Carlene Kucharczyk, "Strange Hymn: Poems" (U Mass Press, 2025)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: "Strange Hymn: Poems" with Carlene Kucharczyk

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Kavya Sarathi
Guest: Carlene Kucharczyk
Date: October 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode of New Books Network features poet Carlene Kucharczyk discussing her debut poetry collection, Strange Hymn (University of Massachusetts Press, 2025), winner of the Juniper Prize for a first book. Kucharczyk and host Kavya Sarathi delve into the origins of the collection, its thematic preoccupations with wonder, form, and literary influence, and the process of compiling and arranging a book of poems. Carlene also gives a live reading and reflects on her creative process, influences, and editorial decisions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Approach to "Strange Hymn"

• Genesis of the Book:
  • Most of the poems were written over several years, but “I had a lot of individual poems that I wasn’t necessarily thinking of as a book until later on.” (02:16)
  • The acknowledgment section was written last and surprisingly shaped some of the thematic thinking.
• Connection to Childhood Wonder:
  • The book is rooted in a childhood sense of wonder, referenced explicitly from the acknowledgments:
    • “I would swing and sing and think outside for hours. This is the place these poems come from.” (Acknowledgments, quoted 03:06)
  • “That sense of wonder and wonderment and... kind of thoughtfulness and singing... felt like where these poems come from.” (04:21)

2. Poetry and Truth: Autobiography vs. Persona

• Discusses the boundary (or lack thereof) between autobiography and invention in poetry:
  • “The thing I try to be allegiant to with my poems is language and the musicality of language and the lyricism.” (05:12)
  • “The poems in this book are more autobiographical... But that’s not to say... the voice is always exactly me or that there isn’t some kind of Persona Happening.” (06:25)
  • “That can be a sense of completion for the poem.” (06:02)

3. Title and Thematic Framing

• On the Book Title:
  • “Strange Hymn isn’t a phrase in the book. It’s not a title of any poem in there. But it felt like it was this encompassing what was going on in the book and this sense of singing that’s a theme throughout, but often in different ways.” (06:54)
  • “Like a hymn, but a little bit off. Like there’s that dissonance, like Strange Hymn." (07:23)

4. Ordering and Structure

• Chose not to divide the book into sections, instead setting the opening poem, “Church,” apart as a kind of preamble or invocation:
  • “That poem is kind of a prayer poem, and I wanted to evoke that with that poem as kind of an umbrella for the whole collection.” (07:58)
• On curating the collection:
  • Poems such as "Mary" and "Self Portrait Through Glass" (longer, hybrid pieces) brought cohesion.
  • “The collection didn’t really come together until I included them in it.” (10:00)
• Decision-making was highly intuitive:
  • “That collection came really, like, manually, like trial and error and putting this here and putting something else somewhere else... seeing what felt like it worked right.” (15:42)

5. Key Poems and Favorites

• Frequently featured in readings: “Church,” “On Beholding the Beloved’s Rotting Body,” and “The Sirens.” (09:10)
• “Church is so short that I have that memorized, too. It’s the only one in the book that I have memorized fully...” (09:46)
• “There was one poem, Ghosts, I took out after it was accepted for publication... just didn’t feel right in there.” (11:00)
• Favorites include “Church,” “On Beholding the Beloved’s Rotting Body,” the “Mary” piece, and “Self Portrait Through Glass” (“or maybe specific parts of that than as a whole”). (12:19 – 12:33)

6. Influence of Other Writers

• References to Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Rainer Maria Rilke, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Emily Dickinson surface throughout the collection.
  • “The American Romantics definitely... and Transcendentalism definitely influenced my thinking at the time of writing these poems. And also Emily Dickinson...” (13:12)
  • Some references are deeply personal, others included for the “particular line” rather than sustained importance: “Sometimes I almost felt like it was heading in a misdirection by the inclusion of someone who maybe wasn’t that important to me. But this particular line, I felt was really evocative by including that.” (14:26)

7. Space, Form, & The Page

• Intentional use of white space and non-traditional form to convey “a breath” and create participation for the reader:
  • “I like that there’s a lot of space there... it invites more participation from the reader, from the listener, than there would be otherwise. It’s kind of like a breath.” (17:19)
• Interest in exploring more spacious forms going forward, particularly influenced by how it changes reading aloud (18:21)

8. Page vs. Oral Tradition in Poetry

• Reflects on the difference between poetry designed for the page and the oral tradition:
  • “It’s interesting if you’re thinking of it like just what’s on the page or if that is how you’re thinking most people will encounter your work versus an oral tradition...” (19:01)

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Memorable Quotes & Highlights

• On Wonder and Origins:
  “That sense of wonder and wonderment... kind of thoughtfulness and singing... those things together at the same time felt like where these poems come from.”
  — Carlene Kucharczyk, (04:23)

• On Lyric Process and ‘Rightness’ in Poetry:
  “The thing I try to be allegiant to with my poems is language and the musicality of language and the lyricism... that can be a sense of completion for the poem.”
  — Carlene Kucharczyk, (05:12)

• On Referenced Writers:
  “The American Romantics definitely... and Transcendentalism definitely influenced my thinking at the time of writing these poems.”
  — Carlene Kucharczyk, (13:12)

• On the Importance of Reading Aloud:
  “I love when people are able to recite their poems or other people’s poems as well, because it brings something really different to it, a different energy and kind of be more alive in the spontaneity.”
  — Carlene Kucharczyk, (09:46)

• On the Use of Space:
  “It invites more participation from the reader, from the listener... It’s kind of like a breath. You’re not trying to fill in all the space... it just kind of allows a spaciousness there.”
  — Carlene Kucharczyk, (17:19–18:17)

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Notable Segment Timestamps

• Introduction to the Poet and Book’s Origin: 01:35 – 02:57
• Discussion of Childhood Wonder & Acknowledgments: 03:05 – 04:32
• Fiction vs. Nonfiction in Poetry: 04:55 – 06:46
• Title and Thematic Breadth: 06:46 – 07:40
• Arranging the Collection & Poem Selection: 07:40 – 11:00
• Influences & Referencing Other Poets: 12:39 – 14:48
• On Space, Order, and Editorial Choices: 15:42 – 18:17
• Page vs. Oral Considerations: 19:01 – 19:25
• Poetry Reading ("On Beholding the Beloved’s Rotting Body”): 19:42 – 20:57

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Live Poetry Reading

At [19:42], Carlene Kucharczyk reads from her poem “On Beholding the Beloved’s Rotting Body,” blending humor and philosophical musing about literary figures and memory.
Notable excerpt:

“I think it is beautiful that Emerson dug his wife out of the grave a year and two months after she died just to see how she was making out. Perhaps I would have liked to marry Emerson. ...I do not really like beards anyway.... I am always thinking of Thoreau. But back to Emerson’s wife. Maybe he thought she was caught somewhere between the skeleton and the soul.”
— Carlene Kucharczyk, live reading (19:47 – 20:57)

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Final Thoughts

This episode provides an intimate, candid look into the making of Strange Hymn, balancing craft talk with personal reflection. Kucharczyk’s openness about her process, influences, and decisions offers valuable insight for poetry readers and writers alike. The episode’s tone is thoughtful, occasionally wry, shaped by the poet's precise attention to language and form.

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Transcript

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[Kavya Sarathi]

Hello and welcome to New Books Network. I'm Kavya Sarathi, marketing intern at the University of Massachusetts Press, and I'm thrilled to be joined today by Carlene Kucharczyk, author of Strange, her debut poetry collection. Her writing has appeared in literary journals such as Poetry Northwest, Mid American Review, Tupilo Quarterly, Green Mountains Review, and Conduit, and has received a Pushcart nomination. Carlene, thank you so much for being here with me today.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Of course. Why don't we start by having you tell everyone a little bit about your book, what it's about and how it came to be.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah. Thank you. Strange Hymn. It's my first book, and it was published in April 2025 this past April from the University of Massachusetts Press. And it was the winner of their Juniper Prize for a first book. And I had been working on it for a long time before that, but had a lot of individual poems that I wasn't necessarily thinking of as a book until later on. And that was kind of the first part of the origin story of it.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Yeah. That's awesome. I noticed that there's bits that have been out there, and it's great to have this all come together like this.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah.

[Kavya Sarathi]

I want to jump to the acknowledgement section of this collection, actually, on page 76, you wrote, I would swing and sing and think outside for hours. This is the place these poems come from. Did you find that you returned a lot to that place, mentally, to write these pieces?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Thanks for bringing the end into the beginning of it like that. That's kind of an interesting way to think of it. I thought of that afterward. The acknowledgments or the gratitude section was the part that was the fresh with the book. Because most of the poems had been written and polished some time ago, years ago. And the acknowledgments section was totally new and had to, you know, I hadn't drafted it or hadn't really thought of it before in great detail. And that sentence came when I thought of that place. And I guess what I'm speaking to there is that sense of wonder that I would really spend hours in and do that all day if I could as a kid. That sense of wonder and wonderment and.

That.

Kind of thoughtfulness and singing and those things together at the same time felt like where these poems come from.

And maybe kind of an adult or.

A more mature version of that space I was in as a child. So that was fun to think about. And just came out of having to think about the acknowledgement section and kind of creatively think of it on that vein.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Actually, I wanted to ask how much of this collection draws from your personal experience and how much is more fictionalized to get to a certain feeling? Do you believe that when it comes to poetry, that there even is a marked distinction between nonfiction and fiction?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah, it's a really good question. I think that definitely depends on the poet. And there are so many different philosophies of poetry. And even within one writer or one book, too. And the thing I try to be allegiant to with my poems is language and the musicality of language and the lyricism. And a big part of my process is reading the poems out loud. And that kind of shows me if something is off. So I feel like that's the sense of truth or rightness with a capital R. But not in any kind of moral sense, but having rightness to it. And when nothing's feeling off, that can be a sense of completion for the poem. But, yeah, I think the poems in this book are more autobiographical than other poems I have and maybe later poems. But for some reason, what came together for this does feel truer. But that's not to say that, you know, the. The voice is always exactly me or that there isn't some kind of Persona Happening or. Or something other, too.

[Kavya Sarathi]

How did you come to the title? It's titled Strange Hand. What is that significance to you?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

So Strange Hymn isn't a phrase in the book.

It's not a title of any poem in there. But it felt like it was this encompassing what was going on in the book and this sense of singing that's a theme throughout, but often in different ways. And again, when I came to it.

I just had this sense of rightness for the collection.

Like a hymn, but a little bit off. Like there's that dissonance, like Strange Hymn. So, yeah, it felt like it was telling of what's in the collection, what's to come.

[Kavya Sarathi]

We can start going into the collection. Actually, I have a question about the very first poem. It's titled Church, and it's separated almost to be like a preamble. So I'm wondering why you chose that placement, and why did you think it was important to open with that poem?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah, the book isn't divided into sections the way a lot of books are, and I did want that to be set apart. That poem is kind of a prayer poem, and I wanted to evoke that with that poem as kind of an umbrella for the whole collection. That feels like a piece that's aspirational.

For me in my writing and something.

I would want to work toward or write more poems that are in that style or in that spirit going forward or. There's a lot of space on the page within that poem and kind of giving it a breath.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Yeah. I was really struck when I first read it. It's a wonderful book overall, but that really drew me in that first poem. Great piece. Yeah.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Thank you.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Are there any other specific poems that you feel like really drove this collection? And, you know, maybe. Were there any poems that you wrote that you. That didn't make the cut? And do you have any. Any favorites?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah. So I've been starting most of the readings.

I've been doing, maybe all of them, actually, by reading Church and then reading.

On Beholding the Beloved's Rotting Body, the.

Second poem that comes right after it. And then often I'm reading the third one, the Sirens, and then it feels.

Like those three setting it up that way show the range of the book.

And different styles it contains and are.

Kind of each doing different things.

But I'm almost always reading those first two. And Church is so short that I have that memorized, too. It's the only one in the book that I have memorized fully, so I can recite it, which is always nice. I love when people are able to recite their poems or other people's poems as well, because it brings something really different to it, a different energy and kind of be more alive in the spontaneity. So I like to be able to do that with at least that one.

But.

There are certain poems I knew.

I wanted to be in this collection, and those are two of them.

And the collection didn't really come together until I was thinking of Mary and.

Self Portrait Through Glass, two of the.

Longer kind of more experimental pieces in the book that I actually wasn't thinking of as poems. Poetic, yes, but more lyric essay or hybrid poetry and lyric essay for Self Portrait Through Glass. But the collection didn't really come together until I included them in it.

There was one poem, Ghosts, I took.

Out after it was accepted for publication, and there wasn't any reason other than it just didn't feel right in there. I didn't feel like I wanted it, but there wasn't a reason besides that.

That I got left out.

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[Carlene Kucharczyk]

I like Church and I like On Beholding the Beloved's Rotting Body.

The Mary piece was very fun to write.

And then Self Portrait Through Glass too.

Or more maybe specific parts of that than as a whole.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Yeah, actually speaking of on Beholding the beloved's rotting body, I noticed you name dropped a couple of wonderful poets and I was wondering, you reference a lot of great poets in your work. You reference Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, Maria Rilke, Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, whether by name or you pull from certain pieces that they've written. And I wanted to ask what kind of influence have these poets had on your work and why did you choose to include them by name?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah, the American Romantics definitely in being kind of immersed in them and reading them a lot. And Transcendentalism definitely influenced my thinking at the time of writing these poems. And also Emily Dickinson or she's part of that.

But Self Portrait Through Glass especially, which.

Has a lot of voices and quotes a lot from other writers and in italics, too. And then at the end, I say the authors, who they are in that one. So it's more intertwined in the work than some of the epigraphs in other spots. So there are different ways they're used throughout the book. But like you said, sometimes it's more direct, sometimes it's less direct. But it felt like this conversation with literature overall. And the writers I had read then are really different than the writers I've read since writing this book, too. So it would be different people. Sometimes I almost felt like it was heading in a misdirection by the inclusion of someone who maybe wasn't that important to me. But this particular line, I felt was really evocative by including that. But I think it's also not a reason not to do it either.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Yeah. Is there anyone specific you're thinking of?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

I don't know. I'm thinking of the Glass Houses line and Self Portrait through Blas.

[Kavya Sarathi]

That is, too. I wanted to go back to. I know you mentioned Church. You play with the space on the page, and I had a question about that. So there's a very interesting relationship between the way you work with space, between the words, between the lines. You work with time jumping back into younger memories. You change up the subject. Sometimes it's yourself. Sometimes you take on myths and fairy tales and other entities. So could you talk to us about the order of the collection and the choices that were made behind the different ways that you worked with these items?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

That collection came really, like, manually, like trial and error and putting this here and putting something else somewhere else, and then, you know, feeling not quite right about it the next time I sent it out. So I used each time I would submit it as, you know, another chance to look at it. Though sometimes it remained the same as well, but as a way of including, like, what felt right. And I did print it out, too, but it was mostly digital, this arranging and rearranging, which is at a smaller level with an individual poem, too, or even a line or a sentence, that rearranging. So it was like doing that on a large scale and just seeing what felt like it worked right, or what went into the next one, or looking for different themes or some kind of thread or connection, a type of weaving between the Poems like, maybe this one has to do with family, and this next one does too. And let's see how those interact being right next to each other.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Yeah.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

I feel there was another part of your question that I missed.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Maybe. Oh, yeah. Could you take us through the choices of maybe? Let's just start with the way that you left space on the page or in between the lines. Yeah.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

So one reason I say Church is the first poem that acts as an opener. And I love the ornament that UMass Press put into and the page after. I was, like, really thrilled to see that. And I like that there's a lot of space there. I feel like we like. I really appreciate that when I encounter that in poetry and just feeling like it's not too much or maybe it invites more participation from the reader, from the listener, than there would be otherwise. It's kind of like a breath. You're not trying to fill in all the space or fill the equivalent fill in every second. It just kind of allows a spaciousness there. So it's something I like to encounter.

And am definitely interested in writing more.

Poems with that kind of space in it. I often read that poem really slowly, too, to responding to that space on the page.

[Kavya Sarathi]

That's wonderful. I was super fascinated by just the way that poetry now is read and written, the way that we can play with italics and parentheses and line breaks and gaps. And it's very interesting because it introduces a whole different aspect to poetry in a way that, you know, you don't get with spoken poetry. And actually. Sorry, yeah. Do you have thoughts on that?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

I mean, it's interesting if you're thinking of it like just what's on the page or if that is how you're thinking most people will encounter your work versus an oral tradition, or that it'll mostly be heard because you can make choices in either direction.

[Kavya Sarathi]

That note, I would actually like to go back to the origins of poetry, and I think it would be a treat if listeners were able to hear you read a poem of your choice. Do you have anything prepared that you'd like to read for us?

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to read the second one.

[Kavya Sarathi]

Wonderful.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

The Beloved's rotting body. I think it is beautiful that Emerson dug his wife out of the grave a year and two months after she died just to see how she was making out. Perhaps I would have liked to marry Emerson. This is not the first time I have thought about this. I think I would do well with a staunch moralist type. Unless, of course, I disagreed, which I likely often would. I do not really like beards anyway. But now I am looking at a picture of Emerson and it seems he had less of a beard and more of just weird facial hair. I do not know what this particular type is called. I do not like it either. Perhaps I was thinking of Thoreau. I am always thinking of Thoreau. But back to Emerson's wife. Maybe he thought she was caught somewhere between the skeleton and the soul. She was only 20 years old. Who knows. I would not mind. Find it all out digitized by Google if you have to much.

[Kavya Sarathi]

What a wonderful reading. Thank you for your time. That's a beautiful piece. I love this tone in that and I'm sure listeners really would enjoy that as well. For being here.

[Carlene Kucharczyk]

Yeah, it was talking to you. Thank you. Kaavya.