Poetry Off The Shelf

Tyler Mills on the truth, how to love a cockroach, and her grandfather's silence about the bomb.

A.B. Spellman on Jim Crow, alligator suede shoes, and shaking up the art of the castle.

Garth Greenwell on shame, small acts of love, and the patch of snow inside us.

Idra Novey on exile, stereotypes, and making art the center of your life.

Helena and Nicholson Baker on drawing your loved ones, the horrors of the world, and finding your way back to beauty.

Perry Janes on Hollywood, ego, and trying not to break his NDA.

E.J. Koh on distance, broken English, and writing poems that forgive.

Camille Dungy on her garden, writing from the provinces, and the poetry of Anne Spencer. 

Dorothea Lasky on The Shining, writing what you fear, and the ferocity of color.

Merlin Sheldrake on fungi, creativity, and the queerness of nature.

Elisa Gonzalez on bisexuality, humor, and working in finance.

Joyelle McSweeney on sound, style icons, and the Ovidian landscape of her ear canal.

Sara Henning on radical truth, obsessive forms, and letting go of grief. 

Philip Metres on middle age, writer's block, and praying for the people of Palestine.

April Gibson on chronic illness, religion, and being a teenage mother.

Declan Ryan on his father's construction job, tenderness between boxers, and the inevitable tragic end.

Monica Rico on cooking, grunt work, and the heat at General Motors.

Nam Le on commerce, irony vs. sincerity, and being in the Arctic. 

Gregory Pardlo on improv, therapy, and driving around with his father’s ashes.

Caitlin Cowan on rejection, tradwives, and poems from our better self.