Poetry Off The Shelf

Blake Butler on complex mourning, the suicide of his wife Molly Brodak, and finding his way back.

Remembering the lesbian poet and activist Minnie Bruce Pratt, as well as the Palestinian poet and symbol of the resistance, Refaat Alareer.

Steve Zeitlin and Bob Holman on the healing act of writing, small frogs, and politics at the fiddle festival.

Laura Mullen on academia, death threats, and doing the next brave thing.

Daniel Brock Johnson on risk, a T-shirt mantra, and life after the death of his friend James Foley.

Sebastian Merrill on the voice of his former self, the underworld, and laughing during yoga.

 Sahar Muradi on cyclical time, leather butterflies, and saying goodbye to her father.

Sean Cole on loneliness, fear of aging, and what poems can do.

Eric Sneathen on queer utopia, bad writing, and San Francisco in the ’70s.

Irène Mathieu on pediatrics, suburbs without a TV, and our body's unknown terrain.

Natalie Shapero on Wheel of Fortune, babysitting for her landlord, and pretending not to grieve.

Rosanna Young Oh on her parents’ grocery store, leaving poetry, and the duties of the firstborn. 

Airea D. Matthews on self-interest, starry skies, and her parents’ fateful wedding day.

Sophus Helle on empire, Calvin and Hobbes, and the world's first author. 

Leslie Sainz on Bill O’Reilly, glassblowing, and the lure of praise.

Diane Seuss on New York in the ’70s, virtue, and her father’s early death.

Katie Farris on cancer, desire, and her early-menopause care package. 

Paisley Rekdal on maps, Sisyphus, and the dangers of beauty.

Aaron Smith on shame, telling the truth, and his mother's last lipstick.

Rebecca Gayle Howell and Ashley M. Jones on working-class poems, good food, and their fathers’ bodies.