Melody or Witchcraft: Poets on Emily Dickinson & Today's Issues

Kathryn Petruccelli
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Conversations with today's poets and writers about Emily Dickinson and about the scope and sources of creative influence and the relevance of the past. Guests choose a Dickinson poem and one of their own to read. kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com

  1. 2d ago

    Diane Seuss: strange freedom

    The Melody or Witchcraft podcast interviews begin with a love for poetry, its craft, and a major literary ancestor: Emily Dickinson. I’m your host, Kathryn Petruccelli, a poet, workshop leader, Substacker, & former guide for the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. I’m interested in things like the sources of creative inspiration, how the past influences the present, challenging cultural norms, social justice, and poetry as a tool for survival. I have yet to fail to fall further in love with each poet-guest after our conversations. I hope that will be true for you, too. Non-poets & poetry skeptics: you are very welcome here!! Names or poetic references are fleshed out or linked to in the show notes if not in the moment. * Things you are at risk of as a listener:Learning new ways to understand poetry.Filling up your “new writers/books to read” dance card.Finding healing and companionship around the stress of living. EXPLICIT LANGUAGE NOTE: Please be aware that there is a curse word in Episode 15. kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com for complete notes, photos, and links. Thanks for being a listener! Rate us on Spotify HERE, or Apple Podcasts HERE. In Episode 15, Diane Seuss & I go deep into the poems and come out with lessons around narrative, death, poetry’s power against same, and who cares if they’re remembered. In addition to the following full-length interview, look for the Diane Seuss “bonus bit” episode where Diane talks about her upcoming collection and you also get to listen in on some of our off-the-record chat. Diane Seuss is the author of six books of poetry, including Modern Poetry (2024), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize; and frank: sonnets (2021), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Seuss was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and she is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her seventh collection, Althea: Poems, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2027. Diane’s choice of Dickinson poem: After great pain, a formal feeling comes –The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs –The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’? The Feet, mechanical, go round –A Wooden wayOf Ground, or Air, or Ought –Regardless grown,A Quartz contentment, like a stone – This is the Hour of Lead –Remembered, if outlived,As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow –First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go – c. autumn1862, Fascicle 18, Sheet 4, (FR372; J341) [I saw a little movie of a person stroking a small bird with two Q-tips, one held between]Diane Seuss I saw a little movie of a person stroking a small bird with two Q-tips, one held betweenthe forefinger and thumb of each hand. It tipped back its head to receive the minortenderness, which to the bird must have felt like being touched by a god. For moment I knew what it would be to feel at the mercy of love, small-scale, the kind shown but not spoken of. I was afraid to touch you. I was afraid of the lesions you’d described to me over the phone, their locations and the measurement, in centimeters, of each. Jesus-marks, you called them. All so I would be prepared and unafraid or less afraid but still I was afraid of dying like you were dying. When I first arrived I looked so long into your eyes you shivered and ordered me to look away. You were imperious in your dying yet courtly about my fear, you understood, as if I were a child afraid of lightning storms, which I am, having at age ten been struck. Out of the blue you said that once you were dead I’d never be able to listen to Blue again, Joni Mitchell’s Blue, not just the song but the whole album. It was a minor curse you lay across my shoulders like a fur dyed blue, and so I listen now in defiance of you. In the listening the pronoun shifts. We are listening. There is no death. People, concepts, & other references made in the conversation: (Oliver) Cromwell The line “wish in one hand, s**t in the other” appears in this poem by Diane. In Gregory Orr’s essay on poetic temperaments, he states the four temperaments as story, music, imagination, and form. Galway Kinnell Frazar Stearns (although this article is dated, it gives in-depth context for the circumstances around and impact of Stearns’ death) The reference we make to Higginson and Emily’s question about whether her poems “breathe” comes from this: Are you too deeply occupied to say if my Verse is alive? The Mind is so near itself-it cannot see, distinctly-and I have none to ask- Should you think it breathed- and had you the leisure to tell me, I should feel quick gratitude- It’s the beginning of her initial letter to Thomas Wentworth Higginson, April 15, 1862, Letter 260 Steepletop – the house of Edna St. Vincent Millay On ED’s question about where her father went after his death in 1874, I found these two things: “Home is so far from home since my father died.” (ED to Higginson, 1875) And with many thanks to my colleague at the ED Museum, Emily Bernhard, for digging this up: This is from The Years and Hours of Emily Dickinson (vol. 2, p. 227), (Jay) Leyda is quoting from Life and Letters of ED by Martha Dickinson Bianchi: “After her father’s death she went about always wondering where he could be, and even to her brother’s children saying unforgettable things in her search for a clue to what, and where, he was, and ‘what kind’ he had become ... And no acting of tragedy in later years ever effaced the memory of her husky whisper, ‘Where is he? Emily will find him!’” Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself” Di’s short essay on bold poetic declarations: “Divine is Mine,” which comes from The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basic, ed. Diane Lockwood, 2018, Terrapin Books. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber to support my work and this content. Joni Mitchell’s Blue Emily’s “taller feet” quote is: “Could I make you and Austin — proud — sometime — a great way off — ‘twould give me taller feet —” (to Susan Dickinson, Letter238, 1861) Here is the last poem in Diane’s frank: sonnets that I read in the interview John Keats Recorded April 20, 2026. Thank you for being a listener! Leave us a comment! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

  2. 2d ago

    Bonus Bit: Diane Seuss

    This Bonus Bit supplements the full-length interview with poet Diane Seuss for the Melody or Witchcraft podcast. Section 1: Diane speaks about her approach to her books, her interest in objectivity, Dickinson’s presence in a variety of ways in the books, including Althea, the forthcoming book. “High Romance” – is Diane’s poem she mentions from her book, Modern Poetry, in which Keats is a ghost. The poem first appeared in the New Yorker (with thanks to Susannah McNamara for her help in providing the text). High Romance Diane Seuss And then Keats’s ghost foundthat he could no longer loveFanny Brawne. He’d escapedthe body like a loveletter from its envelope, and he’d flownlike a love letter in a windstorm.He’d seen that the wordsformed from ink melted in the rain.Words, he now knew—and he’d once beensuch a devotee—didn’t matter,or didn’t matter so much as he’d believedthey mattered. Something mattered, he knew,but whatever it was he couldn’t putwords to it, or he didn’t have the heartto put words to it. He did feel love,but it was an arrow without a target.It was diffuse, like an atomizedperfume, or stars as the poor see them,who cannot afford glasses. He sawthat Fanny, as she was known,was a concept, just as he had been a concept.They each inhabited the same amountof space, like a tablespoonof butter and a tablespoon of lard.In a book, they would each occupya single page. Their brains, encasedin cranial bones and flesh and heads of hair,could each rest on a single silk pillow.Ideas, he found, don’t die. Even notions flylike cottonwood seeds through the air.And love had been a notion. He sawthat Fanny, in time, would slip free of herself—everything does, in time, even roses,even stones, foothills, fleas, and poems.Rhyme, he saw, existed on its own behalf.He could catch it like a bird catchesan air current. From above, he could seethat Fanny was not trifling. Nothing,from above, is trifling, nor more compellingthan anything else. His love for her, he saw,had been an invention of the mind.Only belief could sustain it, but hecould no longer sustain belief. Nowand then he’d try it on again—love—like a fancy hat he could not affordand now appeared ludicrously overdesigned.Once, his ghost managed to look at her again,through the gauzy curtains that hungover her bedroom window. His gazewas too objective to find her beautiful,but objectivity itself—that was beautiful. William Carlos Williams e. e. cummings Section 2: We chat on my geographic origins and Diane lays on us her newly coined, “We repeat it, til we defeat it!” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    Bonus Bit: Diane Seuss

  3. Jul 20

    Evie Shockley: the selective poet

    Poets are truthtellers. We need more of those. The Melody or Witchcraft podcast conversations begin with a love for poetry, its craft, and a major literary ancestor: Emily Dickinson. The two poems you’ll hear each episode are chosen by the guests: a Dickinson poem and one of their own. Amongst the poem-talk and new discoveries around our 19th Century sister, we do our best to follow an organic flow of dialogue that moves us around a poet’s POV on the real life challenges of the 21st Century and the particular interests of the guest. I’m your host, Kathryn Petruccelli, a poet, workshop leader, Substacker, & former guide for the Emily Dickinson Museum in Amherst, Massachusetts. I’m interested in things like the sources of creative inspiration, time & how the past influences the present, challenging cultural norms, social justice, and poetry as a tool for survival. The poets I select to interview are people whose work I love and admire. I have yet to fail to fall further in love with each of them after our conversations. Non-poets & poetry skeptics: you are very welcome here!! Things you are at risk of as a listener:Learning new ways to understand poetry. Filling up your “new writers/books to read” dance card.Finding healing and companionship around the stress of living. In Episode 14, Evie Shockley & I talk about an inviolate interior, the traditions of experimental poetry, our changing relationship with death as we age, Gwendolyn Brooks, and how some Poets of Color might reconcile with Dickinson’s choice to avoid (or blunder) the discussion of race. Poet & scholar Evie Shockley thinks, creates, and writes with her eye on a Black feminist horizon. Her books of poetry include suddenly we (NAACP Image Award; National Book Award Finalist), semiautomatic (Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Pulitzer Prize finalist), and the new black (Hurston/Wright Legacy Award). Her literary criticism includes Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry and numerous essays. Most recently, she is editor of the Norton Library edition of Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Among the honors for her body of work in poetry are the Academy Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and the Stephen Henderson Award. Her joys include participating in poetry communities such as Cave Canem and collaborating with artists working in various media. Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University. If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes may be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, links, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. Evie’s choice of Dickinson poem: The Soul selects her own Society —Then — shuts the Door —To her divine Majority —Present no more — Unmoved — she notes the Chariots — pausing —At her low Gate —Unmoved — an Emperor be kneelingUpon her Mat — I’ve known her — from an ample nation —Choose One —Then — close the Valves of her attention —Like Stone — Fascicle 20, Sheet 4, c. autumn 1862 (Fr 409, J303) [proximity to death]Evie Shockley proximity to death—when recognized—shellacs steel upon the skinsets cement behind the eyes— even at a distanceif looking death’s waydark thunder stuns the earand drowns out day— mortality of belovedsupends a brimming heart—but the end of self— contemplated—stills the brain in its path— as if medusa loosed her hairand the mind’s eye gazedupon what cannot be—but is—without shield – even of gauze People & concepts named in the conversation: Gwendolyn Brooks & Brooks’ “Gay Chaps at the Bar” Dudley Randall’s Broadside Press (these are two different links) Black History of Amherst – website Sonia Sanchez Audre Lourde Susan Howe Toi Dericotte Marilyn Chin Helen Hunt (Jackson) and her books, A Century of Dishonor & Ramona The Black Arts Movement Amiri Baraka Nikki Giovanni The Beats Allen Ginsberg Frances Ellen Watkins Harper “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens Harryette Mullen Ed Roberson Books mentioned: Virginia Jackson’s book Dickinson’s Misery: A Theory of Lyric Reading Oxford Handbook of Emily Dickinson – (which includes Brigitte Fielder’s “Emily Dickinson’s Black Contexts” that I mention) Fact check: The collection of Dickinson’s poems that Evie refers to as “First Harvest” would be Thomas Johnson’s Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson’s Poems. It was published in 1961. Recorded May 27, 2026 We’d love to hear your comments!! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

  4. Jul 13

    Jane Wong: the ugly cry

    Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023). She also wrote two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). Her poetry installations which engage haunting and nourishment have been exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, the Richmond Art Gallery, and the Asian Art Museum. Jane’s pick for an Emily Dickinson poem: They shut me up in Prose –As when a little GirlThey put me in the Closet –Because they liked me “still” – Still! Could themself have peeped –And seen my Brain – go round –They might as wise have lodged a BirdFor Treason – in the Pound – Himself has but to willAnd easy as a StarLook down upon Captivity –And laugh – No more have I – J613; Fr 445; Fascicle 21, sheet 2 (late 1862) And also this quote from her letter to Higginson: Letter 271 from August 1862. “I had no Monarch in my life, and cannot rule myself, and when I try to organize - my little Force explodes - and leaves me bare and charred - I think you called me ‘Wayward.’” Lessons on LesseningJane Wong I wake to the sound of my neighbors upstairs as if they are bowling. And maybe they are, all pins and love fallen over.I lie against my floor, if only to feel that kind of affection. What I’ve learned, time and again:Get up. You cannot have what they have. And the eyes of a dead rat can’t say anything. In Jersey, the sink breaks and my mother keeps a bucketunderneath to save water for laundry. A trick of water is no joke. I’ve learned that.Neither is my father, wielding a knife in starlight. I was taught that everything and everyone is self-made. That you can make a window out of anything if you want.This is why I froze insects. To see if they will come back to life. How I began to see each day: the sluice of wings.Get up. The ants pouring out of the sink, onto my arms in dish-heavy water. My arms: branches. A swarm I didn’t ask for. No one told me I’d have to learn to be polite.To let myself be consumed for what I cannot control. I must return to my younger self. To wearing my lifelike heavy wool, weaved in my own weight. To pretend not to know when the debtors come to collect. Other people and concepts referenced in the conversation: The quote Jane references about a letter that did not make Dickinson “drunk” is this one that begins Letter 265, June 7, 1862 to Thomas Wentworth Higginson: “Your letter gave no Drunkenness, because I tasted Rum before- Domingo comes but once-yet I have had few pleasures so deep as your opinion, and if I tried to thank you, my tears would block my tongue -…” Ballad Meter (Federico Garcia) Lorca’s essay on duende Lineation - a definition, and a couple brief essays (one and two) on the poetic line to mull over. Enjambment Lucille Clifton’s poem “won’t you celebrate with me” won’t you celebrate with mewhat i have shaped intoa kind of life? i had no model.born in babylonboth nonwhite and womanwhat did i see to be except myself?i made it uphere on this bridge betweenstarshine and clay,my one hand holding tightmy other hand; come celebratewith me that everydaysomething has tried to kill meand has failed. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha & her book Dictée Video of Jane’s “The Long Labors” poem Recorded May 8, 2026. Thank you for being a reader, listener, and poetry lover. Please consider supporting my work through rating and commenting on the podcast wherever you listen or by becoming a paid subscriber! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

  5. Jul 8

    Jane Wong Teaser Reel

    Dear Readers, Maybe I have a lot going on. Maybe I’m not as observant as I’d like to think I am. Maybe my observation skills are focused elsewhere. But, uh - y’all! I can put VIDEO on Substack?! Should I have known that???? I could pretend I knew it all along, but I’m like hella into authenticity these days. This coming Monday, July 13th, the third season of Melody or Witchcraft begins—with Jane Wong. Enjoy this wee teaser! I had a blast talking to Jane! I don’t send these clips out on this platform regularly because I know many of you receive them over email and I know how oversaturated our inboxes can be. (I’m thinking about you, lovely readers; I really am.) But please know that I make these trailers/reels for every guest. You can find them as well as multiple general season clips on Instagram, Blue Sky, and as of later this week, You Tube. The audio versions of the trailers are also posted on melodyorwitchcraft.com. Now, I NEED YOU! Here’s what you can do that doesn’t cost a thing and would mean SOOO much! * Follow me on the above platforms. * Do you listen here? Please engage with the posts this season! Comment. Like. Share. Restack. * Do you or friends have Spotify? FOLLOW the Melody or Witchcraft. RATE the show. (Click the three dots to the right.) * Do you or friend listen on Apple? LEAVE A COMMENT! * Recommend Melody or Witchcraft to friends and family - we talk poetry AND we talk real life stuff. * Let me know what else you’d like to see here. How it’s easiest and most interesting to engage. Maybe you’ve noticed: I enjoy conversation! :) Here is the poem of her own that Jane shares in Monday’s episode. Tune in to hear her read it and hear more about it! Lessons on LesseningJane Wong I wake to the sound of my neighbors upstairs as if they are bowling. And maybe they are, all pins and love fallen over.I lie against my floor, if only to feel that kind of affection. What I’ve learned, time and again:Get up. You cannot have what they have. And the eyes of a dead rat can’t say anything. In Jersey, the sink breaks and my mother keeps a bucketunderneath to save water for laundry. A trick of water is no joke. I’ve learned that.Neither is my father, wielding a knife in starlight. I was taught that everything and everyone is self-made. That you can make a window out of anything if you want.This is why I froze insects. To see if they will come back to life. How I began to see each day: the sluice of wings.Get up. The ants pouring out of the sink, onto my arms in dish-heavy water. My arms: branches. A swarm I didn’t ask for. No one told me I’d have to learn to be polite.To let myself be consumed for what I cannot control. I must return to my younger self. To wearing my lifelike heavy wool, weaved in my own weight. To pretend not to know when the debtors come to collect. Prompt: What “lessons” can you write about? What have you learned that you didn’t expect to learn? Didn’t want to learn? Any odd memories that have a stark image attached? (my father, wielding a knife in starlight) Any present-day situations that feel like a throwback to earlier lessons? (In Jersey, the sink breaks and my mother keeps a bucket underneath to save water for laundry.) Borrow Jane’s lines “What I’ve learned, time and again:…” “I was taught that…” and “No one told me I’d have to learn…” and see what comes out. Maybe even start with two columns—statements and images. It can be a bit like a word bank - your word palette to prepare ahead and dip your brush into as you begin. Choose your favorites from the list and start to paint. The next online, pay-what-you-can workshop series begins Thursday, September 17th. Our guest poet will be Poet Laureate of Ohio, Kari Gunter-Seymour (Sunday, November 8th). Keep up with poetroar.com for all the news. Have an interest in a workshop on a different day of the week? Get in touch! In deep gratitude to you all and to my generous guests. I feel so lucky. Sending you my best summer vibes, Kitty This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    Jane Wong Teaser Reel

  6. Jun 29

    Welcome to Season 3 of Melody or Witchcraft!

    Welcome to your upcoming summer listen! Melody or Witchcraft is back! Thought you might need something to keep you company while you’re traveling, beaching, exploring, working, gradening, and so, not six episodes, but seven—and they’re a bit chunkier as well. Looking at the guest list, you might understand that I couldn’t in good conscience edit everything down to some idea of a trim time length I thought up in the theoretical dark. Breathe in. Breathe out. Expand. And here we go! Episode 13, Jane Wong: “the ugly cry”Available July 13 Jane & I get emotional! Lots of talk about emotion, bewilderment, wayward artists, resistance, rebellion, and the necessity of all of the above. Jane Wong is the author of the memoir Meet Me Tonight in Atlantic City (Tin House, 2023). She also wrote two poetry collections: How to Not Be Afraid of Everything (Alice James, 2021) and Overpour (Action Books, 2016). Her poetry installations which engage haunting and nourishment have been exhibited at the Frye Art Museum, the Richmond Art Gallery, and the Asian Art Museum. Episode 14, Evie Shockley: “the selective poet”Available July 20 Evie & I talk about an inviolate interior, the traditions of experimental poetry, and how some Poets of Color might reconcile with Dickinson’s choice to avoid the discussion of race. Poet & scholar Evie Shockley thinks, creates, and writes with her eye on a Black feminist horizon. Her books of poetry include suddenly we (NAACP Image Award; National Book Award Finalist), semiautomatic (Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; Pulitzer Prize finalist), and the new black (Hurston/Wright Legacy Award). Her literary criticism includes Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry and numerous essays. Most recently, she is editor of the Norton Library edition of Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Among the honors for her body of work in poetry are the Academy Fellowship for Distinguished Poetic Achievement, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and the Stephen Henderson Award. Her joys include participating in poetry communities such as Cave Canem and collaborating with artists working in various media. Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University. Episode 15, Diane Seuss: “strange freedom”Available July 27 Diane & I go deep into the poems and come out with lessons around narrative, death, poetry’s power against same, and who cares if they’re remembered. Diane Seuss is the author of six books of poetry, including Modern Poetry (2024), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Griffin Poetry Prize; and frank: sonnets (2021), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Seuss was a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, and she is a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her seventh collection, Althea: Poems, is forthcoming from Graywolf Press in 2027. Episode 16, James Allen Hall: “dissident queen”Available August 3 James & I romp through a conversation that touches on multiplicity, queer Dickinson, Mario Lopez, and the dangers and portals of erasure. James Allen Hall is the author of two books of poetry and a book of lyric memoir, most recently Romantic Comedy from Four Way Books. With the poet Aaron Smith, they cohost Breaking Form: A Poetry & Culture Podcast. Episode 17, Pádraig Ó Tuama: “the baboon of the past”Available August 10 Pádraig & I ruminate on authenticity in ritual, time and the presence of the past, baboons, large cats, and the importance of context. Pádraig Ó Tuama (b. 1975, Ireland) is a poet with interests in language, violence, power, and religion. He is the host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound and has published volumes of poetry, essays, a memoir and theology. Kitchen Hymns (2025; Copper Canyon, CHEERIO) was shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Award. His two anthologies from the Poetry Unbound series have gathered widespread praise, with author Elif Shafak calling it “Mesmerising, magical, deeply moving…” In Autumn 2026, his collection Love Between Men will be published, and he will take up the role as Professor in the Practice of Spirituality at Yale Divinity School. Episode 18, Kemi Alabi: “sound as a bridge to the beyond”Available August 17 Kemi & I are all about sonics! Religious rebels have a moment with those from the beyond, and Kemi talks about reclaiming the body as a culture worker. Kemi Alabi is the author of Against Heaven (Graywolf Press, 2022), selected by Claudia Rankine as winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award, and co-editor of The Echoing Ida Collection (Feminist Press, 2021). Kemi’s work appears in The Nation, The Atlantic, The Guardian, the Grammy-nominated album Difficult Grace and elsewhere. Born in Wisconsin on a Sunday in July, they now live in Chicago, IL. Episode 19, Brenda Hillman: “life loaded and unloaded”Available August 24 Brenda & I unload ideas about our sister Emily’s influence, agree accessibility is the devil’s work, talk the long poem, the (short) chapbook, and much more! Brenda Hillman was born in Tucson, Arizona and has been an active part of the Bay Area literary community since 1975. She has published chapbooks with Penumbra Press, a+bend press, EmPress, A Minus Press, and Albion Books. And has published twelve full-length collections with Wesleyan University Press, including her upcoming title, Still House in the Desert: An eco-contemplation (September 2026), and her recent collections, In A Few Minutes Before Later (2022); Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire (2013), which received the International Griffin Poetry Prize; and Extra Hidden Life, among the Days (2018), winner of the Northern California Book Award. Hey! Leave a comment! oxo, Kitty This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

  7. May 25

    Gabrielle Calvocoressi: keeping it wild

    Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s new collection of poetry, The New Economy, was a finalist for the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Other collections include The Last Time I Saw Amelia Earhart, Apocalyptic Swing, and Rocket Fantastic, which is the winner of the Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry. They serve on the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets and live in Old East Durham, NC, where joy, compassion, and social justice are at the center of their personal and poetic practice. Like Trains of Cars on Tracks of PlushI hear the level Bee—A Jar across the Flowers goesTheir Velvet MasonryWithstands until the sweet AssaultTheir Chivalry consumes—While He, victorious tilts awayTo vanquish other Blooms. And His Feet are shod with Gauze—His Helmet, is of Gold,His Breast, a Single OnyxWith Chrysophrase, inlaid.His Labor is a Chant—His Idleness—a Tune—Oh, for a Bee’s experienceOf Clovers, and of Noon! A big welcome to new listeners and Substack subscribers! If you’re reading this somewhere other than Substack, these notes may be abridged and photos will not appear. Join the Ask the Poet Substack (kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com) for complete show notes with images, correct poetry formatting, and regular notices of new episodes. (Lentan Cistern 43) Every Day but SundayGabrielle Calvocoressi Formless as a cloud building orDispersed as on April’s pollen eyesBlooming Open open shakingside to side As is there want. Myhead Lolls back and forth on the stemFrom my shoulders Justin comes throughthe side gate fields of him if Itake my glasses off he’s everywherelook we’re trumpet and coronaone body and box full of beeswhere he’s headed the smoke from thesmoker that covers us both waxsome pine needles whatever hehas around it makes us smell likechurch I say lulled leave my glassesoff I’m all petals and nectarwe’re one hum one gold breeze intothe colony that eases healskills reforms itself around usI inhale lean into goldenmusk of us assembled what ifthis was all my body my stemmy bulb my roots my endlessness. People, places, and ideas mentioned: Mabel Loomis Todd Edward Dickinson (The trains did, in fact, come to Amherst in 1853 as I stated in the interview. To read more about the railroad and Edward’s role in bringing them to town, you can try this link. And this one.) Gerard Manley Hopkins’ poem,“God’s Grandeur” ties in Gaby’s reference to him talking about feet being “shod” Eliza Richards, Dickinson scholar Jen Bervin and her extraordinary work Susan Howe Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University Kate Bowler (and she has a podcast!) Nystagmus (visual disability) Mary Oliver (and her poem, “Wild Geese”) Anne Sexton Sylvia Plath Lyn Hejinian, My Life The Regulator Bookshop, Durham, North Carolina Modern Nature: The Journals of Derek Jarman Lucille Clifton, The Clifton House in Baltimore Elizabeth Bishop June Jordan Audre Lourde Sappho Yannis Ritsos Homer’s The Iliad – I got it wrong and led Gaby astray, that new translation is in fact done by Emily Wilson (not Alice Oswald). However, you can watch Alice Oswald interview Emily Wilson about it here. Other Dickinson poems mentioned: My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun - Recorded March 26, 2026. There’s still some room for the reading, conversation, & Q&A with Kelli Russell Agodon! An upcoming stand-alone workshop that might be of interest: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

  8. May 25

    Bonus Bit: Gabrielle Calvocoressi

    This Bonus Bit closes out Season 2 of the podcast. Season 3 will be coming your way in July! Gaby talks about a book by Ang Roell, which they call “Decolonize the Hive.” The title as I found it is Radicalize the Hive and more information about Ang and the book can be found at this link. Here you are! At the end of Season 2! At the Bonus Bit, no less! I’m so glad you’re listening. Would you consider becoming a paid subscriber & contributing to this resource you enjoy? Subscriptions begin as low as $5/€7 a month. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com/subscribe

    Bonus Bit: Gabrielle Calvocoressi
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Conversations with today's poets and writers about Emily Dickinson and about the scope and sources of creative influence and the relevance of the past. Guests choose a Dickinson poem and one of their own to read. kathrynpetruccelli.substack.com

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