New Books Network: Yvonne Blomer, "Death of Persephone: A Murder" (Caitlin Press, 2024)

Date: November 27, 2025
Host: Holly Gattery
Guest: Yvonne Blomer

Episode Overview

In this thoughtful and layered episode, host Holly Gattery interviews acclaimed poet Yvonne Blomer about her latest work, Death of Persephone: A Murder, published by Caitlin Press in 2024. The conversation dives into Blomer’s feminist retelling of the Persephone myth, blending poetry, play, and murder mystery into a form-defying collection. The discussion explores mythology’s lasting imprint on contemporary gender violence, the blending of narrative forms, the expression of female rage, and the power of voice and playfulness in even the darkest of art.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins and Inspirations of the Book

• Mythology as Framework: Blomer, with a background in anthropology, is drawn to how mythologies explain the world—and how those old frameworks fail to serve us today.
  • “How mythology came into being to help us understand the world we're living in and how it's now no longer doing that.” (06:03, Yvonne)
• Setting and Concept: The inspiration to transpose Persephone’s story into Montreal’s underground metro system was sparked by a visit years ago.
  • Climate change, environmental concerns, and feminism converge as major themes.

2. Form and Structure: Poetry, Play, and Mystery

• Blomer’s book defies easy categorization: part poetry collection, part play, part script, organically combining diverse forms into a coherent whole.
  • Grounding the Reader: She created a dramatis personae to orient readers to the dual mythological and murder-mystery worlds.
    • “I wanted to make it clear right from the start that you will have these mythological... [and] rewrite... murder mystery... characters.” (07:33, Yvonne)

3. Faithful Subversion: Honoring and Retooling Myth

• Holding Archetypes, Changing Fates: Blomer retains mythic archetypes but offers flexibility, notably making Persephone younger and releasing her from hypersexualization, while holding Hades accountable for abduction.
  • “I released Persephone from being a hypersexualized queen of the underworld. I held Hades accountable for kidnapping a young girl.” (09:30, Yvonne)
• The project subverts old lessons with contemporary critique, centering female perspective rather than reinforcing patriarchal interpretations.

4. The Ever-present Threat: Lived Experience and Representation

• The narrative adeptly captures the constant, ambient threat to women’s safety, both mythically and in modern life.
  • The blend of personal experience with fictionalized character (Stephanie as Persephone) brings authenticity.
  • “As a mother of two young girls, even just seeing the way grown men look at them... it's beyond unsettling. It actually enrages me.” (15:05, Holly)
• Blomer shares that some poems channel personal episodes of being followed, grounding the poetry in real-world fears.

5. Naming and Power Dynamics: “Uncle H”

• Persephone refers to Hades as “Uncle H,” emphasizing the disturbing family dynamics in the myth and its relevance to cycles of abuse.
  • “In this myth, Persephone is... daughter of Zeus... her uncle and he kidnaps and rapes her. So there is that in the myth. And so I wanted to carry that forward and keep acknowledging the family relationships.” (15:42, Yvonne)

6. Reading: “Landscape of Dream” (16:12)

[Poem Excerpt Read by Yvonne at 16:12]

• A haunting, dreamlike portrayal of Stephanie/Persephone watched by “Uncle H,” suffused with threat. Holly describes it as a “nightmare lullaby”:
  • “These stories that we're told as children that are supposed to bring us comfort, but actually push us outside of ourselves and our bodies and make us feel scared and afraid and alone...” (18:00, Holly)

7. Blending Voices and Genre: Integrating Mystery and Myth

• Detective “di Bocca”: Blomer wanted a murder mystery framework and a hard-boiled detective character, providing “male characters who were not misogynist.”
  • She read extensively about novel structure to interweave the parallel arcs of Stephanie and the detective.
• Case Notes: 36 linked sonnets structure the detective’s investigation, providing a modern procedural counterpoint to the myth’s ancient violence.

8. Reading: “Case Notes di Bocca 22–23” (22:27)

[Poetry Segment Read by Yvonne at 22:27]

• Blomer weaves mythological symbolism (flowers, serpents) with the language of modern crime and pathology, infusing the ancient with urgent relevance:
  • “Sam like he branded her. Boca like Czech child sex slaves were. But no marks of sexual assault... Some male group of maybe incels — Hades: irascible men who think they can do whatever.” (24:24, Yvonne)

9. Rage and Power: The Force of Female Anger

• Holly praises the way female rage in Blomer’s poems is “polished,” focused, and powerful, rather than devalued as senseless or “shrill.”
  • “I feel like female rage... sharpens me and it empowers me because my rage isn’t set to be violent... And in your book, I felt like there was a lot of rage, but... it was so polished.” (26:28, Holly)
• Blomer reflects:
  • “When we deepen into [our intelligence] and are clear minded, I hope that we are clear spoken... Sometimes your voice shakes or you tear up because you're so enraged and so fed up. And I think there's power there too.” (28:07, Yvonne)
  • The idea that rage, “buried and under pressure,” becomes “diamond clear” (28:58, Holly).

10. The Role of Play and Humor

• Despite dark materials, playfulness and humor—especially from Stephanie/Persephone’s resilient character and the creative use of graffiti slang—provide both relief and edge.
  • “I had so much fun with like puns... I really dug into the language, the myth, those—That serpent and paper white thing is everywhere throughout the book and it's part of Hades and Persephone’s original myth.” (25:31, Yvonne)

11. The Inevitability of Fate

• On why she doesn’t spare Stephanie/Persephone:
  • “Ultimately, she's trapped in the myth... to really see what Hades had done, she needed to die... It was as if that part of it I couldn’t quite get free of.” (34:34, Yvonne)
• Holly agrees, noting the “authentic, depressingly authentic” truth:
  • “That's what happens to girls and women. And you can hope a thousand times that it doesn't. But... it's happening all the time.” (35:56, Holly)

12. Looking Ahead: Future Projects

• Blomer shares she is working on poems about clothing, feminism, and the environmental toll of fast fashion—linking shifts in women's lives with changing fabrics, from plant-based to petroleum-derived.
  • “It sounds really huge, but that's what I’m working on.” (36:22, Yvonne)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mythology’s Relevance:
  • “If we're using these myths to understand the world we live in, we need to change the myths so that we can better be better, I guess.” (12:23, Yvonne)
• On Naming Hades:
  • “I called [him] Uncle H instead of Hades, partly because she was little and he would have told her to call him that, but also there's this family dynamic.” (15:42, Yvonne)
• On Female Rage:
  • “If you put your weight on your heels and let your voice deepen into your core self... there’s power there.” (30:11, Yvonne)
• On Play:
  • “...Even with so dark a book, but I really did. I really like dug into the language, the myth, those. That serpent and paper white thing is everywhere throughout the book.” (25:31, Yvonne)
• On Fate:
  • “In order to really see what Hades had done, she needed to die... it was as if that part of it I couldn’t quite get free of.” (34:34, Yvonne)

Key Timestamps

• 02:02 – Introduction, Yvonne’s background
• 05:31 – Origin story of the book
• 07:33 – Dramatis personae, genre blending
• 09:30 – On balancing respect for and subversion of myth
• 13:00 – Representation and lived female experience
• 15:42 – Why call Hades “Uncle H” and its family implications
• 16:12 – Reading: “Landscape of Dream”
• 18:58 – Detective and mystery framework
• 22:27 – Reading: “Case Notes di Bocca” (22 & 23)
• 26:28 – Discussion: Polished rage and its importance
• 30:11 – The power of deep, core-rooted voice and emotion
• 32:23 – Using play and humor in a dark narrative
• 34:34 – Why Stephanie/Persephone must die
• 36:22 – Next project: Poetry on clothing and environmental feminism

Episode Style & Tone

The conversation is candid, intelligent, sometimes raw in its emotion, but often playful despite the heaviness of the subject. Both host and guest speak with urgency—uncovering uncomfortable truths, celebrating rage as clarity, and championing the importance of reinventing myth to reflect women’s lived realities.

For listeners seeking a powerful, poetic, and thoroughly modern retelling of an ancient myth, with all the complexities of rage, resilience, danger, humor, and voice, this episode is essential.