Nin and Dion read from her new book Son of a Bird, now available from Etruscan Press. They also read and discuss "Unrest," by Emily Fragos. Nin Andrews is the author of the six chapbooks and ten full- length poetry collections including The Last Orgasm (2020), Miss August (2017), and Why God is a Woman (2015). She is the recipient of two Ohio indiv…

Dion and Denise chat about her new book, Pink Lady. We read and discuss "His Terror" by Sharon Olds and also reference Olds's poem "Satan Says." Denise Duhamel has published numerous collections of poetry, including Second Story (2021), Scald (2017), Blowout (2013), which was a finalist for a National Books Critics Circle Award, Ka-Ching! (2009), Q…

Kirk Glaser's book, The House That Fire Built, has been 25 years in the making following a suspicious house fire and the characters both prior to and following the incident. Join us as we talk of ghosts, poet James Murray, and the many ways fire exists as metaphor. You can find the House That Fire Built at Mad Hat Press.…

Adela Najarro's fifth poetry collection, Variations in Blue, was selected by the Letras Latinas/ Red Hen Collaborative for publication in March, 2025. The California Arts Council recognized her as an established artist for the Central California Region, appointing her as an Individual Artist Fellow. Her extended family left Nicaragua and arrived in…

Rubén and Dion kick of the show by reading "Eating Together," by Li-Young Lee. Then they read from Rubén Quesada's new book, Brutal Campanion. Ruben Quesada, Ph.D is an award-winning poet and editor. He edited the groundbreaking anthology Latinx Poetics: Essays on the Art of Poetry, winner of the Gold Medal from the Independent Publisher Book Award…

Join Julie Murphy and Chicago poet, Christy Prahl, as they read and discuss Kwame Dawes' poem Sea and Rain from his book Nebraska. Then they dive into Christy's We Are Reckless (Cornerstone Press), a gorgeous collection of midwest poems that take a daring look into relationships, identity, pleasure, loss, and more. Sprinkled though the conversation…

Roxi Power chats with Dion O'Reilly about a new anthology, Winter in America (Again: Poets Respond to 2024 Election that Power co-edited. With their usual mix of irreverence and in-depth close readings, they showcase the wide range styles in this collection of 100+ poets published by Carbonation Press. This urgent book was assembled by 8 editors be…

Cassandra, Hildegard of Bingen, Virginia Woolf, Ann Sexton...the link between visionary minds and what classifies as 'mental illness' is key to opening doors of perception. Join Karen Marker as she talks with Julia Chiapella about her new book, Under the Blue Umbrella, and a family history of schizophrenia as both stigma and chimera. Beneath the Bl…

Please join Julie Murphy as she chats with Santa Cruz County's new Poet Laureate, Nancy Miller Gomez, about poetry in the jails and her plans to bring poetry to our community. Nancy reads Ruth Stone's poem, Another Feeling, and talks about the importance of paying attention and how daily observations, memories and current events can ease the challe…

Hear from four UCSC student poets who will be part of this year's In Celebration of the Muse at the Resource Center for Nonviolence. Farnaz Fatemi and Julia Chiapella talk to these up and coming poets, who read from their poems and talk about their inspirations, influences and passion. Poets in the studio: Lilly Tookey, Reilly Newton, and Angel Sun…

Santa Cruz poet, journalist, and author, Addie Mahmassani, buzzes into the Hive to talk Irish poetry with Dion O'Reilly. We read William Butler Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Samuel Beckett and Eamon-Grennan Addie Mahmassani is originally from the East Coast, where she completed a PhD in American Studies. This spring she is finishing an MFA in poetry at SJS…

Dustin Brookshire has gathered an impressive array of poetic emulations in When I Was Straight: A Tribute to Maureen Seaton. They include free verse gestures, couplets, tercets, and prose poems. Maureen’s influence shines, though is never blinding—each of the poets in this anthology takes her title and makes the poem that follows their own. (From t…

Julie Murphy and Jessica Cohn discuss Jessica's debut book of poems Gratitude Diary, exploring themes of nature, family, loss, and yes, gratitude. Cohn reads Jane Hirshfield's poem My Debtand the poets discuss amazement and appreciation of beauty and nature, but also gratitude for the more challenging and difficult aspects of life. A Michigan nativ…

Tune in as treasured poet Naomi Shihab Nye reads her poetry, talks of her Palestinian father and ancestors, and recalls the challenging event that led to her popular poem, "Kindness". She also shares a poem by Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Tofa from his bookForest of Noise. Listen to Naomi read poems from her books The Tiny Journalist, Fuel, Transfer,…

With Julia Chiapella and Dion O’Reilly, Roxi Power discusses the just-published anthology she co-edited, Winter in America (Again: Poets Respond to 2024 Election (Carbonation Press 2025) with 100+ amazing poets. This urgent, lightning-fast book was a collaborative effort by 8 editors between election and inauguration day to capture feelings about a…

Farnaz and Sarah Pape discuss the poet's new book, Forgive the Animal, (Cornerstone Press), exploring questions of memory, vulnerability and revelation in her poems, along with the complexity of personal fallibility. Pape thinks and talks eloquently about the process of putting together the manuscript regarding a range of craft issues including poi…

Julie Murphy andDane Cervine discussDEEP TRAVEL – At Home in the [Burning] World(Saddle Road Press), Danes new book of contemporaryhaibun. The poems are rooted in a series of journeys, a pilgrimage, that culminates in the poet findinghome in this fragile, yet resilient, world.

Miller Oberman and Dion O'Reilly read and discuss Omotara James's "My mother's nerves are shot." and then do a deep dive into Oberman's newest collection, Impossible Things⁠. Miller Oberman is the author of Impossible Things, forthcoming from Duke University Press, 2024 and The Unstill Ones, Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets, 2017. He has rece…

Tim Seibles reads and discusses Lucille Clifton's poem "Hag Riding." Then he reads from his newest collection Voodoo Libretto: New & Selected Poems . Tim Seibles was the Poet Laureate of Virginia from 2016 to 2018. He is a former National Endowment for the Arts fellow and Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center fellow. His seven books of poetry include …

SPREZZATURA, Christopher Buckley's 30th book, is due from Lynx House Press, January 2025. The sense of place in these poems-- whether its the foggy cliffs above the sea or the street of Fresno-- is vivid and immediate. Buckley examines friendship and the inevitability of change as he braids grief, love, and hope in these poems, many of which are de…

Listen here! Former HIVE member, Geneffa Jahan, returns to offer this salient conversation with beloved local poet and SC Poet Laureate Emeritus, David Sullivan, and his equally lauded friend, the Illinois poet and teacher, Ignatius Valentine Aloysius. They discuss their recently released collaborative poetry collection, Salt Pruning, as they refle…

"Words: They give and give and give." Cintia Santana joins the Hive to read from her Northern California Book Award-winning poetry debut, The Disordered Alphabet. Hear several poems and a conversation with Farnaz Fatemi about Cintia's views on words as magic, the paying attention, ekphrasis and more. Cintia Santana teaches literary translation and …

Chris Abani and Kwame Dawes chat with Dion O'Reilly about KUMI: New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set THE LIMITED-EDITION BOX SET is a project started in 2014 to ensure the publication of up to a dozen chapbooks every year by African poets through Akashic Books. The series seeks to identify the best poetry written by African poets workin…

Burmese American poet Maw Shein Win's new book, Percussing the Thinking Jar, is a liminal elegy to health issues, relationships, and more while navigating the isolation of the pandemic. Hear Maw read poems from the book that's been called by author John Yau, "diaphanous comfort" while we are at "the chaos party." You can find Maw's book at Universi…

In Part 2 of our interview, Marc Vincenz—author of over 40 books of poetry—talks about his book of poetry, The Pearl Diver of Irunmani (White Pine Press, 2023). We dive into the deep waters of a consciousness preparing for death. During a health crisis, Vincenz came into a new language informed by this encounter, finding footing in "the heart of a …

Jan Beatty’s eighth book, Dragstripping, was published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, September, 2024. Her memoir, American Bastard, won the Red Hen Nonfiction Award. Recent books include The Body Wars and a chapbook, Skydog (Lefty Blondie Press, 2022). Other work includes Jackknife: New and Selected Poems (University of Pittsburgh, 2018 Pa…

Luke and Dion read some Larry Levis and then take a deep dive into Luke's latest book. Luke Johnson is the author of Quiver (Texas Review Press), a finalist for the Jake Adam York Prize, the Vassar Miller Award, The Levis Prize and the Bittingham. It was recently named a finalist for the California Book Award, winner announced in May. His second fu…

Ellen Bass joins the Hive in anticipation of her appearance at UCSC for the Morton Marcus Memorial Poetry Reading on November 7. Full details about the event can be found here. Poems by Ellen which she reads in this episode: Laundry, Because, Black Coffee, Any Common Desolation, and Bringing Flowers to Salinas Valley State Prison About Our Guest: E…

Rick Barot weaves keen observations of the world with reflections and sustenance of human connections across space and time. Please join host Julie Murphy in a conversation with Rick that begins with a discussion of Naomi Shihab Nye's poem Lights from Other Windows and journeys through poems from Rick's new book Moving the Bones. Rick's exquisitely…

Marc Vincenz has been called the David Bowie of poetry, reinventing himself and exploring new poetic chops in each of his 40 books. Roxi Power talks with Vincenz about his newest book of surreal poems inThe King of Prussia is Drunk on Stars (Lavender Ink Press, 2024). From the imperialism of Prussia to the purity of Iceland, Vincenz juxtaposes the …

Ryler Dustin has represented Seattle on the final stage of the Individual World Poetry Slam and his poems appear in outlets like Verse Daily, Major Jackson’s The Slowdown, and The Best of Button Poetry. He is the author of Trailer Park Psalms (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023) and Heavy Lead Birdsong (Write Bloody Publishing, 2010). He lives in…

Danusha Laméris, a poet and essayist, was raised in Northern California, born to a Dutch father and Barbadian mother. Her first book, The Moons of August (2014), was chosen by Naomi Shihab Nye as the winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Milt Kessler Book Award. Some of her work has been published in: The Best Ame…

C.S. Giscombe—known to his friends as Cecil--talks with long-time friend Roxi Power about the second half of his newest poetry book, Negro Mountain) (University of Chicago Press) which was recommended by a New YorkTimes critic as one of the 5 best poetry books of 2023. In the second part of our interview, Giscombe dives deepinto the book’s central …

Want to hear what it's like teaching poetry to Special Ops soldiers? Or how to delineate (or not) the space grief occupies? Tune in to hear poetry mining the vein of Robinson Jeffers and Theodore Roethke. George Lober's latest book, Rainbow Eucalyptus, New and Collected Poems, is available from ⁠Bookshop Santa Cruz⁠ and ⁠Amazon⁠.…

Award-winning book and letterpress artists Felicia Rice and Theresa Whitehill (former Poet Laureate of Ukiah, CA.) created a multi-genre project, Heavy Lifting, that speaks in poetry, letterpress, and film to the multiple crises of recent years: fires, Covid, Black Lives Matter, housing injustice, and more. Roxi Power talks with these remarkable ar…

Jessica Cuello reads from her latest book. Jessica and Dion also read the poem "Running Home I Saw the Planets" from Aracelis Girmay's book Kingdom Animalia. Jessica Cuello’s most recent book is Yours, Creature (JackLeg Press, 2023). Her book Liar, selected by Dorianne Laux for The 2020 Barrow Street Book Prize, was honored with The Eugene Nassar P…

Join Julie Murphy and fellow Bee, Geneffa Jahan, as they discuss “A Simple Poem for Virginia Woolf” by Bronwen Wallace, and then explore and delight in Geneffa's forthcoming book Spilling the Chai: Poems about Family and Food, published by Jamii Press.

At this live, in-studio interview, Julia Chiapella chats with Hive member Dion O'Reilly about her new book, Sadness of the Apex Predator. Dion O'Reilly is the author of three poetry collections: Sadness of the Apex Predator, a finalist for the Steel Toe Book Prize and the Ex Ophidia Prize; Ghost Dogs, winner of the Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, …

Geneffa Jahan talks with third-generation Japanese American artist and activist, Shizue Seigel about her seven decades of experiential connections across age, class, continents, and cultures. Born in 1946, shortly after her parents emerged from incarceration, Seigel grew up in segregated Baltimore, Occupied Japan, California farm labor camps and sk…

C.S. Giscombe talks about the first half of his newest poetry book, Negro Mountain (University of Chicago Press) which was recommended by a New York Times critic as one of the 5 best poetry books of 2023. C. S. Giscombe teaches at the University of California’sBerkeley campus, where he is the Robert Hass Chair in English. His prose and poetry books…

Farnaz Fatemi and Nancy Miller Gomez discuss her debut book of poems, Inconsolable Objects, from YesYes Books. In addition to talking about several poems in the collection, Gomez talks about self-doubt along with her assessment of “poets as the fighter pilots of the literary world.” Poems by others mentioned: Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s “Song” and Wallac…

Louise Glück, who passed away last October at age 80, was one of the most important poets of our time. Former US Poet Laureate and winner of every major poetry prize, including the Noble and the Pulitzer, Louise was a passionate and beloved teacher. Bay Area poet Veronica Kornberg joins Julie Murphy in reading and discussing her poems, as well as s…

Sally Ashton, former Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, drops into the Hive to talk with Farnaz Fatemi about her most recent book of poems, Listening to Mars. She shares poems which explore the sadness and surreal world of lockdown, what space exploration says about humans, and more. Sally Ashton is a poet, writer, Editor-in-Chief of the DMQ Review,…

We discuss a poem by Rachel McKibbons and several from Blanco's fabulous new book, Homeland of My Body⁠. Selected by President Obama as the fifth Presidential Inaugural Poet in U.S. history, Richard Blanco was the youngest, the first Latinx, immigrant, and gay person to serve in that role. In 2023, Blanco was awarded the National Humanities Medal b…

Chopsy Gutowski talks with Roxi Power about her powerful poems freshly submitted for her MFA thesis. As friends who have been writing together in Santa Cruz for years, Chopsy and Roxi laugh and dig in, plumbing the lyrical depths of Gutowski's eco-poetry, elegies, and political poetry. Mining the difficult moves in Jorie Graham's book,To 2040, Guto…

The Body! In all its pain and glory! Listen to this discussion with editors Pichchenda Bao, Nicole Callihan, and Jennifer Franklin as they read and talk about poems from their anthology Braving the Body. Delving into the body's experiences, from sex to motherhood to cancer and beyond, Braving the Body culls the best poetry featuring, as Whitman wro…

On April 10th, 2024, Santa Cruz County's first ever Youth Poet Laureate honor was given to Dina Lusztig Noyes at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, CA. SC County Youth Poet Laureate finalists include Gregory Souza, Simon Ellefson, Madeline Aliah, and Sylvi Kayser. These poets read their work in conversation with Farnaz Fatemi, Santa Cruz County…

Join me for this special episode of poetic witness for Palestine, featuring Faris Sabbah and Beau Beausoleil. Listen as Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools, Dr Faris Sabbah, shares movingly about his Palestinian background and reads a poem he penned for his late father. We discuss a poem from Beau Beausoleil's latest volume, WAR NEWS--a col…

"Over the past decade or so, nobody has done more for the Pacific Northwest than Paul Nelson." --Sam Hamill. Paul E. Nelson talks with Roxi Power about his forthcoming book, DaySong Miracle (Past 62) from Carbonation Press. The two poet friends laugh, talk, and even sing some of Nelson's lyrical lines in his long investigative and spiritual poems. …

Join Dion O'Reilly as she talks with Ed Hirsch about 100 Poems to Break Your Heart. Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published ten books of poems, including The Living Fire, Gabriel: A Poem. and Stranger by Night. He has also published six prose books about poetry, among them, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, a national bestse…