Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Margo LaPierre, "Ajar" (Guernica Editions, 2025)

Date: February 1, 2026
Host: Holly Gattery
Guest: Margo LaPierre

Episode Overview

This episode features poet and editor Margo LaPierre discussing her second poetry collection, "Ajar," published by Guernica Editions. Host Holly Gattery explores with Margo the collection's themes of womanhood, mood disorders, psychosis, bisexuality, fertility, motherhood, and the craft of poetry. The conversation is candid, deeply personal, and often playful, focusing on literary technique as well as lived experience.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of "Ajar": Disclosure and Stigma

• [03:48] Margo reveals that "Ajar" picks up where her last collection left off, this time directly addressing her experiences with bipolar disorder and the decision to be publicly open about it, moving from silence to advocacy.
  • Quote: “This is the book that came out of that, that said, I’m going to address this directly this time.” – Margo LaPierre

2. On Titles: From "Moon Ajar" to "Ajar"

• [06:04] Discussion about the evolution of the collection’s title: “Ajar” signals openness and tilt, resonating with both mental illness and the book’s central metaphors.
  • Quote: "To me, the idea of being ajar was both being open, like open to a different reality... but also tilted. The word comes from the Celtic, the Gaelic for turn or tilt. ... What a great word, ajar, for a mental illness." – Margo LaPierre

3. Style: The Balance of Lushness and Precision

• [09:18] The craft of poetic style, including revision, paring back, and the process of stacking and interrogating metaphors.

  • Quote: "That precision is something that I have to work really, really hard at in my prose, as in my poetry... I learned most about my style through what needs to be stripped away and through revision." – Margo LaPierre

• [11:59] On the writing process:

  • Quote: "I call it the, like, the lube of writing. Like, you need it to get the writing on the page." – Margo LaPierre

4. Process and Reading Habits

• [12:08] Both discuss their fragmented writing habits and their daily engagement with poetry as sporadic, spontaneous, and joy-filled.

5. Performance: Reading from "Ajar"

• [13:10] Margo reads a cento (“Sento for Pyrokinesis”), illustrating her creative process of curating and arranging lines from other poets.
• Sample lines:

  "What is real is taking the unreal / what’s to come / Exhaust, smog like doubts upon the world..."

6. Bisexuality and Suicide

• [15:50] Margo presents statistical and personal insights about the higher rates of suicide in bisexual populations, emphasizing the dangers of shame and hiddenness.
  • Quote: "When we hide things, it is easier for there to be shame. And hiding certainly leads to a greater likelihood to die by suicide." – Margo LaPierre

7. Mental Illness, Poetry, and Double Realities

• [19:19] Discussing how poetry—particularly slanted, nonliteral approaches—can capture the nuances of psychosis and mental illness better than other genres.

  • Quote: "Psychosis and the agreed upon state of reality are completely capable of living side by side... two different sorts of reality can coexist at once." – Margo LaPierre

• [23:48] Margo reads her poem “God is a new anchor Dipped into the sea,” written from the perspective of a “new anchor”/news anchor as God—born from a typo, reflecting exuberance, self-sabotage, and existential uncertainty.

  • Quote from the poem: "A God is a dipped thing but the bottom rang my bones / I saw shapes in my pain tethered to cloud / it need not be a straight course..."

8. Fertility, Motherhood, and Changes in the Collection

• [25:12] Margo discusses how real-time infertility struggles and eventual pregnancy altered the manuscript of "Ajar," including an added line nodding to her daughter.

  • Quote: "I spent a whole fall season… with the manuscript taped on my kitchen wall.... I have a nod to my daughter in there. And that line was, ‘your name is a hand I want to hold.’" – Margo LaPierre

• [29:52] On writing honestly about motherhood and mental illness, and fears about social repercussions:

  • Quote: "This feels like a dangerous text for me… as, you know, all of history, people have been using mental illness against parents..." – Margo LaPierre

• Holly shares her own experiences of stigma as a mother living with mental illness, affirming the importance of openness in literature and parenting.

9. The “Dangerous Text”: Ownership and Power

• Both reflect on how literature can reclaim power for marginalized mothers, queer women, and neurodivergent individuals, providing needed counter-narrative to societal binary thinking.

10. Earthiness and Authenticity

• [32:58] Holly describes Margo’s work as a vibrant earthy bouquet with darkness, authenticity, and real substance. The pair joke about the “vomit smell” contained in the poems.

11. On the Book Cover

• [33:33] Margo describes finding the cover art, an oil painting by artist Nithya Swaminathan featuring a grapefruit, and the joy of being able to choose her own cover.

  • Quote: "I got to pick my own cover, which doesn’t always happen. I just, I love how well it matches the book inside." – Margo LaPierre

• A sidebar on book design: yellow spines sell best! (Margo's, by choice, enjoys a yellow spine.)

12. Current and Future Projects

• [37:29] Margo describes balancing motherhood, freelance editing, and two new projects:
  • A novel about madness and suicidality titled Lucid Mechanics
  • A short story collection, working title Lost Socks, where each story is inspired by an article of clothing.

13. Poets and Multi-Genre Experimentation

• [39:30] They speculate why poets are more likely to dabble in other genres: poets’ relationship with brevity, form, and adaptive play.

  • Quote: "We write a poem and we can experiment with a new form the next day. ... Maybe we just have more surface area." – Margo LaPierre

• Holly affirms the playful spirit and cross-pollination evident among poets, encouraging novelists to “write a poem” and readers to experience the electricity of Margo’s poetry.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “To me, the idea of being ajar was both being open, like open to a different reality... but also tilted.” — Margo LaPierre [06:04]

• “I call it the, like, the lube of writing… you need it to get the writing on the page.” — Margo LaPierre [11:59]

• “When we hide things, it is easier for there to be shame.” — Margo LaPierre [15:50]

• “Psychosis... [and] the agreed upon state of reality are completely capable of living side by side.” — Margo LaPierre [19:19]

• “[Ajar] allows for women, specifically queer women, neurodivergent women who live with psychosis, other mental illnesses, to be all of these things at once and move beyond this binary, which I find just terribly suffocating.” — Holly Gattery [28:25]

• “Your name is a hand I want to hold.” — Margo LaPierre, on adding a dedication to her daughter [28:25]

• “I got the proofs actually when I was in labor... So they kind of have the same birthday. The book and the baby.” — Margo LaPierre [26:20]

Timestamps of Key Segments

• Origins of "Ajar": [03:48]
• Title discussion ("Ajar" & "Moon Ajar"): [06:04]
• On poetic style & revision: [09:18]
• Writing process, fragmentation: [12:08]
• Reading: Cento Poem: [13:10]
• Bisexuality & suicide risk: [15:50]
• Capturing psychosis in poetry: [19:19]
• Reading: “God is a new anchor…”: [23:48]
• Motherhood, fertility, and revision: [25:12]
• Book cover art & design: [33:33]
• Current writing projects: [37:29]
• Poets as multi-genre writers: [39:30]

Final Thoughts

The episode offers a candid exploration of how poetry can be a space for radical truth-telling and complexity. "Ajar" is presented as a work that grants permission for openness, fluidity, and self-acceptance, especially for those living at the intersection of queerness, mental illness, and motherhood. Margo LaPierre and Holly Gattery’s conversation is a warm, earthy, and electric testament to the power and necessity of honest art.