Interview with the US poet Mike Smith, author of Pocket Guide to Another Earth (2018) and And There was Evening and There was Morning (2018).

Staying Alive: Poetry and Crisis

Episode 1: Like a Zombie Life

Welcome to Staying Alive, a podcast series on contemporary poetry and crisis, hosted by Adriana Jacobs. Each episode of Staying Alive will feature a conversation with a contemporary poet with whom I will discuss the relation between poetry and crisis. From Denver, Colorado to Tel Aviv, Israel, our conversations address modern crises - from the political to the environmental - as well as personal crises, like the death of a sibling or the loss of a home. I am interested in probing how poets respond to crisis and the forms and language that they use to address it. In these episodes, we also address the question of poetry’s relevance in times of crisis, and what poetry can offer - be it wisdom, critique or consolation - to our understanding of crisis.

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Staying Alive: Poetry and Crisis