Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast Podcast By Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall cover art

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast

By: Aaron Smith and James Allen Hall
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James Allen Hall and Aaron Smith talk about their favorite poems and poets, interview amazing writers, laugh a lot, gossip, and get real about life and art.© 2025 Breaking Form: a Poetry and Culture Podcast Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Literary History & Criticism
Episodes
  • A Pride Episode: Trans Poetry
    Jun 30 2025

    The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.

    Please Support Breaking Form!
    Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

    Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
    James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.


    NOTES:

    Read a bit more about Spencer Williams's Tranz, including from the poem "Laramie" in the book, here.

    Watch this reading celebrating the Transgender Day of Visibility, featuring some poets from our episode, including Amir Rabiyah and Stephanie Burt. Rabiyah's first book, Prayers for My 17th Chromosome, is available through Sibling Rivalry Press.

    Here is "Queer Facts About Vegetables" by Oliver Baez Bendorf.

    Read Jameson Fitzpatrick's poem "How to Feel Good" (and scroll for an essay by the poet).

    Read Cameron Awkward-Rich "Lucille's Roaches" and visit the poet's website at https://www.cawkwardrich.com/

    Read Joshua Jennifer Espinoza's sonnet from the episode.

    Watch Espinoza read from her first book, I Don't Want to Be Understood, with guest D.A. Powell.

    Read Taylor Johnson's "Trans is Against Nostalgia" and order Inheritance (Alice James).

    Read Stephanie Burt's "Inside Out Stephanie" and check out the Breaking Form interview with Stephanie about the anthology she edited, Super Gay Poems.

    Subhaga Crystal Bacon's "Crossings" appears in Transitory (Boa Books; purchase it here). Check out Bacon's website.

    Read torrin a. greathouse's "There’s No Trace of the Word “Transgender” in Adrienne Rich’s Biography"

    Anthologies:

    Troubling the Line

    We Want it All

    Subject to Change


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    31 mins
  • Thank You for Being a Friend
    Jun 23 2025

    The queens talk literary confidantes; then we discuss the pros and pitfalls of poetic friendships.

    Please Support Breaking Form!
    Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

    Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
    James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.


    NOTES:

    Check out Toni Morrison's 1987 eulogy for James Baldwin in the New York Times.

    We read from Fran Lebowitz's remembrance of her friend Toni Morrison, printed in the Paris Review.

    If you haven't already, read Brenda Hillman's "Male Nipples"

    Read "The Curious Friendship of Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell" from The Atlantic.

    Check out this exploration of the dynamics in literary friendships published in Esquire.




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    31 mins
  • The Broads Abroad
    Jun 16 2025

    The Breaking Form broads recount their poetic travels abroad in this Season 3 opener.

    Please Support Breaking Form!
    Review the show on Apple Podcasts here.

    Aaron's STOP LYING is available from the Pitt Poetry Series.
    James's ROMANTIC COMEDY is available from Four Way Books.


    NOTES:

    The David Hockney retrospective in Paris is on view until August 31. For more about his painting "Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy," click here.

    For more about Hockney and the Muse, read "David Hockney's Literary Influences"

    For a map that names the regions comprising Italy, go here.

    Jorie Graham's poem "San Sepolcro" first appeared in Erosion, and it concerns Piero della Francesca's iconic fresco "Madonna del Porto," on view at the Musei Civici Madonna del Parto, in the tiny Umbrian village of Monterchi, Italy. (In fact, the only work on view at the museum is the Madonna, which is worth the trip).

    For more about Civitella Ranieri, visit https://civitella.org, and follow them on Instagram @civitellaranieri or on Facebook. Civitella livestreams presentations by these world-class artists on IG Live.


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    32 mins
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