2016 PoetryNow Podcast Launch Party on June 23

CHICAGO–The Poetry Foundation and WFMT Radio Network have teamed up to create PoetryNow, a weekly four-minute radio series and podcast featuring an acoustically rich and reflective look into a single poem by some of today’s most accomplished and innovative poets. The 2016 PoetryNow podcast launch party takes place on June 23 at 7:00 PM (doors open at 6:30 PM) at the Poetry Foundation, 61 W. Superior Street. This event celebrates the start of PoetryNow’s second season with the show’s award-winning producers Ayana Contreras, Colin McNulty, and Katie Klocksin in discussion about the making of the program.  We invite poetry lovers, radio industry professionals, and public radio fans interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at how a podcast is made.

“We’re excited to be partnering with the Poetry Foundation to bring the voices of living poets to radio stations throughout the United States and internationally through this new series,” said Tony Macaluso, director of syndication and series executive producer, WFMT Radio Network. “These sound-rich, short-form modular pieces are a new format for us and we believe they are an important way to offer tens of thousands of new listeners an opportunity to discover new poems through the voices of contemporary poets.”

Whether you’re a poetry expert or just curious about what is happening in poetry today, beginning on June 27 you can subscribe to a new season of PoetryNow for free on iTunes or listen on radio stations around the United States and internationally. A complete list of stations broadcasting the series will be available soon.

“Hearing a poem in the poet's own voice, with the author’s intended tone, emphasis, and rhythm can elicit a whole new understanding of that poem,” said Don Share, senior executive producer of PoetryNow and editor of Poetry magazine.  “In presenting exciting new work on the poetry scene today, PoetryNow is an experience of contemporary writing that is immediate and momentous.”

Listen and subscribe to the 2016 season of PoetryNow here on the Poetry Foundation audio page.

Contributing Producers

Ayana Contreras hosts Reclaimed Soul on Vocalo 91.1 FM, a radio show that features vinyl records from her extensive collection, as well as the stories behind them. She was a 2014/15 Arts+Public Life Artist-in-Residence at the University of Chicago, during which time she studied Chicago music and culture from the Post-Civil Rights era. She is a 2015 AIR New Voices Scholar through the Association of Independents in Radio.

Katie Klocksin learned the craft of audio storytelling at the Transom Story Workshop and interned with The Third Coast International Audio Festival. Her work has aired on 99% Invisible, WBEZ's Curious City, Re:Sound, and the Transom podcast, among other outlets.

Colin McNulty made radio documentaries for the BBC at Whistledown, and is now senior podcast producer at WBEZ in Chicago. Nulty’s award-winning hour-long documentary about William Burroughs narrated by Iggy Pop, “Burroughs at 100,” was aired in its entirety on This American Life in 2015. His montage documentary about spacewalking, featuring four astronauts and the Oscar-winning sound editor of the film Gravity, “Sounds Up There,” won Best Documentary: Silver Award at Third Coast International Audio Festival.

Poets featured in PoetryNow’s new season include:
Tyehimba Jess
francine j. harris
Carmen Giménez-Smith
Ocean Vuong
Cynthia Cruz
Urayoán Noel
Tsering Wangmo Dhompa
David Lau
Norma Cole
Jennifer Moxley
Amy King
Nick Twemlow
Margaret Ann Noodin
Cornelius R. Eady
Alli Warren
Javier Zamora
Harmony Holiday
Lillian-Yvonne Bertram
J. Michael Martinez
Andrew Joron
David Trinidad
Patricia Spears Jones
Idra Novey
Yolanda Wisher
Dara Wier
Farnoosh Fathi

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About the Poetry Foundation

The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine, is an independent literary organization committed to a vigorous presence for poetry in our culture. It exists to discover and celebrate the best poetry and to place it before the largest possible audience. The Poetry Foundation seeks to be a leader in shaping a receptive climate for poetry by developing new audiences, creating new avenues for delivery, and encouraging new kinds of poetry through innovative literary prizes and programs. For more information, please visit poetryfoundation.org.

About WFMT Radio Network

The WFMT Radio Network is a Chicago-based non-profit creator and distributor of radio programs and other audio about arts and culture that are made available to hundreds of radio stations around the world. The WFMT Radio Network has worked for many decades with some of the most admired arts organizations in the world such as Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Edinburgh Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York Philharmonic, Poetry Foundation, San Francisco Symphony, Shanghai Symphony and many others. The Network also produces original programs such as the Beethoven and Jazz Networks, Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, Relevant Tones, Fiesta!, The Midnight Special and manages important audio collections, most notably the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

Follow the Poetry Foundation and Poetry on Facebook at facebook.com/poetryfoundation or on Twitter @PoetryFound.

POETRY FOUNDATION | 61 West Superior Street | Chicago, IL 60654 | 312.787.7070

Media contact:
Polly Faust, [email protected], 312.799.8065
Elizabeth Burke-Dain, [email protected], 312.799.8016