Show Notes
Links, Bios, & Support Info Bryant Park Reading Series University of Maryland Library of Congress William Meredith Kim Novak BMCC KGB reading series David Lehman Star Black Paul Romero Sonia Sanchez Allen Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra” Phllyis Levin Matt Yeager David Lehman Will Harris’s Brother Poem José Oliverez’s Promises of Gold Martha Graham Cracker Justin Vivian Bond Patty LuPone Bridget Everett KGB Bar Reading Richard McCann Kinokuniya Bookstore Willam Blake’s “Ah! Sun-flower” June Jordan’s “Sunflower Sonnet Number 1" June Jordan’s “Sunflower Sonnet Number 2" Bios, in order of appearance: Jason Schneiderman is the author of four poetry collections, most recently Hold Me Tight (Red Hen, 2020). He is Professor of English at CUNY’s BMCC and teaches in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. His next collection, Self Portrait of Icarus as a Country on Fire, will be published by Red Hen Press in 2024. Cate Marvin's latest book of poems is Event Horizon (Copper Canyon Press, 2022). She teaches at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York and resides in Southern Maine. Her poems have recently appeared in The Kenyon Review. R. A. Villanueva is the author of Reliquaria, winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize. New work has been featured by the Academy of American Poets, Ploughshares, Poetry, and National Public Radio—and his writing appears widely in international publications such as Poetry London and The Poetry Review. His honors include commendations from the Forward Prizes and fellowships from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts, and Kundiman. Born in New Jersey, he lives in Brooklyn. Born in Shanghai, Lynn Xu is the author of And Those Ashen Heaps That Cantilevered Vase of Moonlight (Wave, 2022) and Debts & Lessons (Omnidawn, 2013) and the chapbooks: June (Corollary Press, 2006) and Tournesol (Compline, 2021). She has performed cross-disciplinary works at the MOCA Tucson, Guggenheim Museum, The Renaissance Society, Rising Tide Projects, and 300 S. Kelly Street. She teaches at Columbia University, coedits Canarium Books, and lives with her family in New York City and West Texas. Rachel Zucker is the author of a bunch of books, including, most recently, The Poetics of Wrongness. She is the founder and host of Commonplace and directrix of the Commonplace School of Embodied Poetics. She lives in Washington Heights, NY and Scarborough, ME and is mother to three sons. Please support Commonplace by becoming a patron here! Sign up for “Reading with Rachel,” the newest course in The Commonplace School for Embodied Poetics.
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Raised in Brooklyn, NY, Sabrina Orah Mark earned a BA from Barnard College, Columbia University. She also earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a PhD in English from the University of Georgia. She is the author of the poetry collectionsTsim Tsum,and The Babies. Her collection of stories,Wild Milk,won the Georgia Author of the Year Award for Short Story and was a finalist for the Townsend Prize for Fiction. Mark’s accomplishments include a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, a fellowship from the Fine Arts Work Center, and a Creative Capital Award. In addition to teaching private workshops she currently teaches nonfiction, fiction, and poetry for the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives in Athens, Georgia, with her husband, Reginald McKnight, and their two sons. Books by Sabrina Orah Mark: Happily (Random House, 2023) Wild Milk (Dorothy, 2018) The Babies (Saturnalia, 2004) Tsim Tsum (Saturnalia, 2009) Also Mentioned: Episode 33: Sabrina Orah Mark Nadja Speigleman Bruno Schultz’s fairytale murals “Borges and I” by Jorges Louis Borges Grimm’s fairytales Lidia Yuknavitch Bella Baxter The Golden Key Angela Carter “The Aleph” by Jorge Luis Borges Reading with Rachel (2024-2025 cycle)
The New York-based photographer Lois Conner has been traveling the world with a 7x17” banquet camera for nearly half a century. Through the elongated format of her work she has explored the landscape and the temper of our times; her art is both contemporary and, due to her vision, ‘a long view’ that captures the eternal in the moment, timeless. Conner’s work is that of the artist-artisan: every aspect of her art involves the hand made combined with demanding techniques of platinum printing. In recent years she has employed digital technologies to expand the format of her work, embracing landscapes from the natural to the man-made. Her annual trips to China since 1984 have allowed her to follow the transformation of the People’s Republic and to share her unique understanding of the country’s changing urban and rural mien, as well as the vistas that inspired the country’s unique culture. Conner has been based in New York City since 1971, where she worked for the United Nations until 1984. During that time she was awarded a Bachelor in Fine Arts (photography) from the Pratt Institute and a Master’s degree from Yale University. Conner has also taught photography at many places, including over a decade as professor of photography at Yale University. For a list of Lois Conner’s publications and exhibitions please visit her website.
Eugenia Leigh is a Korean American poet and the author of Bianca (Four Way Books, 2023) and Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books, 2014). Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous publications including TIME, The Nation, Poetry, Ploughshares,Waxwing, and the Best of the Net anthology. Eugenia serves as a Poetry Editor at The Adroit Journal and as Valentines Editor at Honey Literary. Books by Eugenia Leigh: Bianca (Four Way Books, 2023) Blood, Sparrows and Sparrows (Four Way Books 2014) Also Mentioned: Hey It’s Me podcast (with Mike Sakasagawa and Rachel Zucker) Eugenia Leigh’s on the Zuihitsu Black Lives Matter Alan Shapiro Hybrida by Tina Chang The Undertaker’s Daughter by Toi Derricotte The Zuihitsu Form Franny Choi Confessional Poetry Bri Gonzalez Jessica Nirvana Ram Odes to Lithium by Shira Erlichman Lorca’s Duende 2024 AWP Panel on Mental Illness: Danez Smith, Leila Chatti, Stevie Edwards, Marlin M. Jenkins John Murillo’s “Upon Reading That Eric Dolphy Transcribed Even the Calls of Certain Species of Birds,” Carrie Fountain’s “The Jungle” Rachel Zucker’s SoundMachine Keith S Wilson Vanessa Angélica Villarreal Eduardo Corral’s Slow Lightning Mai Der Vang & her book, Yellow Rain Visual Poem by Keith S. Wilson Time Travel by James Gleick Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time Brian Greene Hafizah Geter’s The Black Period Nicole Sealey’s The Ferguson Report Donate to Brooklyn Poets
Mike Sakasegawa is a writer, photographer, book artist, and the host of the arts and literature podcast Keep the Channel Open, and the short fiction podcast LikeWise Fiction. His writing has appeared in Last Exit, Catapult, PetaPixel, and Don’t Take Pictures Magazine. His photographs have been featured on Lenscratch, A Photo Editor, and SD Voyager, and included in several group exhibitions. Originally from California’s Central Coast, he now lives in San Diego with his family. Rachel Zucker is the author of The Poetics of Wrongness, SoundMachine, The Pedestrians, MOTHERs, Museum of Accidents, The Bad Wife Handbook, The Last Clear Narrative, Eating in the Underworld, and with Arielle Greenberg, Home/Birth: A Poemic, Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days and Women Poets on Mentorship. She is mother to three sons, founder and host of the Commonplace podcast, directrix of The Commonplace School for Embodied Poetics, and teaches poetry at NYU and other places.