March 2009                 E. Ethelbert Miller talks with Sekou Sundiata (1948-2007) (Encore 2000)
 
In this award winning edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, literary activist, poet, and editor of Poet Lore magazine E. Ethelbert Miller talks with Sekou Sundiata, a recording and performance poet.  This Harlem-born poet, known for his music, frequently toured with Craig Harris and the Black Coalition Orchestra.  He was also a fellow at the Sundance Film Festival and wrote the script for “The Circle Unbroken is a Hard Bop.”  The African oral tradition, the call-and-response rhythms of the black church, as well as the “vibrant” and “diverse” atmosphere of East Harlem influenced his work.  Miller found the progressive politics of Sundiata’s work “fascinating” given that he grew up in the tumultuous 1960’s and 1970’s, and become an artist and an activist simultaneously. Asked about advice for young poets and writers, he said, be courageous, but don’t allow performance to overshadow the meaning of your work.
Sundiata reads “Snaps,” “longstoryshort” and recites lyrics from the song “Trouble in Mind.”

April 2009
A Tribute to Josephine Jacobsen with
Michael Collier, Lucille Clifton & Elizabeth Spires (Encore 2003)
Includes specially edited segment of a 1982 visit by Ms. Jacobsen

In this unique edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s “The Writing Life,” poets Michael Collier, Lucille Clifton and Elizabeth Spires talk about their friend and colleague, the late Josephine Jacobsen (1908 – 2003). Collier introduces the program by calling Ms. Jacobsen, a “truly remarkable poet and short story writer of the twentieth century.” Winner of the Shelley Award from the Poetry Society of America, a National Book Award finalist and Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (1971-1973), Jacobsen published nine poetry collections, four books of short stories, and three of criticism. As long-time admirers, these three contemporary poets discuss and read their favorite Jacobsen poems, among which are: “Distinctions,” “Companions,” and “You Can Take It With You.” The program closes with rare footage of Ms. Jacobsen reading three poems, “When the Five Prominent Poets,” “The Chinese Insomniacs,” and “Gentle Reader,” recorded during her 1982 visit to Howard County, MD.

May                              Frank McCourt hosted by Terence Winch  (Debut 2009)

In this edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, memoirist Frank McCourt is interviewed by writer and musician, Terence Patrick Winch. They discuss McCourt’s meteoric rise from abject poverty to worldwide success at the ripe age of 66, with the publication of the first of his trilogy Angela’s Ashes. McCourt wrote his first book after retiring from 30 years of teaching in New York’s public schools. This episode highlights the initial response of his manuscript submission with one publisher, and what followed after it landed on the bestseller list with a different publisher. “Angela’s Ashes freed me,” says McCourt. He goes on to discuss what Winch calls the “beautifully photographed” movie and the ongoing effect of success.  McCourt says, “I wrote a book about poverty and look at me.” McCourt ends the program by reading a selection about how to receive Holy Communion.

June                             Manil Suri hosted by Sangeeta Ray (Debut 2009)

In this debut edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, writer and mathematics professor Manil Suri opens the show with a sensual reading from the beginning of The Age of Shiva, in which the heroine, Meera, addresses her breast-feeding baby. University of Maryland College Park professor and Asian literature specialist Sangeeta Ray asks Suri how he came to find such an “intimate” voice for his main character, a woman reaching adulthood as India grows into independence. “It was an intense journey,” Suri admits. “Meera just said, ‘I am your heroine.’ She took over.” Suri’s Shiva is the second in a triptych of books based on Indian religious mythology, following up on his first novel, The Death of Vishnu. The two speak about the role of motherhood in India and his work, patriarchal society in the subcontinent, and the complementary difference between working math equations and writing fiction.

July                              Eavan Boland hosted by Grace Cavalieri  (Encore 2008)

This month on HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, poets Eavan Boland and Grace Cavalieri blend the lyrical reading of Boland’s poetry with the discussion of craft, Irish history, loss and relationships. Boland reads  “Secrets” and  “The Last Discipline.”  In her workshops with students, Boland emphasizes, “Image drives the narrative.”  An engaging conversation ensues looking critically at tending to language and craft, observing what is written, and Boland says “being willing to endure the painful process of reversing it if it’s wrong.” A pronounced topic on the show is Boland’s intellectual renderings of Irish history and domesticity and how both manifest themselves in her work. The segment ends with a reading of “Quarantine,” one of a sequence of marriage poems that argues with the conventional love poem.

August             Roland Flint hosts Robert Hass (Encore 1996)

The nation’s 1996 Poet Laureate Robert Hass jokes about writing “transportation poetry: taxicab haiku and airplane sonnets” because of his travel schedule, in this encore edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life. He reads “The Churchyard” and “A Story About the Body” from Human Wishes and “The Image” from Praise. Flint asks how Hass, who is also a critic, scholar and translator, came to work from two such different languages and literatures as Japanese and Polish. Hass reads and discusses Milosz’s “A Confession” and his attraction to the The Essential Haiku: Versions by Basho, Busan and Issa.

September                   Jane Hirshfield hosted by Michael Collier  (Encore 2008)

In this encore edition of HoCoPoLitSo’s The Writing Life, poet Michael Collier speaks with poet, essayist and translator Jane Hirshfield about her work and the necessity of poetry in the world. Ms. Hirshfield begins by reading “The Poet,” which she often uses as an opening poem in her readings. She acknowledges what she calls her “unearned luck” to have enough paper, light and freedom to write, while also calling awareness to those writers who lack those necessities. The pair discuss her series of poems called “Assays,” in which she investigates and disassembles the meaning of words like “judgment.”  She also reads “Identity,” “Sky: An Assay,” “Like an Ant Carrying her Bits of Leaf or Sand” and “Tree.” Poetry, Hirshfield concludes, “instructs me in the possibility of fully agreeing to a 360-degree life.”

October             A Literary Gathering of Women -  “The Craft of Writing” - (Debut 2009) (part 1)
Three novelists, Donna Hemans, Helen Elaine Lee and Thrity Umrigar, whose cultures include the Caribbean, African-American and Indian experience, discuss crucial elements of the writing process with Dr. Tara Hart. Their respective works include River Woman, The Serpent’s Gift and The Space Between Us.  In this episode these notable authors engage in an open dialogue about using fiction to answer the complex questions: conceptualizing plot as a writer: knowing when the work is finished, and confronting a reader’s misinterpretations. The cultural dynamics of each of their works is widely explored and discussed.

November         A Literary Gathering of Women - “Exploring Themes in Literature” - (Debut 2009) (part 2)
Culturally diverse novelists Donna Hemans, Helen Elaine Lee and Thrity Umrigar engage in an open conversation with Dr. Tara Hart, in which the differences and the similarities of their Caribbean, African-American and Indian experience inform their literary works. Their respective novels include River Woman, The Serpent’s Gift and The Space Between Us. The discussion centers on the discipline of writing: the destructive powers of community: the meaning of sustenance in the mother/daughter relationship, and connecting the reader and the writer experience through literature. The unique aspects of each of their cultures play a strong role in this intimate discussion of writing and the art of literature.

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