Episodes 25-33: William J. Harris

Episodes 25-33 of the podcast are recordings of poems read by William J. Harris at the Raven Bookstore in Lawrence, KS on April 26th, 2011. William J. Harris is a member of the MFA/Creative PhD faculty at the University of Kansas. His books include Hey Fella Would You Mind Holding This Piano a Moment (Ithaca House 1974), In My Own Dark Way (Ithaca House 1977) and Personal Questions (Leconte Publishers, Rome, 2010). His work has been published in over fifty anthologies and he is the author of the critical work The Poetry and Poetics of Amiri Baraka (University of Missouri Press 1985) and editor of The Leroi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991, second edition, 2000). Each of the podcast episode poems is read first in English, by William Harris, and then in Italian, by Crystal Hall, an Italian Renaissance specialist and associate professor in the department of French and Italian at the University of Kansas.

Episodes 19-24: Robert Knapp & Brian Miller

Episodes 19-24 of the podcast ("50 Degrees & No Jacket," "Jack London," "At the Races, Cards & Labor," "Terminal Dee," "Verse Projection, A1" and "Verse Projection, A2") are collaborations between poet Robert Knapp and sound engineer Brian Miller.

Icon, Barista, able to bend steel with one hand and roll a cigarette with another--Robert Knapp is a fixture of Lawrence, KS.


Here are the bios Brian and Robert provided for the podcast:

Brian Miller is a Sound Engineer and Record Maker from the wild hills of North Carolina. He makes crazy sounds sound crazier and is more likely than not inhabited by some kind of interesting demon or space virus.

Robert Knapp is a poet from Houston, Texas, and resides in Lawrence, Kansas. Printing is in progress, in between work-gigs and idle wildness.

Episode 018: excerpts from Distraction Contra Diaspora by Creed Shepard

Episode 018 of the podcast is a recording of some excerpts from poet Creed Shepard's forthcoming chapbook. Creed is a writer and resident of Lawrence, Kansas. His forthcoming chapbook, Distraction Contra Diaspora, is due out in the spring of 2011.

Episodes 014, 015, 016 & 017: four poems by Molly MacKinnon

Molly MacKinnon is a poet and resident of Lawrence, KS. Episodes 014-017 of the podcast are recordings of Molly reading her poems "Flying Over Greenland Upon the Death of Miloscz," "For Tadeusz Konwicki," "Countering Postmodernism: Topics for This Week's Poem," and "Skeleton Coast, Namibia." Molly teaches French for the University of Kansas. Her pronunciation of Polish words makes me jealous.

Episode 013, from The Prairie Opens Wide and Because Everyone Doesn't Speak the Same Language by Megan Kaminski

Megan Kaminski is the author of five chapbooks: carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009), collection (Dusie, forthcoming), Favored Daughter (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming) and The Prairie Opens Wide (La Ginestra, forthcoming). Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and has been published in CutBank, Denver Quarterly, Phoebe, Third Coast and other fine journals. Online, her work can be found in No Tell Motel, Horse Less Review, Wicked Alice, Spine Road, Coconut and a number of other places. She lives in Lawrence, KS, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Kansas.

For Episode 013 of the podcast Megan let me record her reading selections from both The Prairie Opens Wide and Because Everyone Doesn't Speak the Same Language in her University of Kansas office. Her officemate, Adam Desnoyers, politely opened the office door and reached into the room, placing his coffee cup on a bookshelf before politely withdrawing his arm and closing the door again, while we were recording, so as not to disturb us.

Episode 012, from Things Come On by Joseph Harrington

Joseph Harrington is the author of Things Come On: (an amneoir) from Wesleyan University Press (2011), earth day suite from Beard of Bees Press (2010) and Poetry and the Public from Wesleyan (2002). Joe's work has appeared in Pinstripe Fedora, Hotel Amerika, Otoliths, Fact-Simile, With+Stand, Cricket Online Review, and P-Queue, amongst others. He teaches at the University of Kansas in Lawrence. He also helps organize the BIG TENT reading series at the fantastic Raven Bookstore in Lawrence. Joe blogs at Blog of Myself. He graciously let me record him on February 10th, 2011, reading from Things Come On, for Episode 012 of the podcast.

Episodes 010 & 011, from BRIEF UNDER WATER and THE ODICY by Cyrus Console

Cyrus Console's first book of poetry, BRIEF UNDER WATER, was published by Burning Deck in 2008. Cyrus' second book, THE ODICY, is forthcoming from Omnidawn. Geoffrey G. O'Brien, in the Boston Review, says the following about Cyrus' poetry: Like Beckett, another saint of petering out and shutting up, Console gives us texts that go on by routinely confessing they cannot, conveying the insufficiency of word to thing (at best, its typo or tattoo), citizen to war, art to damaged life. Cyrus lives in Lawrence, KS. I recorded him at the table in my kitchen, and he was nice to my cats. Episode 10 is an excerpt from BRIEF UNDER WATER and episode 11 is an excerpt from THE ODICY. Cyrus' work has appeared in a number of places, including Octopus and Pax Americana. His book reviews have appeared in Jacket.

Episodes 008 & 009 "There is a Bird in Victoria Station" and "A Friend on the Other Side" by Thad Haverkamp

Thad Haverkamp is a poet and Lawrence, KS resident. He has worked in the past tending bar at Lawrence landmarks like the Replay Lounge and Liberty Hall. Episodes eight and nine of the podcast are recordings of Thad reading his poems "There is a Bird in Victoria Station" and "A Friend on the Other Side."