Episode Forty-five

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Finally, after a long break, Waves Breaking returns with this interview with Kamden Ishmael Hilliard. Kam generously shares their time with me to discuss their debut book of poems, MissSettl, out last year with Nightboat Books. We go in deep to discuss their thoughts around the sentence, modes of speech, writing poems within this current era of late-stage capitalism, and teaching students.

Kamden Ishmael Hilliard was born in La Jolla, CA; their fam settled on O'ahu, Hawai'i. Kamden holds a BA in American Studies from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa and an MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Kamden, a nonbinary Black settler who goes by Kam, works on issues of surveillance, race, queerness, contemporary art and American politics. They're thankful for support from The National YoungArts Foundation, The Davidson Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, and The UCROSS Foundation. Kam’s writing appears in West Branch, The Black Warrior Review, Tagvverk, Denver Quarterly, The Columbia Review, and other publications.
 
Formerly, they served as an AmeriCorps VISTA, held Maytag, Teaching-Writing, and Pfluflaught Fellowships at the University of Iowa, and were the 2020-2022 Anisfield-Wolf Fellow in Publishing and Writing at the Cleveland State University Poetry Center, a reader at Flypaper Lit, and a board member at VIDA: Women In Literary Arts.

Kamden's website

Kamden's Instagram

Go buy MissSettl!

Mentioned in the interview:

Kam’s Anti-recommendations:

  • Apocalypse Now (film)

  • The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

  • The Sandman (TV series)

This show's Editor and Social Media Manager is Mitchel Davidovitz. 

The Sound of Waves Breaking is a clip of my cousin Ian and me (fake band name: Diminutive Denizens) doing a cover of “Dig My Grave” by They Might Be Giants. It’s on this cover album of Apollo 18 if you want to listen to the whole thing. There are a bunch of other covers you can listen to there for free, including a very dumb skit my friend Greg and I did for one of the “Fingertips.” Greg’s the host of the excellent podcast This Might Be a Podcast which I’ve also guested on many times. Check it out!

Episode Forty-four

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photo of Yanyi

Photo of Yanyi, taken by him

In this episode I spoke with Yanyi about his new book, Dream of the Divided Field, and his newsletter, The Reading.

Yanyi is the author of Dream of the Divided Field (One World Random House, 1 March 2022) and The Year of Blue Water (Yale University Press 2019), winner of the 2018 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. His work has been featured in or at NPR’s All Things Considered, New York Public Library, Granta, and New England Review, and he is the recipient of fellowships from Asian American Writers’ Workshop and Poets House. He holds an MFA in Poetry from New York University and was most recently poetry editor at Foundry. Currently, he teaches creative writing at large and gives writing advice at The Reading.

Yanyi's website
You can purchase Dream of the Divided Field here
Yanyi's Twitter
Yanyi's Instagram

Various books, movies, podcasts, etc. mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Host and Producer: Avren Keating

Sound of Waves Breaking: Sounds from this video of Merlin, my sweet 5-year-old Frenchie that died of a brain tumor in-between recording and editing this episode. I love you, little bubs.

Episode Forty-three

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In this interview, I spoke with Sarah Nnenna Loveth Nwafor about their latest publication Already Knew You Were Coming. We discuss Igbo cosmology and time, their process in writing this chapbook, and more.

Sarah Nnenna Loveth Nwafor (They/Them) is a queer Igbo-American Poet, Educator, and Facilitator who descends of a powerful ancestry. They believe that storytelling is magick, and they speak to practice traditions of Igbo orature. When they witness, their forebears are pleased. Sarah has been writing for a minute and is learning something new about their voice each year, but one thing they’re proud to share is that they have a chapbook out with Game Over Books! When Sarah's not writing; they’re probably sitting under a tree, reading about Love, dancing with friends or cooking a bomb-ass meal like the true Taurus they are.

Go buy Already Knew You Were Coming

Sarah’s Instagram

Sarah’s website

Books, artists, musicians, etc. mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Host and Producer: Avren Keating

Sound of Waves Breaking: Melody Loop 95 BPM, DaveJf

Episode Forty-two

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In this episode, I spoke with Cody-Rose Clevidence about their latest publication, Aux Arc / Trypt Ich, out with Nightboat Books. We dug into language, exploring motif, grief, love—all that good stuff. 

Cody-Rose Clevidence is the author of BEAST FEAST (2014) and Flung/Throne (2018), both from Ahsahta Press, Listen My Friend This is the Dream I Dreamed Last Night from The Song Cave and Aux Arc / Trypt Ich as well as several handsome chapbooks (flowers and cream, NION, garden door press, Auric).  They live in the Arkansas Ozarks with their medium sized but lion-hearted dog, Birdie and an absolute lunatic cat.  

Cody-Rose's Instagram

Buy Aux Arc / Trypt Ich!

Poets, books, etc. mentioned in this episode:

  • Cody-Rose Clevidence's BEAST FEAST

  • Turquoise waters of the Ozarks:


Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Host and Producer: Avren Keating

Sound of Waves Breaking: "Arkansas" by John Linnell. At last, one half of TMBG makes it onto the pod.

Episode Forty-one

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In this episode, I spoke with féi hernandez about Hood Criatura, their poetry collection released in 2020. We also spoke about their incredible skills as an illustrator, and féi recommends some fantastic books and music.

féi hernandez (b.1993 Chihuahua, Mexico) is a trans, Inglewood- raised, formerly undocumented immigrant artist, writer, healer. They have been published in POETRY, Pank Magazine, Oxford Review of Books, Frontier Poetry, The Breakbeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, amongst others. They are a Define American Fellow for 2021 and are currently the Board President of Gender Justice Los Angeles. féi is the author of the full-length poetry collection Hood Criatura (Sundress Publications 2020) which was on NPR’s Best Books of 2020. féi collects Pokémon plushies.

féi’s website

féi’s instagram

Purchase Hood Criatura

An example of one of féi’s illustrations:

“The Woman Inside” by féi hernandez. You can see more of their illustrations here.

“The Woman Inside” by féi hernandez. You can see more of their illustrations here.

Poets, books, etc. mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking is “Project - 3_30_21, 6.55 PM.wav” by bradygalp123

Episode Forty

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In this episode, I spoke with Larkin Christie about their book gather all your supple creatures. 

Larkin Christie is a queer poet living on unceded Pocumtuc land in what is currently known as Western Massachusetts. Their second collection, gather all your supple creatures, is out now. Their creative work draws on experiences as an educator, organizer, and dancer. 

Larkin's website

Larkin's Instagram

Go buy gather all your supple creatures!

 

Quotes, workshop, and media mentioned in this episode:

In Surreal Life, workshop

Honeyfitz, band

From Larkin: "I just did some research and the quote is actually by Shelly Smith, published in June Jordan’s Poetry for the People: A Revolutionary Blueprint. It is 'Deciding whom to publish, whose words are important or good or right, whose message is valuable, is about politics. Self-publishing is about power, about taking the responsibility to disseminate your words yourself.'

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Sound of Waves Breaking: "Larks in Limburg, Netherlands.mp3" by @robkuster

Episode Thirty-nine

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In this episode, I spoke with KB about their zine “a new relationship to pain,” their relationship to poetry, the pandemic, working as a poet and educator, and more.

KB is from Stop Six, Fort Worth, Texas. They are a Black queer nonbinary poet, educator, student affairs professional, and lover of most plants/people. They want to be your friend as well as your reminder to think in abundance. They have words published in Cincinnati Review, Puerto Del Sol, Palette Poetry, and other equally pretty places. Their chapbook How To Identify Yourself with a Wound (Kallisto Gaia Press, 2022) won the 2020 Saguaro Poetry Prize and was written with support from workshops with Lambda Literary, In Surreal Life, The Watering Hole, The Hurston/Wright Foundation, The Speakeasy Project, and Winter Tangerine. They are currently a 2021 PEN America Emerging Writers fellow and an African American Leadership Institute - Austin fellow.

When not on stage or in the page, they serve as Program Coordinator for the Gender and Sexuality Center at the University of Texas at Austin, Founding Executive Director of Interfaces, Co-Founder/President of Embrace Austin, and educator in various settings. Follow them on Twitter or Instagram at @earthtokb and access their exclusive teaching, writing, and other content at patreon.com/earthtokb. They live in Austin, TX where they’re writing books & trying their best.

KB’s Zine “a new relationship to pain”

KB’s Instagram

KB’s Twitter

Poets, books, etc. mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking is “DesertTexasT01” by Riabad

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-eight

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In this episode I spoke with Rainie Oet about their recent publication Glorious Veils of Diane. 

Content warning: We talk a lot about blood and some about self-harming.

Rainie Oet is a nonbinary writer and game designer, former Editor-in-Chief of Salt Hill Journal, and the author of Glorious Veils of Diane (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2021), as well as two other books: Porcupine in Freefall and Inside Ball Lightning. They have an MFA in Poetry from Syracuse University, where they were awarded the Shirley Jackson Prize in Fiction. 

Artists, books, films, games etc. mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking: "Sanchon Drum - Seoul Korea" by RTB45

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-seven

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Based on photos taken by imogen and Ben Krusling

Based on photos taken by imogen and Ben Krusling

In this episode, I dive deep into one poem from the We Want it All anthology with its authors, Anaïs Duplan and imogen xtian smith. Tune in for our conversation about of art, love, and utopias.

Anaïs Duplan is a trans* poet, curator, and artist. He is the author of a book of essays, Blackspace: On the Poetics of an Afrofuture (Black Ocean, 2020), a full-length poetry collection, Take This Stallion (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2016), and a chapbook, Mount Carmel and the Blood of Parnassus (Monster House Press, 2017). He has taught poetry at the University of Iowa, Columbia University, Sarah Lawrence College, and St. Joseph’s College.

His video works have been exhibited by Flux Factory, Daata Editions, the 13th Baltic Triennial in Lithuania, Mathew Gallery, NeueHouse, the Paseo Project, and will be exhibited at the Institute of Contemporary Art in L.A in 2021.

As an independent curator, he has facilitated curatorial projects in Chicago, Boston, Santa Fe, and Reykjavík. He was a 2017-2019 joint Public Programs fellow at the Museum of Modern Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem. In 2016, he founded the Center for Afrofuturist Studies, an artist residency program for artists of color, based at Iowa City’s artist-run organization Public Space One. He works as Program Manager at Recess.

imogen xtian smith (fka xtian w) is a poet & performer. Recent work is featured or forthcoming in Peach Mag, Cosmonauts Ave, the Rumpus, & WE WANT IT ALL: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics. They live in Brooklyn.

Places, people, art, books etc. mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking is "Gymnasium, Class Reunion in Distance" by ecfike. Meeting people in-person and hugging after a long period of time? I miss that and them.

Episode Thirty-six

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In this episode I spoke with noor ibn najam about her recent work and writing process. they also discussed showing work to friends and skill-sharing. Sorry that the intro and outro audio is a little wonky this time around, but the bulk of the interview itself is still good.

noor is a poet who teases, challenges, breaks, and creates language. she's received fellowships from Callaloo and The Watering Hole and is a recent resident of the Vermont Studio Center. her poems have been published and anthologized with DIAGRAM, ANMLY, The Academy of American Poets, the Rumpus, Bettering American Poetry, and others. her chapbook, PRAISE TO LESSER GODS OF LOVE, was published by Glass Poetry Press in 2019.

noor’s website

purchase Praise to Lesser Gods of Love

noor’s Patreon

Writers, poems, books, events mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking is “Walking on Snow,” recorded by rivernile7.

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-five

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This month’s guest is Aeon Ginsberg. We dug into their recently published book Greyhound and also talked about PoBiz/Big Lit, death, and teeth poetry.

Aeon Ginsberg (they/them) is an agender transfeminine writer and performer from Baltimore City, MD. They are the author of Greyhound, the 2019 winner of the Noemi Press Poetry Prize, and their work has been published in various magazines in print and online. Aeon is a Taurus, a bartending, and a bitch.

Aeon’s website

Aeon’s Twitter account

Go get Greyhound!

Writers, news, books, events mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking is this video Aeon sent me of Vin Diesel singing Rhianna.

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

If you want to get in contact with me, you can email me at wavesbreakingshow@gmail.com and/or message me @WavesBreakPod on Twitter.

Episode Thirty-four

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Photo by Laurence Philomène

Photo by Laurence Philomène

This month I got to speak with Kama La Mackerel about their just-released book, ZOM-FAM, published by Metonymy Press. We go in-depth in discussion about their decolonial artistic practices and inspiration for the book.

Kama La Mackerel is a Montreal-based Mauritian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist, educator, writer, community-arts facilitator and literary translator who works within and across performance, photography, installations, textiles, digital art and literature. Kama’s work is grounded in the exploration of justice, love, healing, decoloniality, hybridity, cosmopolitanism and self- and collective-empowerment. They believe that aesthetic practices have the power to build resilience and act as resistance to the status quo, thereby enacting an anticolonial practice through cultural production.

Kama has exhibited and performed their work internationally and their writing in English, French and Kreol has appeared in publications both online and in print. They have lived in far-flung places such as Pune, India and Peterborough, Ontario. ZOM-FAM, their debut poetry collection is published by Metonymy Press.

GO BUY ZOM-FAM!

Kama's website

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking: "Ay Ay Lolo" by Menwar

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty-three

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kiki nicole

In this episode, I spoke with poet kiki nicole about their manuscript, Autobiography of the boi Venus which not published (yet!), their embroidery work, film work, and current interests.

kiki nicole is a Black, Queer, and Non-binary multimedia artist and poet based in Charlotte, North Carolina.. They’ve received invitations to fellowships such as Pink Door Writing Retreat, The Watering Hole, and Winter Tangerine. kiki nicole is currently a reader for Muzzle Magazine. They work to explore a Black, queer, femme & genderless universe that un/bodies, un/genders, & re/news, kiki hopes to lend a voice for the void in which Black femmes not only exist in plain view, but thrive.

from kiki’s Autobiography of the boi Venus, also using a still from ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

from kiki’s Autobiography of the boi Venus, also using a still from ariella tai’s "she's not going to get more dead"

kiki’s site

kiki’s instagram

Donation link to support kiki

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

The sound of waves breaking is Sylvester's “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real).”

This episode was edited and social media managed by Mitchel Davidovitz.

Stay safe, everyone!!

Episode Thirty-two

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Photo credit: Ananda Lima

Photo credit: Ananda Lima

Như and I discussed her recent chapbook A System of Satellites and her writing practice, finding dignity as a trans poet, and writing past ingrained fear and doubt.

She also asked me questions. Hear me stumble trying to answer questions about my writing practice and how I approach writing with personal experiences.

Như Xuân Nguyễn is a queer and trans Vietnamese American poet and writer. A Kundiman Fellow and a graduate of the MFA program in Creative Writing at Rutgers-Newark, she won the 2018 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship with her debut chapbook A System of Satellites. Her work has appeared in The Offing, DELUGE (Radioactive Moat), The Journal, The Shade Journal, and Juked. She is currently based in New York City, where she lives with her two cats, Arya and Azula. 

Như's website
Buy Như's chapbook

Note: I refer to a NOLA poetry fest panel that is no longer happening due to COVID-19. Wash your hands and stay at home, everyone.

People and Books Mentioned:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking: Lunar Wind, @Walter_Odington

Episode Thirty-one

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This episode, I got to talk with sung about their thoughts on writing, the poetry biz, and what its like to publish a memoir. sung is a writer and interdisciplinary artist from Korea. They are the author of What About the Rest of Your Life (Perfect Day Publishing) and Flowers Are for Pussies (Ghost City Press). Their work has appeared in Nat. Brut, Kweli Journal, Contrary, The James Franco Review, The Wanderer, and Crab Fat Magazine.

The sound of waves breaking is "Wynd" by weerm

This episode's editor and social media manager is Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Thirty

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Photo by: Neon M Esc

Photo by: Neon M Esc

In this episode, I had the opportunity to talk with Zefyr Lisowski about her book Blood Box.

Zefyr Lisowski is a trans and queer writer, artist, and North Carolinian currently living in NYC. She's a Poetry Co-editor for Apogee Journal and the author of Blood Box, winner of the Black River Editor's Choice Award from Black Lawrence Press and forthcoming fall 2019; she's also the author of the microchap Wolf Inventory (Ghost City Press, 2018) and is a 2019 Tin House Summer Workshop Fellow.

Zefyr's work has appeared or is forthcoming in Lit Hub, Nat. Brut., Muzzle Magazine, and DIAGRAM, among many other places; she's also received support from Sundress Academy for the Arts, McGill University, the New York Live Ideas Fest, and the 2019 CUNY Graduate Center Adjunct Incubator Grant for the arts. A 2018 nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she also goes by Zef.

Zefyr Lisowski's website
Go buy Blood Box! 

Media, artists, books, etc mentioned in this episode:

Editor and Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz
Sound of Waves Breaking is "Cicada Single" by Jedo.

Episode Twenty-nine

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Photo by: Nicole Myles

Photo by: Nicole Myles

This episode, I had the chance to speak with Cyrée Jarelle Johnson about his book, SLINGSHOT.

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (He/They) is a poet and writer from Piscataway, NJ. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review, Wussy, The Wanderer, Vice, Rewire News, The Root, and Nat. Brut among other publications. They earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University with support from Davis Putter Scholarship Fund.

SLINGSHOT, his first collection of poetry, is available now from Nightboat Books. Development of the work was supported by Astraea Foundations' Global Arts Fund, CultureStrike Climate Change and Environmental Justice Fellowship, and Rewire News Disabled Writers Fellowship.

They tweet with significant queer millennial ennui at @CyreeJarelle 

Cyrée's website 
Cyrée's TED Talk "What is Autism Neutrality?" 

Authors and books mentioned in the episode:

The Sound of Waves Breaking was "Natural Disaster" by @davidthomascairns 

Editor, Social Media Manager: Mitchel Davidovitz
Host, Producer: Avren Keating

Episode Twenty-seven

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I had the opportunity to talk with S. Brook Corfman at AWP this year! S. Brook Corfman is the author of Luxury, Blue Lace, chosen by Richard Siken for the Autumn House Rising Writer Prize, and two chapbooks: the letterpress Meteorites from DoubleCross Press and the digital collection of performance pieces The Anima from GaussPDF. The recipient of grants and fellowships from Lambda Literary, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, recent work has appeared in DIAGRAM, Indiana Review, Muzzle, The Offing, Territory, and Quarterly West (Best of the Net Nomination), among other places. Born and raised in Chicago, Sam now lives in a turret in Pittsburgh.

S's website

Luxury, Blue Lace

Meteorites (chapbook)

Writers, topics, etc, mentioned in the show:

This episode's Editor and Social Media Manager is Mitchel Davidovitz

The Sound of Waves Breaking is a field recording of kids playing at a park during the day by JohnnyBeCrafty

Episode Twenty-six

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Hello, hello! Happy Spring! I'm here with another interview for you fine people. I had the opportunity to interview B'ellana Johannx aka Chloe Rose about their two upcoming chapbooks Satanic Verses: A Guidebook for the New Transfaggot (2019) and The Fatbergs (2019).

B'ellana Johannx's gender is Rilke’s dark god: a webbed scrim made of a thousand roots drinking in silence. Also known as Chloe Rose, she/they are a fat, queer, femme, non-binary womxn-of-color living with disabilities and their cats Franz and Pepper in Tacoma, WA. Rose/Johannx has been published in The Wanderer, Dream Pop, and Aspasiology, with Pushcart and Bettering American Poetry nominations henny, so watch out! Tweet them about conlangs, antifa, witchcraft, and drag names @llanaandsuchas. If you are a faggot, you are her/their kin and they love you. May the peace of the Goddess and God be upon you. #SMIB

B'ellana's website

B'ellana's Twitter 

Writers, books, ideas, musicians mentioned:

"The Sound of Waves Breaking" is titled "Ghost Merkel Beat" by stanrams and made me laugh my ass off.

This episode was edited and media managed by Mitchel Davidovitz

Episode Twenty-five

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I'm back! Hello! I got to talk with Andrea Abi-Karam this time, and I had a blast catching up with them about their latest book "EXTRATRANSMISSION."

Andrea Abi-Karam is an arab-american genderqueer punk poet-performer cyborg, writing on the art of killing bros, the intricacies of cyborg bodies, trauma & delayed healing. Their chapbook, THE AFTERMATH (Commune Editions, 2016), attempts to queer Fanon’s vision of how poetry fails to inspire revolution. Simone White selected their second assemblage, Villainy for forthcoming publication with Les Figues. They toured with Sister Spit March 2018 & are hype to live in New York. EXTRATRANSMISSION [Kelsey Street Press, 2019] is their first book.

This episode’s editor and social media manager is Mitchel Davidovitz.

The Sound of Waves Breaking was “SOLOSLUT” by Spray Tan.