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The Beat: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Knox County Public Library
In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves. The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn.
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- Jul 24, 202614 min
David Baker and Stanley Plumly
David Baker is a poet, educator, editor, and literary critic. His most recent books are Swift: New and Selected Poems, Whale Fall, and Transit. In 1984, he began teaching at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio, where he now serves as an emeritus professor. He has also taught in writing programs and writers’ workshops around the country, including the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the MFA program for writers at Warren Wilson College, and others. For many years he was Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review. Stanly Plumly was born in Barnesville, Ohio in 1939, and he grew up in Virginia and Ohio. He earned a BA from Wilmington College and a PhD from Ohio University. He published numerous books of poetry, and his work won the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Poetry Award, The Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Paterson Poetry Prize, and eight Pushcart prizes. He taught at the University of Iowa, Princeton University, Columbia University, the University of Houston, and the University of Maryland. He was poet laureate of Maryland from 2009 to 2018.Links:David BakerBio and poems at The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.org"Rather Than Nothing: On David Baker’s Transit: Poems" at Literary MattersA review of Transit in Publishers WeeklyVideo: "David Baker--Great Writers, Great Readings", a reading at Hofstra UniversityStanley PlumlyBio and poems at The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.orgStanley Plumly Memorial Digital Archive at GR2Video: "Poet Stanley Plumley Reads from His Collection Orphan Hours"--PBS News Hour
- Jun 17, 202637 min
Jesse Graves Reading (Recorded Live, April 13, 2026)
In celebration of National Poetry Month, Jesse Graves joined us at Lawson McGhee Library for a reading of his work. Jesse Graves is the author of five poetry collections, including Tennessee Landscape with Blighted Pine, Basin Ghosts, Specter Mountain, Merciful Days, the forthcoming A Little Light in the Grave, and a book of prose, Said-Songs: Essays on Poetry and Place. His work received the James Still Award for Writing about the Appalachian South from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and the Philip H. Freund Prize for Creative Writing from Cornell University, as well as two Weatherford Awards in Poetry from Berea College and the Appalachian Studies Association. Graves has served as co-editor for several collections of poetry and scholarship, including four volumes of The Southern Poetry Anthology and The Complete Poetry of James Agee. He teaches at East Tennessee State University, where he is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English.Links:Jesse Grave's website"Jesse Graves and the Cosmic Appalachian Boogie," in Salvation SouthSix Poems by Jesse Graves in Porchlight: A Journal of Southern Literature"Two Stones" in New Verse Review"Above Johnson City" in As the Crow FliesThree poems in Cutleaf
- May 13, 202615 min
Donovan McAbee and Kathleen Jamie
Donovan McAbee is a poet, songwriter, and essayist. His work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME magazine, The Hudson Review, The Sun, Garden & Gun, Poetry London, and others. McAbee grew up in a small town in South Carolina, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary and a PhD in Creative Writing and Contemporary Poetry from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. McAbee lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife and two children.Kathleen Jamie was raised in Currie, Scotland, and she studied philosophy at Edinburgh University. Her awards include the Forward Prize for best poetry collection of the year, a Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year Award, the Somerset Maugham Award, a Paul Hamlyn Award, and a Creative Scotland Award. From 2021 to 2024, Kathleen Jamie served as Scotland’s Makar (a title given to the national poet)."The Whale-watcher," "The Buddleia," and "The Wishing Tree" were recorded with permission from Kathleen Jamie.Links:Donovan McAbeeRead "The Tunnel," "Holy the Body," and "Sightings" in The Sun MagazineRead "Coming Back Down" in ReflectionsDonovan McAbee's websiteHear Major Jackson read McAbee's "Desert Sayings" on The SlowdownKathleen JamieRead "The Whale-watcher," "The Wishing Tree," and other poems at Scottish Poetry LibraryBio and poems at The Poetry FoundationHear 19 poems by Jamie at The Poetry Archive
- Mar 5, 20269 min
Matt Broaddus
Matt Broaddus is the author of Deeper the Tropics and Temporal Anomalies. His poems have appeared in The American Poetry Review, Annulet, Denver Quarterly, and The Paris Review. He lives in Colorado and serves as an Advisory Poetry Editor for The Paris Review. Links:Matt Broaddus' website"'Blue Prints' and Other Poems" at Changes"The Seal of Approval" at American Poetry Review"The Sun Is a Disembodied Thought: An Interview with Matt Broaddus" at Poetry Daily"These Lit Particulars: On Matt Broaddus’ Deeper the Tropics" at Cleveland Review of BooksMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
- Feb 9, 20269 min
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood
Shuly Xóchitl Cawood teaches writing workshops, doodles with Sharpies and acrylic paint, and is raising two poodles and a dwindling number of orchids. Her books include Something So Good It Can Never Be Enough (Press 53, 2023) and Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Sun, and Rattle.Links: Shuly Xóchitl Cawood's website"Poem in Which I Fail to Teach My Dog How to Fetch" at The SunTwo Poems at Have Has HadInterview and four poems at Does It Have PocketsVideo: Cawood reading her poem "You Are Not a Cat"Mentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
- Nov 15, 20259 min
Arlene Keizer's Poems for Beauford Delaney
Arlene Keizer, an Afro-Caribbean American poet and scholar, writes about the literature, lived experience, theory, and visual culture of the African Diaspora. The recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize, she later earned an MA in English and Creative Writing (Poetry) at Stanford University and a PhD at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Black Subjects: Identity Formation in the Contemporary Narrative of Slavery (Cornell UP), and her poems and articles have appeared in African American Review, American Literature, The Kenyon Review, Obsidian: Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora, PMLA, Poem-a-Day, TriQuarterly, and other venues. Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black, her collection of poems about the African American painter Beauford Delaney, won the 2022 Stan and Tom Wick Poetry Prize and was published in 2023 by the Kent State University Press. She is a professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY.Links:Arlene Keizer Arlene Keizer’s page at Pratt Institute Interview with Arlene Keizer at Speaking of Marvels “Canopy” in Poem-A-Day Fraternal Light: On Painting While Black at Kent State University Press Beauford Delaney Bio and artwork at Knoxville Museum of Art Bio and Artwork at the Smithsonian Bio and artwork at Studio Museum in Harlem Artwork at Michael Rosenfeld Gallery “Beauford Delaney in Knoxville” at Knoxville History Project Mentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
- Sep 9, 20259 min
Chris Barton and Peter Gizzi
Chris Barton is the author of the poetry chapbook A Finely Calibrated Apocalypse, published by Bottlecap Press in 2024. His writing has appeared in Epiphany, Peach Magazine, The Plenitudes, Hotel, and elsewhere. From 2016 to 2019, he co-hosted the Electric Pheasant Poetry in Knoxville, TN. Peter Gizzi grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His many books of poetry include Artificial Heart, Threshold Songs, In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987–2011 and Archeophonics, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. His book Fierce Elegy, published in 2023, won the T. S. Eliot Prize. He teaches at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. “In Defense of Nothing” from In Defense of Nothing: Selected Poems, 1987–2011 © 2015 by Peter Gizzi. Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission.Links:Read "our free trial lives," "last supper," and "the bafflement" by Chris BartonRead "In Defense of Nothing" by Peter GizziChris BartonA Finely Calibrated Apocalypse by Chris Barton (Bottlecap Press)"2 Poems by Chris Barton" in Peach Magazine"Ouroboros as a Treat" in The Plentitudes"Three Poems" in Potluck MagazinePeter GizziBio and poems at The Poetry FoundationBio and poems at Poets.org"Peter Gizzi Talks About His Work" (YouTube Video--T.S. Eliot Prize)Mentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
- Aug 1, 202512 min
Charles Douthat and Robert Frost
Charles Douthat is a poet, retired litigator, and visual artist. Born and educated in California, he practiced law for many years in New Haven and began writing poems during a long mid-life illness. His first collection, Blue for Oceans, received the PEN New England Award, as the best book of poetry published in 2010 by a New England writer. Concerning Douthat’s newest book, Again, the poet Alan Shapiro writes, “This book is impossible not to love.” Douthat lives in Weston, Connecticut, with his wife, the artist Julie Leff. Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco. When he was just ten years old, his father died, and Frost’s family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts to live with his paternal grandparents. Though Frost attended Dartmouth College and Harvard University, he never earned a formal degree. He spent much of his twenties and thirties farming and teaching. In 1912, he moved, with his wife and children, to England where publishers were more receptive to his work. But he moved back to the States in 1915 after the start of the First World War. He lived for the rest of his life mostly in Massachusetts and Vermont. Robert Frost won four Pulitzer Prizes and the Congressional Medal of Honor. He died in Boston in 1963. Links: Read "Polk Street" and "Mercy" by Charles DouthatRead "After Apple-Picking" by Robert FrostCharles DouthatCharles Douthat's website"Charles Douthat Unbound," Authors Unbound podcast"A Few Minutes After Nine" in The Los Angeles Review"The Planting" in The Nature of Our Times"Grounds" in Leon Literary ReviewRobert FrostBio and poems at Poets.orgBio and Poems at The Poetry Foundation's websiteMentioned in this episode:KnoxCountyLibrary.orgThank you for listening and sharing this podcast. Explore life-changing resources and events, sign up for newsletters, follow us on social media, and more through our website, www.knoxcountylibrary.org.Rate & review on Podchaser
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About The Beat
In each episode of The Beat, host Alan May introduces a poet and we hear a few poems, usually read and recorded by the poets themselves. The Beat is produced by Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tenn.
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