Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast
James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.
Episodes
The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Read a bit more about Spencer Williams's Tranz, including from the poem "Laramie" in the book, here.
The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Check out Toni Morrison's 1987 eulogy for James Baldwin in the New York Times.
The Breaking Form broads recount their poetic travels abroad in this Season 3 opener.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
The David Hockney retrospective in Paris is on view until August 31. For more about his painting "Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy,&q...
The queens boil down the essence of some favorite poems and poets in this game that decides what poetry is *really* about.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Read the NY Times review of Michael Schmidt's The Lives of the Poets
If you're looking to submit, the queens have some advice for you!
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Check out On the Seawall: a community gallery of new writing, art and commentary hosted by poet Ron Slate.
Here's some great advice about submitt...
The ladies ask AI to write poems about Brad Pitt's butt. It’s not so bad Brad, sad Brad, is it?
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Aaron's "Brad Pitt" appeared in his first book, Blue on Blue Ground. Read the poem here.
The queens discuss and revise a recent list of "best poetry," adding other tops (& bottoms & verses & sides, you get the point, miss thing).
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
The queens dish this year’s AWP Conference!
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
Notes:
The Association of Writers and Writing Programs can be found online at www.awpwriter.org
Marcela Fuentes is the author of the award-winning novel Malas and you can find her online at h...
Get in, gurl, we're reading poetry at your unfriendly neighborhood leather bar.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Learn more about Tom of Finland, the artist name of Finnish Touko Laaksonen who signed his erotic work "Tom."
Follow mes...
The queens super-gay it up with Stephanie Burt, the editor of the new poetry anthology, SUPER GAY POEMS.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Check out SUPER GAY POEMS: LGBTQIA+ Poetry after Stonewall, edited by Stephanie Burt, out on April 1, 2025.
We're talking resistance, joy, and queer communities with Brenda Shaughnessy!
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Click here for Brenda’s Queer Resistance Playlist 2025 (Spotify).
Check out Brenda's poem "Panopticon" from Interior with Sudden...
The queens get to the poetic essence with the help of erasure and re-envisioning.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
The Nicole Sealey poem we read at the end of the episode comes from the first four pages of her book The Ferguson Report: An Erasure
W...
Join the thirsty queens for a gin & Sextonic, in this tribute to the iconic work of Anne Sexton.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
NOTES:
Click here for a pdf from the Poetry Society that includes a folio of essays about Sexton's life and work by David...
The queens talk with gay literary icon Edmund White about his new book, The Loves of My Life: A Sex Memoir. (Miguel Murphy joins in the fun, too!)
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
Miguel's SHORE DITCH is available from Barrow Stree...
The queens prove that it's not the size of the ship but the motion etc etc in this episode devoted to short poems.
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Pretty Please with Aaron's cherry on top..... Buy our books:
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
Poems we menti...
Get out your UV lights & swabs--the queens play a game that fuses poems, then guess the poetic DNA samples. Then we spark up a fusion of a different strain!
Please Support Breaking Form!
Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.
Pretty Please.....Buy our books:
Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.
SHO...
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