How big is an alligator heart, Slushies? Have seen the wingspan of a Sand Hill Crane (a bird once mistaken for the Jersey Devil)? And what happens when you put Mentos in your soda? Life and its peculiarities, its soaring losses and aching beauty, and its utter, utter absurdity come barreling at us in “a […]
Marion Wrenn
Episode 85: Caitlyn Jenner and Baked Alaska (or When Thumbs Cry)
Dear Slushies, have you ever heard a theremin? Visited Utah? Tried a baked Alaska? Join us for an episode dedicated to poems by Natasha Sajé, whose work explores belonging, queerness, & womanhood in a flow of humor, insight, and vivid images. In “Dear Utah,” Sajé takes us on a trip through her connection with her […]
Episode 84: Hot Pants & Sneeze Ghosts
It’s a rainy day in Philly, even rainier in NYC, and curiously blue in Abu Dhabi. We’re wondering whether you can OD on zinc, what’s happening on planet Saadiyat, and whether ghosts are real. These poems are full of curious imagery, versatile movements and occasional hot-pants and sneeze-ghosts. We loved journeying through each one, which […]
Episode 82: “1-4-3”
Be warned. We love the writers who submit to PBQ, slushies. We love doing this podcast. And we love you; we love that you listen to us discuss and deliberate. In short, slushies, as Mister Rogers would say: “1-4-3.” One. Four. Three. (I. L-o-v-e. Y-o-u). (Get it?!). We do. It’s hopeless. We’re hooked. We discuss […]
Episode 77: Belly-up!
If you are like us, Slushies, then you love a good duality. We’re hooked on the way “belly-up” can mean to be a flop and to roll in closer. So, belly-up to this episode where we discuss two poems by Judith Roney– “Belly-up” and “Relictual Taxon.” After some laughs about how it’s easy to mistake […]
Marion Wrenn: Introductions, a series
“Letter to Brooks,” Major Jackson’s tour de force poem in Hoops (2006), is a daring act of publicly intellectual intimacy. An “epistolary chat,” the poem is an unfurling act of gratitude. We witness Jackson bearing witness to luck and legacy, to the happy accident of knowing your idols—and the ripple effect of shepherding those generous […]