Cynthia Marie Hoffman’s latest book of prose poetry, Exploding Head (Persea Books, February 2024) is described as an OCD memoir in prose poems.
It chronicles her childhood onset and adult journey through obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which manifests in fearful obsessions and counting compulsions that impact her relationship to motherhood, religion, and the larger world. It’s been called “Magnificently propulsive and evocative” by Rebecca Morgan Frank. Megan Wildhood said, “I want someone to make a haunted house of these poems.”
She joins newest host, Sara Batkie, for a conversation about mental health, poetry as personal history, and what it’s like to be a working writer in Madison.
In addition to Exploding Head, Cynthia Marie Hoffman is the author of three previous collections of poetry: Sightseer, Paper Doll Fetus, and Call Me When You Want to Talk about the Tombstones. She is the recipient of a Diane Middlebrook Fellowship in Poetry at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and a Director’s Guest fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy.
Cynthia has taught creative writing and composition at George Mason University, the University of Wisconsin, and Edgewood College. She works at an electrical engineering firm in Madison, WI, where she lives with her husband and teenage child. You can find more about her at her website, cynthiamariehoffman.com and follow her on Instagram @cynthiamariehoffman.
Freedom Dreaming with Anisa Yudawanti and Amy Wilson
Nick Vander Puy On The HELP Campaign To Save The Penokees
Poet Jameka Williams On Sex, Race, And Kim Kardashian
Frank Emspak, "Troublemaker: Saying No to Power," part 2
Rebecca Webster On Sovereignty & Threats To The Oneida Nation
Author Kathryn Harlan On The Sensual And Unsettling In Storytelling
Brian J. Kramp, "This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick"
100 Umbrellas by Ron Czerwien
Joel Selvin, "Sly And The Family Stone: An Oral History"
Michael Massey, "More: A Memoir"
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Art of War
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends