New episode of NER Out Loud!

Poetry and conversation: Helene Achanzar

May 25, 2022

“There is more than enough wonder and curiosity and rage and humor and despair to make for good poems, the question is really how to translate those experiences so that the mundane becomes remarkable.” —Helene Achanzar

Created, edited, and hosted by Tejas Srinivasan ’23, NER Out Loud episode 19 presents Helene Achanzar reading her poem “Chicago” (NER 42.4), followed by a conversation about poetic structure, the realities of labor, modern paintings, her beloved home city, and more.

Helene Achanzar is the winner of NER‘s 2022 Emerging Writers’ Award. A Filipina-Canadian poet and educator, she is an associate editor for Poetry Northwest and is currently working as The Director of Programs at the Chicago Poetry Center. Her poems “Chicago” and “Etymology” were published in NER 42.4.

You can stream the NER Out Loud podcast from our website or Soundcloud. Or download from iTunes and subscribe!

Tejas Srinivasan is NER‘s spring 2022 podcast producer. He is a sophomore English major at Middlebury College, focusing on postmodern fiction and literary theory. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, he is also an opinions editor at the Middlebury Campus and a classical pianist, studying and performing repertoire from the 1600s to present day.

Two New Episodes of NER Out Loud

Michael McGriff and Jesse Lee Kercheval

October 6, 2021

Listen to two new episodes of NER Out Loud, hosted and produced by our summer interns Yardena Carmi ’23 and Rebecca Amen ’22.

Episode 16: Michael McGriff reads an excerpt from his poem “Questions for the Interrogation,” followed by an interview with Yardena Carmi. Their conversation explores the poem’s tribute to rural Oregon and Pablo Neruda, the limitations of memory and language, and Michael’s work as a translator of Tomas Tranströmer.

“From Questions for the Interrogation” was originally published in NER 42.1 (spring 2021).

Episode 17: Jesse Lee Kercheval reads her essay “Crash,” followed by a conversation with Rebecca Amen. The short essay interrogates the author’s memory of a shocking car accident that took place more than 50 years ago. In the interview, Kercheval further explores the nature of memory, essay writing in general, and her work as a translator of Uruguayan poetry.

“Crash” was originally published in NER 42.2 (summer 2021).

Visit NER’s podcast page here. You can also subscribe on Apple Podcasts or listen on Soundcloud.

Listen to NER

AbiYouness, Grotz, Johnson, Miller, and Phillips

July 22, 2021

Five NER 42.2 poets read their work aloud.

Philipe AbiYouness reads his poem “When They Cut The Power”: “When they cut the power, / we sliced the cantaloupe in the dark.”

AbiYouness also reads “يا ماما ! for the Empty House,” which touches on the varying forms and magnitudes of loss.

Jennifer Grotz reads “Poem or Story”: “My life from its start / was an expanding middle, my mother’s.”

Jenny Johnson reads “Submission”: “When you tear the top / off a marigold, there are / so many fine, loose strings.”

Wayne Miller reads “Camoufleurs”: “When the boys and I went out / in the woods with our BB guns, / we wore our fathers’ massive / fatigues. We shot each other / from inside our fathers’ / narratives.”

Carl Phillips reads “The Night, the Plan, the Stars,” which in only six lines plunges readers into a dreamlike scene.

New Episode of NER Out Loud

Zach Linge and Celeste Levy

June 9, 2021

Poet Zach Linge in the forest (left); performer Celeste Levy on stage in the Mahaney Center, Middlebury College

Since live audiences were limited this fall, when our annual NER Out Loud Live program was scheduled, this year we took the staged readings to the podcast format!

Listen here, as Middlebury student actor Celeste Levy reads the poem “Offered as Suddenly a Forest” by Zach Linge.

The reading is followed by a conversation between Celeste and Zach, who talk about the poem from both the reader’s and the writer’s points of view. They explore the origins of the poem’s images, writing during the pandemic, and the shades of truth that poetry can reveal.

“Offered as Suddenly a Forest” was originally published in NER 41.1, along with the poem “Branches.” Both poems can be read online. This episode is hosted by Carolyn Kuebler, Editor of NER.