Summer podcasts
And some news...
Hi all! The quickest of notes to say that while we’ve fallen off the once-a-week pace, the podcast has been going strong this summer. Since my last newsletter, we’ve had four new episodes:
Kristin Grogan on Lorine Niedecker (“Poet’s Work”): Apple, Spotify, Google
Priscilla Gilman on William Cowper (“The Castaway”): Apple, Spotify, Google
Matthew Zapruder on James Tate (“Quabbin Reservoir”): Apple, Spotify, Google
Jeff Dolven on Sir Thomas Wyatt (“They Flee from Me”): Apple, Spotify, Google
If you haven’t listened yet, I hope you’ll make room for these episodes—they were wonderful and all quite different from each other. In the latest episode, Jeff mentions that he’s been sending students to the podcast, which is amazing—I love thinking that these conversations are making it onto syllabi and helping students find their own ways into poems. I have some exciting episodes planned for the fall, so make sure you’re subscribed and stay tuned!
Twitter (I refuse to call it that other name) is a mess, but anyway for now you can still find me there. But for those who have migrated over to Bluesky, I’ve also found a little perch there.
Last thing: I don’t know how many of you have been following the terrible news coming out of West Virginia University, basically gutting the state’s flagship public university’s academic programs because of a horrible mismanagement of its funds. Here is a thread (compiled by an anonymous—because they face threats of reprisal—WVU faculty member) summarizing the proposed cuts. In the most egregious example, the university is planning on eliminating its entire Department of World Languages, Literature and Linguistics. That would be 32 faculty members, many of them tenured, whose careers would be destroyed. But beyond that, consider the values reflected by this choice, the message being sent by the state’s major public institution of higher education to its students.
My understanding is that, at present, these are proposed cuts, and that there may still be time for a campaign of public pressure to alter the course of things. (Maybe the university should consider administrators’ salaries, or the salaries of its football and basketball coaches, before ELIMINATING ALL FOREIGN LANGUAGES???)
So here are two specific things you can do:
If you’re in academia, add your name to this open letter.
No matter who you are, sign this student-led petition.
More generally, please just talk to people about what’s happening. I promise you it’s not just in West Virginia. It’s been great to see the Chronicle covering it, and to see all the response on Twitter, but my sense is that there ought to be a LOT more national coverage and public awareness.
Okay, that’s all for now. More poetry soon! For everyone!