From the Archive: Brian Culhane

From the Archive: Brian Culhane

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This summer in 2026, we are sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives! Poetry Medicine for the Soul first began in 2020, in partnership with the Stockbridge Library in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. With the Stockbridge Library, over a hundred episodes were recorded over four seasons. This episode features poet Brian Culhane [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/brian-culhane] and was originally recorded on March 8, 2023 during Season 3.   Brian Culhane was born and raised in New York City.  Culhane’s poems have appeared in a number of journals, including the New Republic, the New Criterion, Antaeus, the Paris Review, the Hudson Review, and Western Humanities Review. He earned a BA from the City University of New York, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD in epic literature and the history of criticism from the University of Washington. He has lectured on Frost and Thoreau as an Inquiring Mind speaker for the Washington Commission for the Humanities. He received a 2007 Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission fellowship in literature and a 2009 MacDowell Colony fellowship. He has taught film and English at Lakeside School in Seattle. Culhane is the author of Remembering Lethe: Poems (Able Muse Press, 2021) and The King’s Question (Graywolf Press, 2008), winner of the Poetry Foundation’s Emily Dickinson First Book Prize. Learn more at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/brian-culhane. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/brian-culhane] This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/ [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] in Apple podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-medicine-for-the-soul/id1774547435], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4l3NEXUb2V9u9sPtL9jX20?si=ed2731c1689245d5], or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

From the Archive: Adam O. Davis

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This summer in 2026, we are sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives! Poetry Medicine for the Soul first began in 2020, in partnership with the Stockbridge Library in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. With the Stockbridge Library, over a hundred episodes were recorded over four seasons. This episode features Adam O. Davis [https://www.adamodavis.com/] from Season 2, and was originally recorded [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-yvTKCNEic] on recorded on April 7, 2022. Adam O. Davis is the author of Pyrrhic Symphony [https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496247919/pyrrhic-symphony/](University of Nebraska Press [https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/nebraska/9781496247919/pyrrhic-symphony/], 2026), winner of the Raz/Shumaker Book Prize from Prairie Schooner [https://prairieschooner.unl.edu/] and index of haunted houses [https://www.sarabandebooks.org/all-titles/p/index-of-haunted-houses-adam-o-davis] (Sarabande books [http://www.sarabandebooks.org/], 2020), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton poetry prize and finalist for the Big Other Book Award for Poetry [https://bigother.com/2021/02/25/announcing-the-finalists-for-the-2020-big-other-book-award-for-poetry/]. The recipient of the 2022 Poetry International Prize [https://www.poetryinternationalonline.com/pi-prize-2/] and the 2016 George Bogin Memorial award [http://psa.fcny.org/psa/awards/annual/winners/2016/award_6/] from thePoetry Society of America [http://psa.fcny.org/psa/], he has received grants and fellowships from The Bishop's School [https://www.bishops.com/], Columbia university [https://arts.columbia.edu/writing], the New Literary Project [https://www.newliteraryproject.org/2022-jack-hazard-fellows], the Prague Summer program for writers [https://praguesummer.com/], and Vermont studio center [https://vermontstudiocenter.org/]. He is also, with Colin Waters, the co-creator & host of the Poetry Goes to the Movies [https://poetrygoestothemovies.weebly.com/] podcast. His work has appeared widely in journals and anthologies, including The believer [https://believermag.com/], The Best American Poetry, [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Best-American-Poetry-2021/David-Lehman/The-Best-American-Poetry-series/9781982106621]Boston review [https://bostonreview.net/adam-o-davis-the-mosquito-monocracy], The Cincinnati Review [https://www.cincinnatireview.com/], Denver Quarterly [https://www.du.edu/denverquarterly/], the Paris Review [https://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/5743/the-following-should-not-be-questioned-adam-o-davis], the Poetry Review [https://poetrysociety.org.uk/publications-section/the-poetry-review/], the Southern Review [https://thesouthernreview.org/], West Branch [https://westbranch.blogs.bucknell.edu/], and zyzzyva [https://www.zyzzyva.org/]. Davis was born in Tucson, Arizona and raised in Scotland, Utah, France, New Jersey, and California. He holds a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California - Riverside [https://creativewriting.ucr.edu/], and an M.F.A. in Poetry from Columbia University [https://arts.columbia.edu/writing]. he currently teaches English at the Bishop's School [https://www.bishops.com/] in San Diego, California. Learn more at www.adamodavis.com. [https://www.adamodavis.com/] This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/ [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] in Apple podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-medicine-for-the-soul/id1774547435], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4l3NEXUb2V9u9sPtL9jX20?si=ed2731c1689245d5], or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

From the Archive: Peter Kline & Brittany Perham

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This summer in 2026, we are sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives! Poetry Medicine for the Soul first began in 2020, in partnership with the Stockbridge Library in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. With the Stockbridge Library, over a hundred episodes were recorded over four seasons. This episode features Peter Kline [https://www.peterklinepoetry.com/] and Brittany Perham [https://www.brittanyperham.com/] from Season 4, and was originally recorded [https://youtu.be/u5nb3RGnZLY?si=15qinLADhVuO2zrq] on recorded on April 11, 2023. Peter Kline teaches writing at the University of San Francisco and with Stanford University's Master of Liberal Arts Program.  A former Wallace Stegner Fellow, he has also received residency fellowships from the Hemingway House, Amy Clampitt House, James Merrill House, Artsmith Orcas Island, Marble House Project, and Kimmel Harding Nelson Foundation.  His poems have won First Prize in the River Styx International Poetry Contest, Southwest Review's Morton Marr Poetry Prize, and the Poetry Prize from The Columbia Review, and have appeared in Ploughshares, Five Points, Poetry, Tin House, and many other journals, as well as the Best New Poets series, the Verse Daily website, the Random House anthology of metrical poetry, Measure for Measure, and Persea Books' anthology of contemporary self-portrait poems, More Truly and More Strange.  He is director of the San Francisco literary reading series Bazaar Writers Salon, which he founded in 2012.  His first collection of poetry, Deviants [https://www.powells.com/book/deviants-9781622880294], was published by Stephen F. Austin State University Press in 2013.  His newest collection, Mirrorforms [https://parlorpress.com/products/mirrorforms], was published by Parlor Press/Free Verse Editions in the fall of 2019. Learn more at www.peterklinepoetry.com. [https://www.peterklinepoetry.com/] Brittany Perham [https://www.brittanyperham.com/] is the author of Double Portrait (W.W. Norton), which was selected by Claudia Rankine for the Barnard Women Poets Prize; The Curiosities (Free Verse Editions); and, with Kim Addonizio, the collaborative word/art project The Night Could Go in Either Direction (SHP). Her writing has received support from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, the Hemingway House, the James Merrill House Foundation, Vermont Studio Center, the Wallace Stegner Fellowship Program, and Yaddo. New poetry, fiction, and nonfiction may be found or is forthcoming in The Cortland Review, Gulf Coast, Poetry, Prairie Schooner, and Tupelo Quarterly. Her new book, Executrix, was selected by Cheryl Strayed for the AWP Sue William Silverman Prize for Creative Nonfiction and will be published by the University of Georgia Press in 2026. Learn more at www.brittanyperham.com. [https://www.brittanyperham.com/] This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/ [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] in Apple podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-medicine-for-the-soul/id1774547435], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4l3NEXUb2V9u9sPtL9jX20?si=ed2731c1689245d5], or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

From the Archive: Danusha Laméris

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This summer in 2026, we are sharing some of our favorite episodes from the archives! Poetry Medicine for the Soul first began in 2020, in partnership with the Stockbridge Library in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. With the Stockbridge Library, over a hundred episodes were recorded over four seasons. This episode features Danusha Laméris [https://www.danushalameris.com/] from Season 1, and was originally recorded on recorded on January 6, 2021. Danusha Laméris, a poet and essayist, was raised in Northern California and born to a Dutch father and Barbadian mother.  Laméris is a recipient of a Pushcart Prize and was honored by the 2020 Lucille Clifton Legacy Award. She served as the 2018-2020 Poet Laureate of Santa Cruz County, California. Some of her work has been published in: The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, Orion, The American Poetry Review, The Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner. Her poem Small Kindnesses has been translated to multiple languages, quoted in O Magazine, turned into a short film, and was recently read by actress Helena Bonham Carter.   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. Her second book, Bonfire Opera, (University of Pittsburgh Press, Pitt Poetry Series), was a finalist for the 2021 Paterson Poetry Award and recipient of the 2021 Northern California Book Award in Poetry. Her third and newest collection, Blade by Blade (2024)  is now available through Copper Canyon Press.  Laméris has been on the faculty of Pacific University’s low residency MFA program. She founded Litfield [http://www.litfieldwriters.com/], an online writing community where she currently teaches. Learn more at: www.danushalameris.com [https://www.danushalameris.com/] This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/ [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] in Apple podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-medicine-for-the-soul/id1774547435], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4l3NEXUb2V9u9sPtL9jX20?si=ed2731c1689245d5], or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

Jessica Piazza: National Poetry Month 2026

Poetry Medicine for the Soul is a podcast inviting poets to share, explore, and celebrate poetry, hosted by John Gillespie. This National Poetry Month 2026 bonus episode features Jessica Piazza reading "Easter" by Jill Alexander Essbaum. You can read "Easter" on the Poetry Foundation website. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/54272/easter-56d2346d77163] Jessica Piazza [https://www.jessicapiazza.com/] is the author of three poetry collections: Interrobang, This is not a sky, and Obliterations (with Heather Aimee O'Neill), as well as the children's book Olivia Otter Builds Her Raft. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Jessica now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a professor at the University of Southern California. She co-founded Bat City Review (Austin, TX) and Gold Line Press (Los Angeles, CA), and curates Poetry Has Value, which focuses on the intersections of poetry, money and worth. She is the recipient of the Amy Clampitt residency, and is working on a new poetry collection and a novel. Her poems have most recently appeared in Best American Poetry, The Baltimore Review, The Cincinnati Review, Smartish Pace and 32 Poems. When she's not writing or teaching, Jessica works with Literary Affairs, facilitating book clubs for avid readers all around Los Angeles. Learn more at www.jessicapiazza.com [https://www.jessicapiazza.com/]. Born in Bay City, Texas, poet and editor Jill Alexander Essbaum was educated at the University of Houston, the University of Texas, and the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. Essbaum’s debut collection of poems, Heaven (2000), won the 1999 Bakeless Prize. Other collections include Harlot (2007), Necropolis (2008), and the long-poem chapbook The Devastation (2009). Her work has been included in the anthology Best American Erotic Poems (2008). Essbaum’s novel Hausfrau (2015) was a New York Times Bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, the Huffington Post, and Shelf Awareness, and nominated for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Fiction. The recipient of two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Essbaum has served as an editor for the online journal ANTI- , the print journal The National Poetry Review, and has also edited for the Nanopress Project, whose aim is to “pioneer a new poetry publishing model that brings together, on a one-time basis, an independent editor’s judgment and gravitas and a poet’s manuscript.” Essbaum teaches in the University of California-Riverside Palm Desert’s low-residency MFA program and lives in Austin, Texas. This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/ [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul [https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/] in Apple podcasts [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/poetry-medicine-for-the-soul/id1774547435], Spotify [https://open.spotify.com/show/4l3NEXUb2V9u9sPtL9jX20?si=ed2731c1689245d5], or wherever you listen to podcasts.  Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com