In a special episode of the Poetry Podcast, Kimiko Hahn, Monica Youn, Paul Tran, and Megan Fernandes join Kevin Young to read their work, and to discuss Asian-American poetics and the role of poetry in our tumultuous times.

Kimiko Hahn, a distinguished professor at Queens College, City University of New York, has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and a Shelley Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has published ten books of poems, including, most recently, “Foreign Bodies.”

Monica Youn, a former lawyer and a member of the Racial Imaginary Institute, teaches at Princeton. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America, she will publish a new book of poems, “From From,” in 2023.

Paul Tran, a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, has received a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, and a 92Y Discovery/Boston Review Poetry Prize. Their debut poetry collection, “All the Flowers Kneeling,” will be published in 2022.

Megan Fernandes is an assistant professor of English and writer-in-residence at Lafayette College. A finalist for the Kundiman Book Prize and the Saturnalia Book Prize, her most recent poetry collection is “Good Boys.”

Toi Derricotte joins Kevin Young to read “We Feel Now a Largeness Coming On,” by Tracy K. Smith, and her own poem “I give in to an old desire.” Derricotte is a poet, memoirist, and co-founder, with Cornelius Eady, of the literary organization Cave Canem. Her honors include the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry and the Paterson Poetry Prize for Sustained Literary Achievement; in 2020, she received the Poetry Society of America’s Frost Medal, for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.

Margaret Atwood joins Kevin Young to read “A Stranger,” by Saeed Jones, and her own poem “Flatline.” Atwood, a prolific poet and novelist, is known for brilliant books such as “The Handmaid’s Tale” and “The Blind Assassin.” Her many distinctions include the Los Angeles Times Innovator’s Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the pen Center U.S.A.’s lifetime-achievement award, and not one but two Booker Prizes, most recently for “The Testaments.” “Dearly,” her first collection of poetry in more than a decade, came out in November.

Arthur Sze joins Kevin Young to read “The Problem of Describing Trees,” by Robert Hass, and his own poem “Vectors.” Sze has received the Landon Literary Award, the Jackson Poetry Prize and, in 2019, the National Book Award in Poetry.

In a special episode of the Poetry Podcast, Tracy K. Smith, Marilyn Nelson, and Terrance Hayes join Kevin Young to read their work, and to discuss its relationship to protest and liberation.

Tracy K. Smith served two terms as a U.S. poet laureate, and has won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and a Pulitzer prize. Her latest collection is “Wade in the Water.” Marilyn Nelson writes poetry for adults, young adults, and children. Her honors include a Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, an N. S. K. Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature, and a Frost Medal from the Poetry Society of America. Her new books, “Papa’s Free Day Party” and “Lubaya’s Quiet Roar,” are forthcoming. Terrance Hayes, a former MacArthur fellow, has won a Pegasus Award for Poetry Criticism, a Hurston/Wright Award for Poetry, and a National Book Award in Poetry. His most recent publications include “To Float In The Space Between: Drawings and Essays in Conversation with Etheridge Knight” and “American Sonnets for My Past And Future Assassin.”

Clarence Major joins Kevin Young to read “Downpour,” by Billy Collins, and his own poem “Hair.” Major’s recent honors include a PEN Oakland Reginald Lockett Lifetime Achievement Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award in the fine arts from the Congressional Black Caucus foundation. 

Elisa Gonzalez joins Kevin Young to read “Gathering Apricots,” by Czeslaw Milosz, translated by Robert Hass, and her own poem “Failed Essay on Privilege.” Gonzalez was recently a Fulbright scholar in Poland, and her work has received support from the Norman Mailer Foundation and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Ben Purkert joins Kevin Young to read “Notes on the Reality of the Self,” by Jorie Graham, and his own poem “News.” Purkert began contributing poetry to The New Yorker in 2012, and his début poetry collection, “For the Love of Endings,” was published in 2018. 

Kwame Dawes joins Kevin Young to read “The Season of Phantasmal Peace,” by Derek Walcott, and his own poem “Before Winter.” Dawes is the author of over twenty books of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. His many honors include a 2019 Windham Campbell Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Barnes and Noble Writers for Writers Award, and the Ford Prize for Poetry.

Ellen Bass joins Kevin Young to read “Quahogs,” by Frank X. Gaspar, and her own poem “Because.” A chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Bass has received the Lambda Literary Award for poetry, the Pablo Neruda Prize for poetry, and fellowships from the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. 

Mary Jo Bang joins Kevin Young to to discuss her translation of Dante’s Purgatorio, excerpts of which are featured on newyorker.com. Bang is a poet who has received the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Hodder Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Berlin Prize Fellowship. Her latest book is “A Doll for Throwing.”

Shane McCrae joins Kevin Young to to discuss his poetry sequence “Jim Limber in Heaven,” featured on newyorker.com. McCrae is a poet whose whose work has received such honors as a Whiting Award, an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and a Lannan Literary Award. He was also a finalist for the National Book Award.

Vijay Seshadri joins Kevin Young to read “The Moon and the Yew Tree,” by Sylvia Plath, and his own poem “Cliffhanging.” Seshadri is a poet whose work has been honored with the James Laughlin Award and the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. His latest book is “3 Sections,” and he recently became the poetry editor of The Paris Review.

Ariel Francisco joins Kevin Young to read "By a Lake in Minnesota," by James Wright, and his own poem "Along the East River and in the Bronx Young Men Were Singing." Francisco is a poet and translator who published his debut poetry collection, "All My Heroes Are Broke," in 2017. His new book, "A Sinking Ship is Still a Ship," is forthcoming in 2020.

Campbell McGrath joins Kevin Young to discuss “Realism” by Czeslaw Milosz, and his own poem, “The Human Heart.” McGrath has published several poetry collections and received fellowships from the Library of Congress, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. His latest book is "Nouns & Verbs: New and Selected Poems."

Natasha Trethewey joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Charles Wright's poem "Toadstools," and her own poem "Repentance." Trethewey, a former United States Poet Laureate, is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her most recent poetry collection is "Monument."

Safiya Sinclair joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Natalie Diaz's poem "From the Desire Field" and her own poem "Gospel of the Misunderstood." Sinclair is the author of the poetry collection "Cannibal" and the forthcoming memoir "How to Say Babylon."

Rachel Eliza Griffiths joins Kevin Young to discuss "Rain Light" by W.S. Merwin, and her own poem "Heart of Darkness." Griffiths is a poet and artist who has received fellowships from the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, Cave Canem Foundation, and Yaddo, among others. Her latest book is "Lighting the Shadow."

Craig Morgan Teicher joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Forrest Gander’s poem “Son” and his own poem, also titled “Son.” Teicher is a poet and critic whose collection "The Trembling Answers" received the 2018 Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets.  His latest book is "We Begin in Gladness: How Poets Progress."

Deborah Landau joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Anne Sexton's poem "Little Girl, My Stringbean, My Lovely Woman" and her own poem "Solitaire." Landau's poetry collections include “The Uses of the Body” and “The Last Usable Hour,” both Lannan Literary Selections; the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Robert Dana Anhinga Prize for Poetry, she directs the creative writing program at New York University.

Kaveh Akbar joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Ellen Bryant Voigt’s poem "Groundhog" and his own poem "What Use is Knowing Anything If No One Is Around". Akbar is the author of the poetry collection “Calling a Wolf a Wolf,” as well as the recipient of a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, and the 2018 Levis Reading Prize.

Nick Flynn joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Zoë Hitzig’s poem “Objectivity as Blanket" and his own poem “The King of Fire.” Flynn's latest poetry collection is “My Feelings"; he will publish two new books, "Stay" and "I Will Destroy You," in 2019. Flynn has received the Erikson Institute Prize for Excellence in Mental Health Media, as well as awards and fellowships from PEN, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Library of Congress.

Catherine Barnett joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Wislawa Szymborska's poem "Maybe All This" (translated, from the Polish, by Clare Cavanagh and Stanislaw Barańczak) and her own poem "Son in August." Barnett is the author of the poetry collections "Into Perfect Spheres Such Holes Are Pierced," "The Game of Boxes," and "Human Hours," out in September.

Nicole Sealey joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Ellen Bass' poem "Indigo" and her own poem “A Violence." Sealey is the executive director at the Cave Canem Foundation and the author of the poetry collection "Ordinary Beast."

Tiana Clark joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Natasha Trethewey's poem "Repentance," and her own poem, "Nashville." Tiana Clark is the author of the chapbook "Equilibrium," which won the 2016 Frost Place Chapbook Prize. Her first full-length book of poems, "I Can't Talk About the Trees Without the Blood," winner of the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize, will be published in September. Natasha Trethewey won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in poetry for her collection "Native Guard," and was the United States Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014. Her most recent book is "Thrall."

Ada Limón and Natalie Diaz join Kevin Young to discuss their collaborative poetry project, “Envelopes of Air,” a series of eight poems written in correspondence between the two poets, currently featured on newyorker.com. Below, Limón and Diaz reflect on the project’s origins, context, and process.

“The original context for the poems was quite simple really: to write poem-letters to each other. We wanted to collaborate somehow and I was originally scared Natalie was going to ask me to draw or something. But instead, we began these poem-letters. Natalie and I both travel a lot, with my home base being in Lexington, Kentucky, most of the time, and hers in Tempe, Arizona. We soon realized that the poems were giving us a new, intimate way of thinking on the page—a reader that knows you, a reader with some shared history, a poet reader, a woman reader, a brown-woman reader. In terms of symbolism, both green and red play important roles in the work (the red of the desert and the green of the Bluegrass and spring). You can see those colors moving through the poems, winding around the words. Also, when we talk about Kimmerer and sweetgrass, it’s in reference to the book “Braiding Sweetgrass." (That has proven to be important to both of us.) I have planted sweetgrass in my raised beds. (It’s come back and is thriving this year!)

Also, I might add, that we both talk about our inner selves—our own anxiety, insomnia, health concerns—things we might not always share in other poems, because we are truly writing to one another, someone we trust, someone that we can recognize ourselves in, mirror and be seen. She has become an essential person for me to write to, for me to listen to. Of course, there’s more and I could go on, but I also don't want to say too much. I think the main thing is: these are real letters, and real poems, at the same time.”

-Ada Limón

“What is interesting about the poems as well is that we never had any context outside of the poems. They were their own space, a third space, maybe, of Ada’s and my friendship. We met sometimes in person, crossing paths at events, and we never discussed the poem-letters. They were that intimate time and space for us, of a poem, of a letter, of a room that was a new room for us to inhabit, individually, as we moved toward or away from ourselves and one another, and together, as we became a new space for each other to fill with words.

These poems are in some ways very different than anything I’ve ever written—I’ve written about dark and bright emotionalities before, but this is a new, more vulnerable, more open field of myself that I found through my correspondence with Ada. We borrow one another’s phrases and language at times, we incorporate friends and lovers, we thread through what we are reading and what is happening in our lives and our worlds, like any letter would. Ada is one of the most important audiences I have written for, because I love her, she is my friend, and I also admire her as a poet and thinker and person. In some ways, I have risked more of myself in these poems than in other poems I have written. She has become one of the beloveds I write toward, as are my family, my friends, my lovers, my peoples and communities.”

-Natalie Diaz

Marie Howe joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Lucie Brock-Broido's poem "The American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act" and her own poem "The Star Market."

Meena Alexander joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Gerald Stern’s poem “Adonis," and her own poem “Kochi by the Sea.”

Terrance Hayes joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Matthew Dickman's poem "Fire" and his own poem “New York Poem."

David Lehman joins Kevin Young to read and discuss John Ashbery's Poem "Worsening Situation," and his own poem "Stages on Life's Way."

Tracy K. Smith joins Kevin Young to read and discuss Matthew Dickman’s poem “Minimum Wage," and her own poem “Declaration.” 

Charles Simic joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Sharon Olds’ poem “Her Birthday as Ashes in Seawater,” and his own poem “The Infinite.”

Danielle Chapman joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Zbigniew Herbert's poem "Mr. Cogito Laments the Pettiness of Dreams," and her own poem "The Tavern Parlor."

Stephen Mitchell joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Richard Wilbur's poem "Two Voices in a Meadow," and his own translation of "The Death of Argos," from Homer’s Odyssey.

Erica Jong joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss John Updike's poem "The City Outside," and her own poem "Dear Keats."

Lia Purpura joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Carl Phillip's poem "White Dog," and her own poem "First Leaf."

Tom Sleigh joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Seamus Heaney’s poem “In the Attic” and his own poem “The Fox.”

Andrew Motion joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Alice Oswald’s poem “Evening Poem” and his own poem “Waders.”

Mary Karr joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Terrance Hayes’s poem “Ars Poetica with Bacon” and her own poem “Face Down.”

Kevin Young joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss John Berryman’s poem “A Sympathy, A Welcome” and his own poem “Oblivion.”

Brenda Shaughnessy joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss C.D. Wright's poem, “Like a Prisoner of Soft Words,” and her own poem “I Have a Time Machine."

Parker Henry joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss fact checking poetry for The New Yorker.

Jonathan Galassi joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Frederick Seidel’s “Poem by the Bridge at Ten-Shin,” and his own poem “Lunch Poem for F.S.”

Amit Majmudar joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Christopher Reid’s “The Confusions,” and his own poem “Invocation.”

Eileen Myles joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss James Schuyler’s “White Boat, Blue Boat,” and her own poem “Dissolution.”

Joyce Carol Oates joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss John Updike's “A Lightened Life,” and her own poem “This Is the Season.”

Billy Collins joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Eamon Grennan’s “Sea Dog,” and his own poem “Table Talk.”

Jana Prikryl joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Anne Carson’s “Stanzas, Sexes, Seductions,” and her own poem “Thirty Thousand Islands.”

Nick Laird joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Elizabeth Bishop's “The Moose,” and his own poem “Feel Free.”

Monica Youn joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Afaa Michael Weaver's "Passing Through Indian Territory," and her own poem “Goldacre.”

Andrea Cohen joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Philip Levine's "The Mercy," and her own poem “Major to Minor.”

Stephen Dunn joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Donald Justice's "There is a gold light in certain old paintings," and his own poem “History.”

J. D. McClatchy joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss James Merrill's "164 East 72nd Street," and his own poem “CaĞaloĞlu.”

Ellen Bass joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Adam Zagajewski’s “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” and her own poem “Reincarnation.”

Meghan O'Rourke joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss John Ashbery's "Tapestry,” and her own poem “Apartment Living."

Calvin Trillin joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Ogden Nash's "Autres Bêtes, Autres Mœurs” and his own poem "Oh, Y2K, Yes Y2K, How Come It Has to End This Way?"

Rosanna Warren joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Ellen Bryant Voigt’s “Bear,” and her own poem “Man in Stream.”

Sophie Cabot Black joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Donald Hall’s “The Ship Pounding,” and her own poem “Chemotherapy.”

Matthea Harvey joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss W. S. Merwin’s “Vixen,” and her own poem “Everything Must Go.”

Michael Robbins joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss “Myrtle,” by John Ashbery, and his own poem “Country Music.”

Ada Limón joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Jennifer L. Knox’s “Pimp My Ride” and her own poem “State Bird.”

Robert Pinsky joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Elizabeth Bishop’s “At the Fishhouses” and a poem of his own.

Major Jackson joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Derek Walcott’s “In Italy” and a poem of his own.

Rowan Ricardo Philips joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Nick Laird’s “Feel Free” and a poem of his own.

Timothy Donnelly joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Fortress” and a poem of his own.

Stephen Burt joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Liz Waldner’s “Sad Verso of the Sunny _______.”

Maureen McLane joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Liz Waldner’s “The Sovereignty and the Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed.”

James Richardson joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss W. S. Merwin’s “A Single Autumn.”

Rae Armantrout joins Paul Muldoon to read and discuss Susan Wheeler’s “The Split.”

Lucie Brock-Broido reads and discusses with host Paul Muldoon a poem by Franz Wright and poem of her own.

Jennifer Michael Hecht reads Lucie Brock-Broido.

Yusef Komunyakaa reads a poem by Marilyn Hacker, as well as one of his own poems, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Anna McDonald reads a poem by Kathleen Graber, as well as one of her own poems, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Michael Dickman reads Ellen Bryant Voigt and his own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Sharon Olds reads Rodney Jones and her own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

John Ashbery reads Charles Simic and his own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Tracy K. Smith reads a poem by Kevin Young and her own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.

Philip Levine reads a poem by Ellen Bass and his own work, and has a discussion with the New Yorker poetry editor, Paul Muldoon.