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 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-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-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