Podcast
Lit from the Basement
Hosted by Lit from the Basement · EN
This is a podcast in which Professor Deulen introduces poetry to her irreverent husband, Max. Each show is a close reading of a single poem. They discuss it for a bit, allowing the conversation to take on a life of its own.
10episodes
Episodes
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Show 052 KMUZ Interview as Our Last Episode for a While
Jun 10, 202100:28:31Tap to summarizeWith the boys old enough for school, Max went and got himself a job, and now we just do not have enough time to do the show proper. We hope to drop the occasional show in the future, but are uncertain if it will be back with the release frequency from before.This interview was conducted at KMUZ (who have been awesome and broadcasting our show across the Willamette Valley) on February 18, 2020, a few months before we moved to Atlanta. Thank you for spending time with us. -Danielle & Max
Transcribe →Show 051 "To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian" by Ross Gay
Dec 16, 201901:00:27Tap to summarizeWe are back from our sickness hiatus with “To the Fig Tree on 9th and Christian” by Ross Gay. Topics include: gratitude, single-scene poem, short line breaks, and figs in myth.
Transcribe →Show 050 "Autobiographical: Another Draft" by Jacqueline Osherow
Nov 18, 201901:03:55Tap to summarizeFor their 50th show, Danielle goes big with a long, long, powerful poem by Jacqueline Osherow. Topics include: terza rima, formalism, Willa Cather, interruptive syntax, and your present self admonishing your past self.
Transcribe →Show 049 "Yours" by Mary Robison
Nov 4, 201900:59:18Tap to summarizeOwing to a house-wide plague, we are forced to pull a show from our reject pile. Please join us as we deviate from poetry to flash fiction with Mary Robison's "Yours" and as we go on way too long about personal ghost stories. Topics include: Halloween, fall, mortality, May/December romances, and failing to keep your atheist cred while discussing the supernatural.
Transcribe →Show 048 "Photo of a Girl, 1988: Cyborg" by Faylita Hicks
Oct 21, 201900:58:15Tap to summarizeWe discuss the poem "Photo of a Girl, 1988: Cyborg" from Faylita Hicks's debut collection Hoodwitch. Topics include: the mother figure in literature, enjambment, end-stopped lines, Afrofuturism, and the ampersand.
Transcribe →Show 047 "A Wonderful Bird is the Pelican" by Dixon Lanier Merritt
Oct 7, 201901:01:46Tap to summarizeWe tackle the limerick form with poetry scholar Mike Chasar as he leads a deep dive into two versions of "A Wonderful Bird is the Pelican" by Dixon Lanier Merritt. Topics include: humorous poetry, "children's" literature, the pleasures of rhyme, and the 1913 Armory Show.
Transcribe →Show 046 "Things that Leave an Aching Feeling Inside" by Lee Ann Roripaugh
Sep 16, 201901:00:45Tap to summarizeDanielle introduces Max to the list poem form with Lee Ann Roripaugh's "Things that Leave an Aching Feeling Inside." Topics include: list form, The Pillow Book, the importance of poetry during the Heian period, and breaking your own heart.
Transcribe →Show 045 "Sensual Vocabulary" by Karyna McGlynn
Sep 2, 201901:02:00Tap to summarizeDanielle introduces Max to the concept of Ars Poetica with Karyna McGlynn's poem "Sensual Vocabulary." Topics include: Ars Poetica, Marianne Moore, September Women Poets, modernists, and George Washington as a school marm.
Transcribe →044 "Who Would I Show It To?" by Sally Ball
Aug 19, 201900:59:08Tap to summarizeAddressing a recent loss in her own life, Danielle shares with Max an elegy by Sally Ball that helped with her grieving. Topics include: elegies, suicide, stages of grief, Virginia Woolf, W.S. Merwin, and Dancer pose.
Transcribe →043 "The Immigrants (Winter Wear)" by Rane Arroyo
Aug 5, 201901:06:57Tap to summarizeWe have another guest in our creepy basement; the author Scott Nadelson! He shares Rane Arroyo's poem "The Immigrants (Winter Wear)" with us. Topics include: tercets, Wallace Stevens, and Santa tempting Jesus in the desert.
Transcribe →