Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

By: Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall
  • Summary

  • 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.
    © 2024 Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast
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Episodes
  • Circe’s Power: A Tribute to Louise Glück
    Nov 18 2024

    If they wanted only to hold you, the queens could hold you prisoner in this tribute to America's most recent Nobel Laureate.

    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.

    SHOW NOTES:

    "Happiness" from Descending Figure
    Part 9 of "Marathon" in Meadowlands
    "Adult Grief" in The Triumph of Achilles
    "Lost Love" in Ararat
    "New World" in Ararat
    "Averno" from Averno
    "Winter Morning" in Triumph of Achilles
    "Crossroads" in A Village Life

    Here are some remembrances of Glück published in The Paris Review.

    Another terrific tribute appeared in Los Angeles Review of Books, collecting memories by Paul Tran, Katie Peterson, Spencer Reese, Eliza Gonzalez, and Richie Hofmann.

    Listen to Glück read "Crossroads."

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    22 mins
  • Ross Gay Mathews
    Nov 11 2024

    The queens get Bossy Rossy before they compare thee to a summer's eve.

    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.

    SHOW NOTES:

    Ross Gay is a Leo who has authored four books of poetry: Against Which; Bringing the Shovel Down; Be Holding, and Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude, winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 2016 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award. In addition to his poetry, Gay has released three collections of essays—The Book of Delights was a New York Times bestseller; Inciting Joy; and The Book of (More) Delights. Visit Ross Gay’s website here.

    Ross Mathews is a Libra born Sept. 24, 1979. He’s appeared on numerous shows, and is currently a co-host on The Drew Barrymore Show and a judge on the panel of RuPaul’s Drag Race. He is also the author of two books: Name Drop and Man Up! And with his husband, Dr. Wellinthon Garcia-Mathews, who has a PhD in education and education policy. Visit Ross Mathews’s website here.

    The Ross Gay poems we mention in the episode are:
    “Sorrow Is Not My Name”
    “Ode to the Puritan in Me”
    "Poem to My Child, If Ever You Shall Be"
    “Thank You”
    "Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude”
    "Opera Singer"

    André Leon Talley was known for his love of bespoke black tie and colourful, couture kaftans – which he often wore together for red carpet events. Check out his top 10 fashion moments from Elle Magazine.

    Drew Barrymore had a spit take with Ross Mathews (check it out here) and with Leslie Jones (check it at the 3:45 mark)

    Ross Gay does love basketball. Read “Have I Even Told You Yet About the Courts I’ve Loved?” in LitHub.

    You can follow Joy Behar on Instagram at @joyvbehar, and see the spat between RuPaul and Behar here.

    Read Sonnet 18, “Shall I Compare Thee…” here or watch the fabulous Harriet Walter perform the poem here.

    Watch this clip from 1969’s The Gay Deceivers to learn the difference between peonies and marigolds.

    Gottmik’s RuPaul’s Drag Race roast appeared in “The Nice Girls Roast” not one dedicated just to Ross Mathews. You can watch Gottmik’s jokes here (hit the 8:45 mark). If you do want to watch the RPDR roast of Mathews, you can

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    31 mins
  • Darling Nicky ( w/ special guest Nicky Beer)
    Nov 4 2024

    The queens talk bisexual poetics and genius with Nicky Beer, before getting all dolled up in a game of real vs fake Dolly.

    Support Breaking Form!
    Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

    Buy our books:
    Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
    James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.

    SHOW NOTES:

    Visit Nicky Beer’s website: http://www.nickybeer.com

    Read this conversation with Nicky Beer published in The Adroit Journal in 2022.

    Read this review of Beer’s The Octopus Game in F(r)iction.

    Nicky mentions the Las Culturistas podcast and you can check that out here.

    Read Nicky’s fabulous 3-line poem “Sawing a Lady in Half”

    Learn more about Jim Steinmeyer’s Hiding the Elephant: How Magicians Invented the Impossible and Learned to Disappear.

    Read Nick’s poem “The Demolitionists”

    “Death is god’s apology for suffering”--a line Aaron mentions in the show--is from Nicky’s poem “The Poet Who Does Not Believe in Ghosts.”

    Nicky mentions Steel Magnolias, in which Dolly Parton starred as Truvy Jones. Watch the trailer for the movie here.

    Visit the HRC’s Resource Guide to Coming Out Bisexual. Also check out Bi.Org’s coming out guide.

    Learn more about June Thomas’s A Place of Our Own

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    41 mins

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