Episode 154: Rachel Edelman

In the opening poem of Rachel Edelman’s debut collection, Dear Memphis, the speaker returns to their home city after a long time away, traversing a landscape that is both familiar and foreign, a place to which she belongs but also doesn’t. Over the course of the collection, Edelman asks questions about heritage and inheritance; about exile, diaspora, and migration; about home; about marginalization and privilege, oppression and complicity. In our conversation, we talked about acts of care, the importance of self-criticality, what poems do, and the necessary and the possible. Then for the second segment, we talked about corresponding via hand-written letters. (Recorded June 28, 2024) Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Goodpods | TuneIn | RSS Support: Support our Patreon | Review on Apple Podcasts | Review on Podchaser Connect: Email | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube Show Notes: Rachel Edelman Purchase Dear Memphis: Open Books (Seattle, WA) | The Book Catapult (San Diego, CA) | Bookshop.org Jacob Lawrence - The Migration Series Morgan Parker - Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night Alan Kurdi (The boy on the beach) emet ezell Rachel Edelman & emet ezell - “The Correspondent’s Cheeks Are as a Bed of Spices” James Merrill - “Lost in Translation” AGNI 99 Transcript Episode Credits Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa Music: Podington Bear Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo