Rachel Zucker talks with Danez Smith, author of [insert] boy and Don’t Call Us Dead (recently shortlisted for the National Book Award) about confessional-testimonial poems, sonnets, essential poems, poets and books, Cave Canem, the MFA industrial complex, not feeling desired, depression, community, living and learning, Minneapolis, living as a full-time artist, their writing space, hanging out with grandma, HIV+ diagnosis, Danez’s new poems, writing a time travel novel, play, getting over imposter syndrome, and the challenges and pleasures of working on a third book after two early successes. Towards the end of the episode Danez reads two new poems.
EXTRA MATERIALS FOR EPISODE 41Books by Danez SmithDon't Call Us Dead
[insert] boy
When Young Folks Ask Danez Who They Should Be Reading:Morgan Parker
Kaveh Akbar
Eve Ewing
Javier Zamora’s Unaccompanied (Copper Canyon, 2017)
Rachel McKibbins’ Blud (Copper Canyon, 2017)
Anais Duplan
Shane McCrae’s In the Language of My Captor (Wesleyan, 2017)
Chen Chen’s When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities (BOA Editions, 2017)
Shira Erlichman
Angel Nafis
Franny Choi
Joshua Jennifer Espinoza
“Older” Poets/Books That Danez Loves:James Baldwin
Ross Gay
Aracelis Girmay
DA Powell
Sharon Olds
Cornelius Eady
Gwendolyn Brooks
Terrance Hayes’ Wind in a Box (Penguin, 2006)
Other Essential Books for Danez:Essex Hemphill’s Ceremonies (Plume, 1992)
Jericho Brown’s Please (New Issues Press, 2008)
Lucille Clifton’s Collected (BOA Editions, 2012)
Cornelius Eady’s Brutal Imagination (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2001)
Li-Young Lee’s Rose (BOA Editions, 1993)
Cave CanemTerrance Hayes
Toi Derricotte
Cornelius Eady
Chris Abani
Patricia Smith
Tim Seibles
Nikky Finney
Natasha Tretheway
Claudia Rankine
Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon
Angela Thomas
Philip B. Williams (first mentor at Cave Canem)
Nate Marshall
Angel Nafis
Morgan Parker
Charif Shanahan
Nabila Lovelace, The Conversation (with Aziza Barnes)
Other Important Links/Artists/OrganizationsSun Ra
Frank Ocean
Youth Speaks — Brave New Voices
Episode 61: Rosa Alcalá (Translation Series, Ep. 1)
Episode 60: Robin Coste Lewis
Episode 59: Alison S. M. Kobayashi
Episode 58: Cate Marvin
Episode 57: Dorothea Lasky
Episode 56: Jennifer Kronovet
Episode 55: Anne Waldman
Episode 54: Gerald Stern
Episode 53: Tommy Pico
Episode 52: Richard Siken
Episode 51: TC Tolbert
Episode 50: Inside Commonplace
Episode 49: CAConrad
Episode 48: Poets at MacDowell: Destiny Birdsong, Juleen Johnson, Jenny George, Eloisa Amezcua, & Amanda Galvan Huynh
Episode 47: Erin Riley
Episode 46: Allison Parrish
Episode 45: Tyehimba Jess
Episode 44: Matthew Zapruder
Episode 43: Airea D. Matthews
Episode 42: Gabrielle Calvocoressi
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