Get set for a poetry gabfest for the ages! The fabulous Joy Priest joins us for the Breaking Form Interview.

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Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press.

James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Show Notes:

Buy Joy's prizewinning collection of poems, Horsepower, from the University of Pittsburgh Press here or from Loyalty Books, a Black, Queer, and Asian owned independent bookstore in DC.

Visit Joy Priest's website: https://www.joypriest.com

You can see Joy reading from her work here, here, and here. Or read this interview with her here.

Read Joy's ode to Whitney Houston, "When I See the Stars in the Night Sky"

Nikky Finney won the 2011 National Book Award for her book Head Off and Split. Watch her iconic speech here.

Read more about American Honey, a film by Andrea Arnold starring Sasha Lane

We mention a few forms, including the Abecedarian and the Sestina. Click the links for more information about them.

Poets we mention:

Emily Dickinson and Poem 269 ("Wild nights!")

Hear poet Jane Kenyon read her poem "Otherwise."

Donald Hall

Terrance Hayes

Ross Gay

Louise Glück's "Anniversary"

The queens kindly request your presence for some piping hot tea as they recap the AWP Conference in Baltimore.

Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press.

James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Show Notes:

James posted some AWP tips on Facebook here.

For the curious, AWP has posted its "Community Participation in #AWP26 Conference & Bookfair" stats here.

The journals mentioned on the "Editing for Change and Community" panel were:

Small Orange edited by Carlie Hoffman. Carlie's poems were included in our Breaking Form episode "The Hof[f]man[n]s" which you can listen to here.

Georgia Review edited by Gerald Maa.

Brink edited by Nina Lohman

Hopkins Review edited by Dora Malech

Cherry Tree: A National Literary Journal at Washington College, by James.

AWP has said it will post the video of John Waters's keynote address for conference registrants to view, but we can't find it yet. But if you're curious, here's a written recap of the event by Baltimore Fishbowl.

You can find The Adroit Journal online at https://theadroitjournal.org. They're open for submissions currently (til April 1, 2026). They are a paying market.

That which you call death, the queens remember in this episode that revisits The Wild Iris, Louise Glück's Pulitzer-Prize winning volume from 1992.

Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series. And BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE is available from Bridwell Press.

James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

Show Notes:

While the recording released by the Academy of American Poets of Glück reading from The Wild Iris and other work can be purchased online, you can also hear many of these poems read on SoundCloud here.

Much of our information about Glück's process comes from this interview with the poet Devin Becker, who was also her former student.

Read Richie Hofmann's remembrance here.

Some of the poems from The Wild Iris that we mention (and links to read them) are:

Witchgrass

The Red Poppy

Clear Morning

The Garden

Vespers

Retreating Light

The White Lilies, which you can hear read by Glück here.

We also mention the poem "Purple Bathing Suit" from Meadowlands, the book which follows The Wild Iris.

Louise' Glücks astrological chart is here. (Taurus sun, Leo rising, Scorpio moon.)

Watch interviews with Glück:

1982, for Kalliope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAB-JqABvq8

2004, at Smith College: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw0nlVYZ39A

2012, Academy of Achievement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1rpGy8XRzU

2016, with Peter Streckfus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeoaLNGy_Ms

2020, for NYPL with Colm Tóibín, on writing The Wild Iris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3kQGM_KhHQ