Rattle Poetry

Rattlecast
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Join Timothy Green, editor of Rattle, for The Rattlecast — the longest free-wheeling, longform livestreaming poetry podcast on the planet. Every Monday we feature in-depth poet interviews, lively craft discussions, prompt-based open lines, and original poems responding to current events in Poets Respond. Experience authentic conversations, shared poetry, and live community interaction in this weekly poetry show. Live every Monday at 8pm ET. Rattle is a publication of the Rattle Foundation, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the practice of poetry, and is not affiliated with any other organization.

  1. 3d ago

    Matthew Olzmann: Mountain Dew, Love Poems, Humor, and Viral Poetry | Rattlecast 355

    Matthew Olzmann joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about contemporary poetry, humor, love poems, imagination, and what makes a poem connect with readers. The author of Mezzanines, Contradictions in the Design, and Constellation Route, Olzmann is an assistant professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, and Kundiman. His fourth collection, An Oral History of the Flat Earth, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in 2027. Olzmann has appeared several times in Rattle, most famously with “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem,” one of the most-read poems in Rattle’s history and a love poem that has continued to find new audiences online. In this episode, we discuss humor and surprise in poetry, love poems, memorable images, the strange places poems can begin, and how poetry can move between the absurd and the profound. We’ll also talk about “Mountain Dew Commercial Disguised as a Love Poem,” Olzmann’s other work and books, and the craft of writing poems that readers want to return to and share. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading. Find more about Matthew Olzmann here: https://matthewolzmann.com/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a hot haibun. Next Week's Prompt: Write a poem that’s a page or longer, and then edit it down to a maximum of 14 lines. Include both versions of your poem in the submission, with the shorter poem first. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Matthew Olzmann: Mountain Dew, Love Poems, Humor, and Viral Poetry | Rattlecast 355

  2. Aug 18

    Katie Dozier: Residency Review, Memoir in Verse, Trauma, and Haibun | Rattlecast 354

    Katie Dozier joins Timothy Green on the Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, trauma, memoir in verse, and her new book, Residency Review: A Memoir in Verse. Rattle’s Creative Editor and creator of The Poetry Space_, Katie is also the author of All That Glitter and Watering Can. Residency Review grew out of her experience at a low-residency MFA program and braids poetry with emails, quotations, and a Title IX document to explore sexual assault, institutional silence, disability, motherhood, and what happens when a community fails to listen. In this episode, Katie shares poems from Residency Review and discusses writing about trauma, transforming lived experience into poetry, the possibilities of memoir in verse, and using forms including haibun and contemporary haiku alongside documentary material. We’ll also talk about the relationship between poetry and testimony, the challenges of writing an intensely personal book, and how poetry can say what official language cannot. As always, we’ll open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading. This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about something you’ve kept on a shelf for far too long. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a hot haibun. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Katie Dozier here: https://www.khdpoet.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Katie Dozier: Residency Review, Memoir in Verse, Trauma, and Haibun | Rattlecast 354

  3. Aug 11

    Hemat Malak: Shelf Life, Identity, Form, and Australian Poetry | Rattlecast 353

    Hemat Malak joins Timothy Green on the Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, identity, poetic form, and her debut collection, Shelf Life, published by 5 Islands Press. An Australian poet based in Picton, New South Wales, Hemat returned to poetry after more than four decades away and won the 2025 Bruce Dawe National Poetry Prize for “I Don’t Say My Name Right.” A longtime Rattle listener and member of the community, she has published several poems with Rattle, including the title poem “Shelf Life,” which we nominated for a Pushcart Prize. In this episode, we discuss Shelf Life, returning to poetry later in life, Australian poetry, identity and immigration, motherhood and belonging, formal poetry, sound and revision, and the role that prompts and poetry communities can play in developing a writer’s voice. We’ll also talk about Hemat’s journey from Rattle listener to Rattle contributor and award-winning poet, and open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading. This Week’s Prompt: Write a contemporary epic poem. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem about something you’ve kept on a shelf for far too long. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Hemat Malak here: https://hematmalak.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Hemat Malak: Shelf Life, Identity, Form, and Australian Poetry | Rattlecast 353

  4. Jul 28

    Jeffrey Bean: Form, Music, Bach, and Poetry | Rattlecast 352

    Jeffrey Bean joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about poetry, invented poetic forms, music, and his latest collection, Everywhere, Everywhere, winner of the 2024 Vern Rutsala Book Prize. A poet and professor of English at Central Michigan University, Jeffrey appears in the Invented Forms section of Rattle’s Summer 2026 issue with “Bach’s Bones,” part of a new series of poems inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach. In this episode, we discuss the quatrain ghazal and the possibilities of combining traditional poetic forms, Bach and music as influences on poetry, rhyme and formal poetry, the poems of Everywhere, Everywhere, and the craft of writing poems that make the ordinary strange and new. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based poetry reading. This Week’s Prompt: Think of something you didn’t expect to open up but did. Make it risky! Next Week’s Prompt: Write a contemporary epic poem. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Jeffrey Bean here: https://www.jeffreybeanpoet.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Jeffrey Bean: Form, Music, Bach, and Poetry | Rattlecast 352

  5. Jul 21

    Joanna Preston: Australian-New Zealand Poet on Formal Poetry and Myth

    Joanna Preston joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about her poetry and writing life. An Australian-born, New Zealand-based poet, editor, and creative writing tutor, Joanna is the author of The Summer King (winner of the Kathleen Grattan Award and Mary Gilmore Award) and Tumble (winner of the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry). She appears in the Invented Forms section of our Summer 2026 issue, sharing her "decima." In this episode, we discuss her work, the craft of poetry, myth and nature, and life between two countries. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based reading. This Week’s Prompt: Pick a time in your life that was particularly impacted by the weather, and make us feel it right alongside you. Next Week’s Prompt: Think of something you didn’t expect to open up but did. Make it risky! Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Joanna Preston here: https://joannapreston.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Joanna Preston: Australian-New Zealand Poet on Formal Poetry and Myth

  6. Jul 14

    Lisa Baird: A Canadian Poet's Hymns to the Broken World

    Lisa Baird joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about her poetry and writing life. A spoken word poet, essayist, and community acupuncturist, her work has been shortlisted for the Room Poetry Contest, Ralph Gustafson Poetry Contest, and Sappho Poetry Prize, and longlisted twice for the CBC Poetry Prize. Her most recent book is When Whales Went back to the Water. In this episode, we discuss her work, the craft of poetry, trauma and recovery, nature, acupuncture, and more. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based reading. This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that quotes a line from a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist from the year you found out about Rattle. Next Week’s Prompt: Pick a time in your life that was particularly impacted by the weather, and make us feel it right alongside you. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Lisa Baird here: https://www.lisabaird.ca/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Lisa Baird: A Canadian Poet's Hymns to the Broken World

  7. Jul 7

    Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: Anhinga Prize Winner & Nigerian Poetry

    Rasaq Malik Gbolahan joins Timothy Green on The Rattlecast for a conversation about his poetry and writing life. A Nigerian poet, performer, translator, and editor, Rasaq is the winner of the 2024 Anhinga Prize for Poetry for his first full-length collection The Origin of Wounds. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Agbowó and co-founder of Àtẹ́lẹwọ́, a digital journal dedicated to Yorùbá-language literature. In this episode, we discuss his work, the craft of poetry, and African literary spaces. We’ll also open the lines for this week’s prompt-based reading. This Week’s Prompt: Think of the moment in your life that you most wish you had a photo of but don’t. Make it come to life in a sensory-rich poem. Next Week’s Prompt: Write a poem that quotes a line from a Rattle Poetry Prize finalist from the year you found out about Rattle. Submit your poem through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited on the show: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online Find more about Rasaq Malik Gbolahan here: https://rasaqmalikgbolahan.com/ The Rattlecast livestreams every Monday on YouTube, Facebook, and X, then becomes available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and wherever you listen.

    Rasaq Malik Gbolahan: Anhinga Prize Winner & Nigerian Poetry

  8. Jun 30

    Adam Scheffler on James Wright, Empathy, and the Deep Image

    Adam Scheffler is the author of two books of poems: Heartworm, which won the 2021 Moon City Press Prize, and A Dog’s Life, which won the 2016 Jacar Press Book Contest. He is also the author of a book of literary criticism, So This Is What It Feels Like: Empathy in the Poetry of James Wright (LSU Press, 2026). He grew up in Berkeley, California, received his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and his PhD in English from Harvard. He is an Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Wichita State University and a member of their MFA Faculty in Poetry. Find more here: https://adamscheffler.com/ As always, we'll also include the live Prompt Lines for responses to our weekly prompt. Submit your poems through Submittable by midnight Sunday for a chance to be invited: https://rattle.submittable.com/submit/269309/rattlecast-prompt-poems-online For links to all the past episodes, visit: https://www.rattle.com/page/rattlecast/ This Week’s Prompt: Write a poem so light that it may even float! Next Week’s Prompt: Think of the moment in your life that you most wish you had a photo of but don’t. Make it come to life in your sensory-rich poem. The Rattlecast livestreams on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, then becomes an audio podcast. Find it on iTunes, Spotify, or anywhere else you get your podcasts.

    Adam Scheffler on James Wright, Empathy, and the Deep Image
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About

Join Timothy Green, editor of Rattle, for The Rattlecast — the longest free-wheeling, longform livestreaming poetry podcast on the planet. Every Monday we feature in-depth poet interviews, lively craft discussions, prompt-based open lines, and original poems responding to current events in Poets Respond. Experience authentic conversations, shared poetry, and live community interaction in this weekly poetry show. Live every Monday at 8pm ET. Rattle is a publication of the Rattle Foundation, an independent 501(c)3 non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the practice of poetry, and is not affiliated with any other organization.

Information

  • Creator
    Rattlecast
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    362
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Rattle Poetry

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