Category: Tightwires

Poet & photographer Nadia Alexis, my next Season 9 guest!

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I recently enjoyed a lovely conversation with Haitian American (and now, fellow Mississippian!) poet Nadia Alexis!

Topics include the MFA and PhD at Ole Miss, the poetry faculty at Ole Miss, water & flight imagery, intersections of poetry and photography, a charmed submission experience, the effort of marketing and promoting poetry, & the promising future of young Mississippi writers!

BEYOND THE WATERSHED is available for preorder/purchase here!

Interested in being a future featured guest? Let me know!

Poet, Editor, & Literary Translator CD Eskilson, my next Season 9 guest!

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I had such a great time catching up with CD Eskilson, dear old friend and fellow Arkansas MFA, ahead of the release of their debut collection SCREAM/QUEEN!

Join us as CD shares some truly fascinating things about horror films and poetry, and I probably go on for too long about Edgar Allan Poe.

SCREAM/QUEEN is available for preorder/purchase here!

Interested in being a future featured guest? Let me know!

Poet & scholar Rawand Mustafa, my first guest of 2025!

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I had such a lovely, restorative conversation with Rawand Mustafa, the 2024 winner of the Etel Adnan Poetry Prize from the University of Arkansas Press– and our first featured guest of 2025!

This episode was co-hosted by Kathleen Sullivan, Arkansas MFA candidate in literary translation, translation editor of The Arkansas International, director of Arkansas’ Writers in the Schools program, and dear friend!

UMBILICAL DISCORD is available for purchase here from the University of Arkansas Press!

Interested in being a future featured guest? Let me know!

Translator & poet Cal Paule, my first Season 8 guest!

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BLACK BOX NAMED LIKE TO ME by Diana Garza Islas, and translated by Cal Paule, is easily one of the strangest books I’ve read this year. I can’t wait for everyone else to read it, too.

I’ve been a fan of Cal since I met them in a poetry workshop my last semester of grad school. I’m thrilled to see their meteoric success! They’re in the same MFA cohort as Joaquín (my husband), who is co-hosting this delightful conversation.

BLACK BOX NAMED LIKE TO ME is available for preorder here!

Interested in being a future featured guest? Let me know!

New York Times Bestselling author S.K. Ali, my final Season 7 guest!

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Ecstatic to share my full conversation with longtime fave S.K. Ali, who I first interviewed in 2017 and whose recent break into the fantasy genre has been predictably triumphant with FLEDGLING, a stunning first book in a duology I can’t wait to continue!

Some other topics of discussion: Publishing in Canada, the importance of preserving records, privileged first person perspectives, & the weight of responsibility in an industry that helps shape narratives.

FLEDGLING will be released next Tuesday, Oct 8 and can be preordered here!

Interested in being a future featured guest? Let me know!