing Shot by Sara Moore Wagner  If Some God Shakes Your House by Jennifer Franklin Ceive by BK Fischer Rue by Kathryn Nuernberger No Longer at This Address by Andrew Hemmers The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing

    1h 6m

  3. JAN 19

    Majda Gama (Of Arabic Oral Tradition, the Sonics of the Ghazal, and the Western Luxury of Telling the Truth in Your Poems)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Read: "Ghazal: Morning" (The Offing) Purchase: In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls(Wandering Aengus Press, 2025)  Majda Gama was born in Beirut to a Saudi father and American mother. Her hometown is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and her roots Hijazi, but she also has a long, complicated relationship with Northern Virginia where her father was stationed in the 1970's. Majda is the author of In the House of Modern Upbringing for Girls (Wandering Aengus Press, 2025) and The Call of Paradise, (Two Sylvia’s, 2023). Her poetry has been honored with the Graybeal-Gowen award for Virginia poets from Shenandoah and the Gregory Djanikian scholar award for poetry from Adroit. Recent poems have appeared in, or are forthcoming from, AGNI, Ploughshares, POETRY, Prairie Schooner, Swamp Pink, Tupelo Quarterly, and TriQuarterly. Recommended reading2017 PEN America World Voices: Sheyr Jangi (Poetic Battles) Lena Khalaf Tuffaha Mahmoud Darwish Fady Joudah Gwendolyn Brooks Jill Kitchen

    1h 15m

  4. 12/11/2025

    Frances Klein (Of the Alaskan Rural, the Quantifying Work That Poets Do Best, and the Emotional Intensity of Writing Labor)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).-- Read: Three Poems by Frances Klein at Cultural Daily Purchase: Another Life (Riot in Your Throat Press, 2025) Frances Klein is an Alaskan poet and teacher. Klein is the author of the poetry collection Another Life (Riot in Your Throat Press, 2025). She is also the author of several poetry chapbooks, including (Text) Messages from The Angel Gabriel (Gnashing Teeth, 2024). Klein is the founding editor of Flight: A Literary Sampler, and an editor at The Weight Journal. Her writing has appeared in Best Microfictions, Rattle, the Harvard Advocate, the London Magazine, HAD, and others. Klein lives in Southeast Alaska with her husband and son. Recommended Reading: Terrance Hayes, "Wind in a Box" (poem, also recommend book) Jericho Brown Marianne Baruch, Grace, Fallen from Joshua Bennett Robert Hass  Lucille Clifton Sarah Vap, End of the Sentimental Journey James Tate

    1h 3m

  5. 11/19/2025

    Nicole Cooley (Of Form and Flood, the Documentation of Grief, and Poetry That Violates Rules)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Read: "Mother Water Ash" (Poets.org) Purchase: MOTHER WATER ASH(Louisiana State University Press 2024) Nicole Cooley grew up in New Orleans and is the author of seven books of poems, most recently MOTHER WATER ASH(Louisiana State University Press 2024), as well as OF MARRIAGE (Alice James Books 2018), GIRL AFTER GIRL AFTER GIRL (LSU Press 2018) and BREACH (LSU Press 2010). She has received the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets, an NEA grant, and the Emily Dickinson Award from The Poetry Society of America, and most recently a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Arts. She is a professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation at Queens College, The City University of New York and lives in NJ with her family. Reading Recommendations: Yannis Ritsos Incendiary Art by Patricia Smith The Dream of Reason by Jenny George The Poet in the Worldby Denise Levertov The Art of Deathby Edwidge Danticat Against Forgetting by Carolyn Forche Orbit by Victoria Chang Mother Hunger by Kelly McDaniel "A Small Needful Fact" by Ross Gay C.D. Wright Philip Levine

    1h 1m

  6. 10/28/2025

    Natalie Solmer (Of Genealogies of Water, the Great Lakes and Diane Seuss, and the Working Class, Rural Lyric)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Purchase: Water Castle by Natalie Solmer (Kelsay Books, 2024) Read: "I Am a Great Lake" (MER) Natalie Solmer was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana, a granddaughter of Polish and German immigrants. She worked in the field of horticulture for many years, including 13 years as a grocery store florist, before becoming a professor of English and creative writing. She teaches at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis and is the founder and editor in chief of Indianapolis Review. Her work has been published in journals such as North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Pleiades, Mom Egg Review, and Tab Poetry Journal. Her debut book of poems, Water Castle, was published by Kelsay Books in the fall of 2024. You can find her poems, visual poetry, and visual art at http://www.nataliesolmer.com Reading Recommendations: The Indianapolis Review Diane Seuss, Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (Graywolf, 2018) "Song in my Heart" by Diane Seuss Gustav Klimt Frida Kahlo "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin Joyelle McSweeney, Death Styles (Nightboat Books, 2024)

    1h 6m

  7. 10/14/2025

    Sarah Green (Of Dictionaries, Salvage and Destruction, and the Longing to Make Something Good)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Purchase: The Deletions (Editor’s Choice, Akron Poetry Prize) Sarah Green is the author of an April 2025 release, The Deletions (Editor’s Choice, Akron Poetry Prize) and a previous collection, Earth Science. Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Paris Review, New Ohio Review, 32 Poems, FIELD, Copper Nickel, Gettysburg Review, Pleiades, and elsewhere. A two-time Pushcart Prize winner, she is an Associate Professor of English at St. Cloud State.  Reading Recommendations:Kylie Gellatly Marie Howe Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey James Wright Marianne Moore Merriam-Webster The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane

    1h 3m

  8. 09/24/2025

    Donna Vorreyer (Of Unrivering, Writing the Liturgy of the Body, and Creating Giving Communities in the Arts)

    Of Poetry is hosted by Han VanderHart, author of Larks (Ohio UP, 2025).--Purchase: Unrivered (Sundress Publications, 2025) Read: "Dysmorphia (Autumn)" at Harpur Palate Donna Vorreyer is the author of four full-length poetry collections: Unrivered ( 2025), To Everything There Is (2020), Every Love Story is an Apocalypse Story (2016) and A House of Many Windows (2013), all from Sundress Publications. Recent work has appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, Poet Lore, Colorado Review, Harpur Palate, Baltimore Review, Salamander, and many other journals. Donna lives  in the western suburbs of Chicago and runs the online reading series A Hundred Pitchers of Honey. She is the co-founder/co-editor of Asterales: A Journal of Arts & Letters. Reading/Listening Recommendations: Mary Ruefle’s essay “Pause” Diane Seuss's frank: sonnets John Donne, Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions (1624) Philip Sidney, Astrophil and Stella (1591) Jane Hirshfield "Changing Everything" Richard Wilbur, “The Beautiful Changes” Joanne Kyger Eileen Myles Salvage by Heji Choi Taylor Byas’s Resting Bitch Face Dustin Brookshire, Wild and Precious Life Series Robin Wall Kimmerer's The Serviceberry Lewis Hyde's The Gift

    1h 13m
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About

Kitchen table conversations with poets, hosted by Han VanderHart.

Information

  • Creator
    Han VanderHart
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    85
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Han VanderHart
  • Show Website
    Of Poetry Podcast