O, Word?

e·pon·y·mous | "Praisesong For the People" edited by Amanda Johnston

A conversation with Texas Poet Laureate Amanda Johnston about the anthology, the power of poetry to build community, and freedom Amanda Johnston [https://www.amandajohnston.com/] is a writer, visual artist, the 61st Texan Poet Laureate, and founder of Torch Literary Arts. Get full access to O, Word? at oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe [https://oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

e·pon·y·mous | "YEET!" by jason b. crawford

A conversation with jason b. crawford about their collection YEET!, finding a safe home for Black people, and how we write ourselves alive jason b. crawford (He/They) [https://www.jasonbcrawford.com/], born in Washington, DC and raised in Lansing, Michigan, is the author of Year of the Unicorn Kidz [https://bookshop.org/p/books/year-of-the-unicorn-kidz-jason-b-crawford/096febcf3fd79351?ean=9781951979270&next=t]. Their second collection, YEET! [https://bookshop.org/p/books/yeet-jason-b-crawford/5a49529df199779c?ean=9781632431707&next=t] is the winner of the Omnidawn 1st/2nd Book Prize and was published Fall 2025. At the time of this recording, it was also a finalist for the 2026 Lammy Awards from Lambda Literary. They have been published in POETRY Magazine [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jason-crawford], Academy of American Poets [https://poets.org/poem/untitled-1975-86], Cincinnati Review, Beloit Poetry Journal,  and RHINO Poetry [https://rhinopoetry.org/poems/asters-by-jason-b-crawford], among others. They are a 2023 Emerging Writers Fellow for Lambda Literary and hold their MFA in Poetry from The New School. Get full access to O, Word? at oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe [https://oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

O, Nonce!

A conversation with Nick Martino about Nonce Forms, The Possibilities of Visual Poetics, and Writing Towards Surprise Nick Martino [https://www.nickmartinopoetry.com/] is a poet and teacher from Milwaukee. His debut poetry collection, Scrap Book [https://www.alicejamesbooks.org/bookstore/scrap-book] (from Alice James Books) won the 2024 Alice James Editors’ Choice Award and will be published in June of 2026. His poems have been published in Best New Poets, Narrative [https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/fall-2023/poetry/leaving-gym-i-smoke-one-cigarette-then-another-nick-martino], Ninth Letter, The Boston Review [https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/three-poems-10/], and The Southern Review, among others. A finalist for the 2024 Sewanee Review Poetry Prize, he holds an MFA from the University of California, Irvine where he received the 2022 Excellence in Poetry Prize. He lives in LA. Get full access to O, Word? at oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe [https://oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

O, Joy!

A conversation with Jonny Teklit about Joy as Poetic Practice, Poetic Influences, and How Joy Can Push Us Towards Action Jonny Teklit [https://www.jonnyteklit.com/about] is an award-winning poet who has had work appear in The Academy of American Poets, The New Yorker, The Adroit Journal, and elsewhere. His poems have been anthologized in Poemhood: Our Black Revival [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/poemhood-our-black-revival-amber-mcbrideerica-martintaylor-byas] and The Gift of Animals: Poems on Love, Loss, and Connection [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/alison-hawthorne-deming/the-gift-of-animals/9781635868579/]. He is currently working on his debut collection. Get full access to O, Word? at oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe [https://oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

e·pon·y·mous | "Black Bell" by Alison C. Rollins

Talking with Alison C. Rollins about Black Bell, the poetics of referentiality, and performance as mode of collective meaning-making Alison C. Rollins [https://www.alisoncrollins.com/] is the author of the poetry collections Black Bell [https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/black-bell-by-alison-c-rollins/] and Library of Small Catastrophes [https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/library-of-small-catastrophes-by-alison-c-rollins/]. Rollins holds an MFA from Brown University and is an assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She was awarded a 2023-2024 Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellowship and named a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow in 2019. Her work, across genres, has appeared in American Poetry Review, Iowa Review, The New York Times Magazine, and elsewhere. Get full access to O, Word? at oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe [https://oword.deesoulpoetry.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]