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
Touchstones part 1 hit so good, we decided to go another round!
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.
Poems mentioned in this episode:
Tomas Transtromer: "The Name" (translated by May Swenson with Leif Sjöberg)
Cornelius Eady: "My Heart" Eady als...
The queens play poetry matchmakers and nine months later, boom, there's a poetry baby!
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.
Robyn Schiff's most recent book is Information Desk: An Epic (Penguin Poets, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2024).
The gals talk foundational poems--and they might just surprise 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.
Quan Barry's "The 1986 Apple Super Bowl Commercial as Intervention" refers to this iconic 1984 Apple Computer commercial aired during the Super...
The library is open--to prose the queens find indispensable for poets!
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.
You can find John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason here.
Check out an excerpt in the NYT from Michael Schmidt Lives of the Poets.
Here's an NPR review o...
The queens put the "arch" in "archive" and rediscover some favorite poetry blasts from the past.
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.
Listen to a reading Scott Cohen gave with poet Tom Weatherly at St. Mark's Poetry Project in 1968. Read his ...
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...
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