Poet and editor Michael Anania discusses his poetry collection, “Riversongs” and reads selected works from the collection. Anania discusses the themes of place, transience, and permanence in the Midwest. Episode includes relevant music recordings, including a number of unidentified instrumental recordings and songs by Woody Guthrie, Los Jaivas, and Joni Mitchell.

Poet and editor Michael Anania discusses his poetry collection, “The Color of Dust” and reads selected works from the collection. Anania discusses Midwest history and geography and his own Nebraska roots as influences on the work and its themes of love, war, and social issues. Episode includes relevant music and theatrical recordings, including “Immortality” read by William Jennings Bryan, “Rake and Rambling Boy,” Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love,” “Dust Bowl Refugee” by Woody Guthrie, and “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Three distinguished Chicago poets — Michael Anania, Ralph Mills, and Lisel Mueller — read selections of their work and discuss the art and rhythm of poetry, influences and inspiration, and the power of memory. Includes a recording of Gwendolyn Brooks reading her poem, "The Rites for Cousin Vit."

Curators Jonathan Wordsworth, Robert Woof, and Michael C. Jaye discuss the exhibition “William Wordsworth and the Age of English Romanticism”, an exhibition of paintings, watercolors, manuscripts, and literature inspired by Wordsworth's Romantic Poetry. Jonathan Wordsworth reads an excerpt of lines from William Wordsworth’s “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”, "To Toussaint L'Ouverture", and "The World Is Too Much With Us." Studs reads "My Heart Leaps Up" - William Wordsworth. Studs plays "Ça Ira" - Edith Piaf (1954) and "A Man's a Man for A'That" - Ewan MacColl (1959).

Anna Linchevskaya and Douglas MacDonald talk about their newly released, Six Poems & Requiem, a collection by the poet Anna Akhmatova, which they translated from Russian to English.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The British poet, translator, and novelist discusses his best-selling novel, The White Hotel, which was loosely based on the case studies of Sigmund Freud.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations 

The poet and professor shares with Studs some insight into what inspires him to write and what he tries to capture in his poetry. His collection, The Book of Fortune, is discussed.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations