Pen And Poet

I sit and speak with Jules Nyquist, traditional and spoken word New Mexico poet, about her new book "Homesick, then", about life, loss, healing, family, and of course shares some of her poetry.  Jules Nyquist is the founder of Jules’ Poetry Playhouse, LLC, a place for poetry and play in Albuquerque, NM, which also is the umbrella for Jules’ Poetry Playhouse Publications.  In 2017, three books by women were published, with future tiles in 2018. Jules is a native Minnesotan and moved to Albuquerque on spring equinox 2011. Jules teaches creative writing and poetry classes and hosts poetry readings with visiting writers. She took her MFA in Writing and Literature from Bennington College, VT. Her two books of poems, Behind the Volcanoes and Appetites (Beatlick Press), were finalists for the NM/AZ Book Awards.   Her latest book is Homesick, then which is a poetic memoir of the life and death of her parents and deals with caretaking issues and also domestic violence suffered by her grandmother. Jules’ poems have app

Zachary Kluckman is an award winning poet. Named the 2015 and 2016 Slam Organizer of the Year, 2014 Slam Artist of the Year at the National Poetry Awards. They've been on national slam stages as an individual and as part of a group, including the Rumble Room team that went to Southern Fried Poetry Slam in 2017. At SoFried, Kluckman lead 3 newbies (me, Robin Reynolds, and Anna Martinez). A founding organizer the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program. Author of Per-City Poems, Animals in Our Flesh, Some of it is Muscle, and , one of the 4 poets in Rumble Room Volume 1, and has published at least 100 poems in various publications outside of these 4 collections.

Performance poet Rowie Shebala talks about her time on many final stages representing several different cities around the US, family, her life as a Native American in the Southwest, and as always, shares some of her poetry. 

Poet and managing editor for Swimming With Elephants Publishings Katrina Crespin talks about her life as a poet, an editor for an Albuquerque small press company, her growth as both a traditional and performance poet, and reads some of her poems.  You can find Katrina Crespin's work under her maiden name Katrina Guarascio at SwimmingWithElephants.com. Her works include 'my verse', 'The Fall of a Sparrow', and 'September: traces of letting go'.

Paulie Lipman is a performer, writer, and poet who’s been on national poetry slam finals stages, has been on the slam scene for 16 years, and recently published a chapbook with Swimming with Elephants Publications called “from below/denied the light.” Paulie is published in journals and some of their performances can be found on Youtube. Paulie is currently touring the US and taking bookings as of March 15, 2018. You can purchase “from below/denied the light” from Amazon here, find Paulie and some of their tour dates here, or find Paulie on Twitter and Instagram as well. 

Performance poet Mercedez Holtry talks about her two poetry collections, what it's like to be a Chicana poet, how she got involved in poetry slam, and of course, shares some of her art. You can find her books My Blood is Beautiful and, just release in February of 2018, her newest collection I Bloomed a Resistance from my Mouth at SwimmingWithElephants.com. 

Matthew Brown is a poet born and raised here in Albuquerque. Matthew is the author Verbrennen, a collection of poetry. He’s been on a number of slam teams and a few of his poems are on YouTube as he’s been on National Poetry Slam Finals stage, been part of top slam teams. Matthew’s poetry tends to lean toward exposing social, racial, and economic inequalities from a Hispanic, gay, and African American perspective. More recently Matthew has been looking inward...and we discuss a lot of that in this week's episode. And of course, poems!

Gigi Bella is an award winning poet, a musical theater actress, and teacher. She's represented Albuquerque, NM in national poetry slam competitions, is all over Youtube, and is author of "22", a book of poetry. You can find her book on Amazon. We talk about her poetry, the good the bad the ugly of moving from Albuquerque to New York, and about life. And of course, we hear some of her amazing poetry. Gigi is scheduled to tour this spring into summer of 2018. So be on the lookout for dates in your area.

Interview with Rich Boucher, a performance poet with roots in Albuquerque and New England. You can find his work on his Bandcamp page at richboucher.bandcamp.com as well as countless literary journals and magazines and anthologies. 

Interview with poet, writer, and artist Robin Reynolds. You can find many of her poems in Rumble Room on Amazon, her short story collection Cutting Your Losses on Amazon (might still be under her old name Robin Kalinich), and find her art along with many other artists work all over the Internet by searching Ink and Alchemy. Her artist platform has many followers and artists sharing their work and experiences. 

Kristian Ashley Macaron talks about her chapbook, Storm, about life, her writing style, and reads a few poems. Kristian's chapbook, Storm, is published by Swimming with Elephants Publications and found on their website, Amazon, or local Albuquerque bookstores.

Damien Flores is an Albuquerque poet who's been a part of many national poetry slam teams, hosts the Spoken Word Hour on 89.9 KUNM, and is author of Junkyard Dogs published by West End Press. We talk about his poetry and the fact that Damien has spent half his life performing poetry.

Anna Martinez is an erotic poet from Albuquerque, NM. Hear about Anna and listen to some of her poetry. You can find her work in the Rumble Room collection Volume 1 on Amazon.