VS the Podcast

One of my favorite poetry discoveries this year has been VS - a podcast by and about poets from the Poetry Foundation. Each episode, hosts Franny Choi and Danez Smith (contemporary poets themselves) talk with various poets about "the ideas that move them". I appreciate this podcast because 1) It's a simple way to hear current poetry; 2) I've gotten to "meet" new (and local!) poets; 3) I get to hear from the poets themselves as they discuss relevant and interesting topics; and 4) Franny and Danez are simply delightful as hosts. They bring out the best in each guest, and add so much meaning to the conversations.

After listening to each episode, I try to find each guest's most recent works (whether they be online or published collections) to explore even more poetry, but listeners don't need any sort of poetic training or knowledge to get something out of the conversations had. I especially loved one of the first episodes with Eve L. Ewing and her explorations of utopia/dystopia and desire-based narratives vs damage-based narratives [w/ credit to Eve Tuck's research & writing on the topic]: "To only tell the story of damage is such an incomplete story that if you only tell that story it's actually an act of aggression."

Here are a few of VS's guests collections:

Don't Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Citizen Illegal by Josẽ Olivarez

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Build Yourself a Boat by Camonghne Felix

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Extras: More Poetry Collections, or View All My Reviews