Poetry in Progress - From Raw Pages to Published Work - A conversation with William May and Freesia McKee

2025-07-08

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In this special episode of Argh! Not Another Podcast About Book Publishing, William May welcomes poet, editor, and professor Freesia McKee for a deep dive into the collaborative journey behind his new chapbook, Blaze without Burning.Together, they explore:How they met and why the partnership workedThe creative and editing process behind the bookMentorship, trust, and how feedback helps shape a poet’s voiceThe often-overlooked world of press and p...

In this special episode of Argh! Not Another Podcast About Book Publishing, William May welcomes poet, editor, and professor Freesia McKee for a deep dive into the collaborative journey behind his new chapbook, Blaze without Burning.

Together, they explore:

How they met and why the partnership worked
The creative and editing process behind the book
Mentorship, trust, and how feedback helps shape a poet’s voice
The often-overlooked world of press and publicity in poetry
Freesia’s own writing process, publishing path, and life as a teacher-writer

Plus, they share reflections on literary community, staying inspired, and what comes next, including details on William’s upcoming book launch event in Brooklyn!

📅 Book Launch: Sunday, July 13 @ 3 PM | Pete’s Candy Store, Brooklyn🎟️ RSVP here: https://rsvp.link/rn8tU

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🔗 Learn more about Freesia: Freesia McKee writes about gender, genre, history, and place. Her work appears in three chapbooks, City of Honesty (Water's Edge Press), How Distant the City (Headmistress Press) and Hummingbird Vows (Bottlecap Press), as well as The Journal, Fugue, Puerto del Sol, Cleaver, ellipses, Mobius, Stoneboat, Tinderbox Poetry Journal, and elsewhere. Freesia served as the Fall 2022 Poet in Residence at Ripon College. Since 2023, she has served as an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Website: https://freesiamckee.com/
How Distant the City: https://freesiamckee.com/publications/how-distant-the-city/
Hummingbird Vows: https://freesiamckee.com/publications/hummingbird-vows/

🔗 More from William: William May, a fourth-generation native of New York’s Greenwich Village, dubbing himself a “Neurodiverse Language Wizard,” began writing poetry when he was 9 years old while a student at The Stephen Gaynor School, a pioneer in special education. There, he received individualized support, allowing him to thrive academically and, eventually, enabling him to attend New York City’s highly competitive Collegiate School. William now also resides in Southern Florida.His work has been featured in SoFloPoJo, Chameleon Chimera: An Anthology of Florida Poets, and The Centifictionist. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and the University of North Carolina’s MFA program in creative writing, William shares his work through performances, newsletters, and his podcast, Argh! Not Another Podcast About Book Publishing.
Order Blaze Without Burning: https://williammaywrites.com

📖 Referenced poem:
Passing a Truck Full of Chickens at Night on Highway Eighty by Jane Mead → https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/88762

🎧 If you enjoyed this episode, share it with your writing crew, leave a review, and don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a moment of Argh!

Produced by Denise Marsa & Meggie Dimitrova. Mixed & Mastered by Paul A. Harvey,

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