Many people openly hate reading poems. As with those who declare they can’t bear listening to podcasts, we could ask whether they simply haven’t stumbled across the right one yet. According to Podcast Index, there are currently over four million published podcasts. I won’t try to put a figure on the number of poems that have ever been written, mostly because of the indefinable nature of the form itself. Is a song a poem? Can a text message be a poem? What about the scrawl in the bathroom stall of your local bar? The boundaries of poetry are fluid, much like those of podcasting.
But it requires a certain type of vision to take a piece of art, especially one that relies so heavily on its written structure to convey meaning, and turn it into an exclusively audible experience. The general dislike, even fear, of poetry, combined with the difficulty of adapting it for the ear, might account for why there are far fewer podcasts about poetry than there are about fiction. You would think the myriad of shows featuring interviews with novelists and the reading of short stories would make their overall standard higher: the good ones must try harder to keep a fickle audience interested. Instead, the genre is filled with half-hearted interviews, bad audio quality, and tired formats. Poetry podcasting is where the innovation exists.
Each podcast on this list pushes the edge of convention, rethinking clichés and creating an expansive listening experience as a result. It is an essential aspect of poetry that we dwell on the rhythm and imagery of the language, not being distracted by rattling microphones or boring lines of questioning. This list is comprised of the shows that allowed me to hear the emotion behind their words. Here are the nine best poetry podcasts.
In his book The Hatred of Poetry, the poet and novelist Ben Lerner writes, “And when you are foolish enough to identify yourself as a poet, your interlocutors will often ask: A published poet? And when you tell them that you are, indeed, a published poet, they seem at least vaguely impressed.” The need for legitimization in the sphere of poetry might explain why all the speakers who appear on Poem Talk are aggressively qualified. Often the requirements placed on podcast guests are limited to their social media followings or their proximity to a large, metropolitan city. But the guests on Poem Talk, a production of the Poetry Foundation, list their awards and residencies, not their Twitter stats. The soft, assured tone of their discussion is bolstered by their credentials. Rarely is a sentence misplaced, a comment overwrought.
Hosted by the faculty director of the Kelly Writers House, Al Filreis, Poem Talk is a roundtable of the sort familiar to those privileged enough to attend university seminars. One could argue that the show, with the sincerity of its seriousness, reinforces the airs of inaccessibility around poetry as an art form. Yet Filreis anchors the discussion in a warmth that steers the intellectualism away from alienation and towards friendliness. The show doesn’t doubt the intelligence of the listener. Rather, it opens up language and metaphor in a nuanced way, adding genuine value to the poems discussed. The poets featured on the show are various yet canonical: from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, to Kathy Acker and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge. They cover celebrated classics and forgotten pieces, rekindling a curiosity around poetry that the listener may have let go of since leaving college. Poem Talk’s intention may not be to cause a spike in applications to literature grad programs, but I’d put money on it being an accidental consequence.
Hosted by the award-winning poet Major Jackson, The Slowdown is an innovation in an oversaturated genre. The episodes rarely extend beyond the five-minute mark, making them an inviting cup of tea rather than a full meal. Created and produced by a team that is comprised entirely of women and mostly people of color, the podcast’s perspective departs from the Western canon; global, contemporary poets feature as frequently as the usual suspects. Jackson provides a brief but thoughtful introduction to each poem, taking the show from soothing sound bite to provocative pause. And yet the steadiness of his voice sometimes guides me into such a state of meditation that I’ve often awoken from my thoughts to realize I’ve missed the poem entirely. Fortunately, the episodes are concise. I simply play them back from the beginning to enjoy them all over again.
The gentleness of the podcast’s tone and the sweetness of its soundtrack should not fool the listener into believing the poems Jackson recites are without grit. Like all good pieces of art, they challenge despite their beauty. With over seven hundred episodes, the show is a fantastic resource, and a true break from the cacophony of life.
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It’s little wonder that Poetry Off the Shelf is in a list of the best poetry podcasts. Producer Helena de Groot is also one of the minds behind the Paris Review’s podcast, giving her two platforms with which to perfect the format. Since 2017, De Groot has hosted Poetry Off the Shelf, a podcast dedicated to the diverse world of contemporary poetry. Its tone is astute and intellectual, but De Groot also imbues a sense of mystery into her show, mixing interviews and anthology reviews with “poetry documentaries.”
Other highlights of this poetry podcast can be found in its niche episodes: Have you ever heard a poem you can touch? How about only poems that are like prose? De Groot’s show is a masterstroke of the genre, a poetry podcast where everything is important, but, as the host states herself, never taken too seriously.
I seldom find it appropriate to note my credentials when reviewing a podcast, but as a PhD student specializing in poetics, I consider A Mouthful of Air to be on par with any college lecture I’ve attended. Hosted by poet Mark McGuinness, A Mouthful of Air contextualizes and analyzes classic poetry with rigor and dynamism. Not only does the show present a fresh take on poets like D.H Lawrence and Emily Dickinson, but it also invites contemporary poets to read their own work. McGuinness is a natural reader, articulating better than most professional voice actors. “How on earth is this free?” I found myself asking halfway through McGuinness’s analysis of “Troilus and Criseyde” by Geoffrey Chaucer. It’s hard to overstate just how good this show is. Discussions of poetry can often feel flat and impenetrable, yet A Mouthful of Air refuses to let words die on the page.
Shakespeare and Company: Writers, Books and Paris
Though the renowned Shakespeare and Company bookstore has been a celebrated literary hub since the fifties, its podcast is less recognized. Likely the most popular English-language bookshop in all of France, the original Shakespeare and Company opened in 1919 and quickly became a meeting point for modernist writers including Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce. The bookstore later relocated to its current site across the Seine from Notre Dame, and every episode of its namesake podcast is recorded live on location, lending a genuine ambience to the crackling audio.
The show features a variety of writers, not just poets, but Sundays are dedicated to poetry. One of the wonderful things about podcasting is that it can transport you to places we can’t visit in person; the Shakespeare and Company podcast allows you to step inside their walls without stepping out your front door. Recent conversations with poets have included Mark Polizzotti, Ben Lerner, and Nick Laird. So whether you’re dreaming of Paris bookstores or already in possession of that famous stamp inside the front cover of your new book, this podcast will take you to the banks of the Seine.
Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and Other People)
Commonplace aims to illuminate poetic craft through the quotidian. Hosted by Rachel Zucker, the author of ten books of poetry and memoir, the podcast dives into the overlooked minutiae of the everyday to find the roots of the extraordinary. The show interviews the likes of Sheila Heti, Morgan Parker, and John Keene in a conversational style that is meandering and unrushed. Exploration of the everyday is a tactic that has become standard in podcasting genres such as business and health. We long for the details of someone’s morning routine to uncover the building blocks of success. Where this practice is slightly less examined, at least in podcasting, is in the creative arts. From discussing her guests’ daily commutes to their most used recipes, Zucker’s interviews amble through the stuff of life, weaving a poet’s work into the context of what we consider purely conventional. Commonplace explores poetry in a way that feels both contemporary and diverse.
Interesting People Reading Poetry
“If it ain’t pleasure, it ain’t a poem.” So begins every episode of Interesting People Reading Poetry, a podcast that takes the words of William Carlos Williams and inverts them. The show is a pleasure, and the tenderness of its treatment of poetry has the unfortunate consequence of highlighting the shortcomings of other poetry podcasts. Created by brothers Brendan and Andy Stermer, Interesting People Reading Poetry wants us to experience poetry on multiple levels of enjoyment. The show takes an individual, not famous in the conventional sense, but a force in their field, such as a composer, historian, or writer, and asks them to read whatever poem has had the largest and longest-felt effect on their life.
So far, so conventional. But where the show departs from others is in its production. Each episode has an original score composed by the show’s co-producer, Andy Stermer. Often with spoken word formats, producers can forget that the ear can hear more than just discussion. Soundscapes are essential to the experience, and the compositions heard here are eerily atmospheric, lingering in one’s ear long after an episode has concluded. As well, the thoughtfully chosen guests are a masterstroke. They read the poem as an introduction, following with a lyrical explanation of the reasons why it touched them so profoundly. By placing a second reading after this monologue, the poem takes on a second life. New meanings become attached, and new pleasures emerge.
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On The New Yorker’s poetry podcast, Kevin Young is joined by contemporary poets who read and then discuss a poem that they have selected from the magazine’s storied archives. It is a fascinating premise that proves more compelling than if the back catalogue was mined by a single host. Each guest brings a new lens with which to examine The New Yorker’s collection; even when a poem is repeated, the perspective provided is entirely new. In this way, the archive becomes infinite. After discussing the influence of poets like W.S. Merwin and Alice Oswald, the guest then reads a poem of their own, one that has also been published in the magazine.
Despite the diversity of its guests, the podcast maintains the distinct atmosphere of the New York City literary scene. Ultimately, the listener must buy into the legacy of the magazine as a platform of a distinct kind of poetry. To examine work published by a single venue, with its own editorial slant, will always be a limited space in which to encounter poetry. But with this in mind, the quality is undeniable. Young’s interview style effectively unites the past with the present, unifying contemporary poetics with the legacy of the art form.
A poem can provide us solace in difficult times and even become something like a lover — or, as The Poetry Exchange believes, like a friend. This award-winning British podcast is dedicated to inviting poets, actors, and many others to exchange and discuss their favorite poems, the ones they consider dear friends. In each episode, the poem becomes the soil in which the conversation grows, and episodes rarely fail to move or inspire. There is something shamelessly wholesome about a show that personifies poetry as a form of friendship, but The Poetry Exchange pulls it off through its passion, earnestness, and consistency.
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Alice Florence Orr is a staff writer for Podcast Review and is based in Edinburgh. Her work has appeared in Scottish Review, Like The Wind, and Nomad Journal. You can connect with her on Twitter or Instagram.