This week, we welcome former Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith to talk about poetry, democracy, fear, & poems by Joy Harjo, Francisco Márquez, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Lucie Brock-Broido, and @dseuss.bsky.social Listen wherever you get your fearless podcasts, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com

We get out our pair of big crystal balls and predict the 2025 National Book Award in Poetry. Tune in for the tea at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your piping hot awards gossip served.

I have a new essay (about gay porn, cicadas, internet time, and longing as mourning) up at @anotherchicagomag.bsky.social. The piece comes from a collaborative book-length essay written alongside poets Aaron Smith & David Trinidad. anotherchicagomagazine.net/2025/11/04/d...

Cherry Tree is published once per year. Subscriptions to are $15 for one year and $26 for two. More information here: washington-college.square.site/literary-hou...

Cherry Tree is delighted to reveal our second Pushcart Prize nomination: Julie Marie Wade's "From the Jeopardy! Category, THE SUBJUNCTIVE:" which appeared in Issue 11. We know we can always turn to Julie's work for the exact right questions!

We're revealing our Pushcart Prize nominations this week. Follow along and help us to celebrate these terrific writers! And you can subscribe here, if you're so moved: washington-college.square.site/shop/cherry-...

Check out our interview with David Duchovny, author of the poetry book _About Time_ (@akashicbooks.bsky.social). You can listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you find your podcasts (& sure, we absolutely 100% coincided this release with the character Fox Mulder's birthday.👌)

The queens visit Pittsburgh for a big dose of poetry -- occasioned by a weekend of events held in tribute to Ed Ochester (1939-2023). It's a dishy episode, despite the elegiac occasion. Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com or wherever you mine your poetry.

HUUUUUGE congratulations to Lit House Associate Director Roy Kesey for winning this prestigious prize for his new book, LORE, out from Sarabande in May 2027.

Two weeks left to submit to Cherry Tree! Check out our guidelines at cherrytree.submittable.com

What Senior Fiction Reader @nicanstett.bsky.social is enjoying when not reading submissions: fabulous books by @riggstah.bsky.social and @tonytula.com Cherry Tree is open for submissions until October 1! cherrytree.submittable.com/submit

When she's not reading submissions, CNF Editor Sufiya Abdur-Rahman is reading recent books by Rachel L. Swarns @rachelswarns.bsky.social and by CT 9 contributor Kristin Keane. Cherry Tree is open for submissions til October 1 at cherrytree.submittable.com/submit

We asked our editors to name 2 books they're reading (when they're not reading Cherry Tree submissions). Fiction Editor extraordinaire @sarahblackman.bsky.social recommends books by former CT contributor @alvinlu.bsky.social and by Thalia Field. We're open til Oct 1! cherrytree.submittable.com

We asked our editors: what are 2 books you're reading when you're not reading Cherry Tree submissions? Poetry Editor Alyse Bensel's answer: Rara Avis by former CT contributor @blasfalconer.bsky.social & Anelise Chen's Clam Down. Cherry Tree is open til October 1 cherrytree.submittable.com

This week's episode takes place, places place, and plants poetry in your [placeholder]. Poets mentioned include @tracibrimhall.bsky.social @joseolivarez.bsky.social & @adrianmatejka.bsky.social among others! Listen wherever you get your poetry podcasts, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com

Cherry Tree is open for submissions through October 1. Send us your poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. All accepted pieces are considered for our special section of Literary Shade! cherrytree.submittable.com

Many thanks to @rubenq.bsky.social for curating a terrific poetry section in Best of the Net 2025, and for including a poem of mine first published in @adroitjournal.bsky.social! bestofthenetanthology.com/2025-2/2025-...

Smoke 'em if you got 'em! "Poetry Babies" is now streaming on Breaking Form. You can listen wherever you get your cigars and strollers, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com.

“The father parks outside the Pleasure Place / but does not turn off the ignition. / Tells his son, I’ll just be a second. An hour later, / is found among the lifelike vaginas” — @jamesallenhall.bsky.social, “Fantasy” @fourwaybooks.bsky.social

All aboard for Season 3 of @breakingformpod.bsky.social ! Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com/1865753, or wherever you get your bags packed.

We join Edmund White's partner, Michael Carroll, as well as the legion of Ed's & admirers in mourning his passing. We had the privilege of interviewing Ed, & we're glad his voice will continue to be heard. He made queer life more possible. breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com/1865753/epis...

I have some new work about anal douching, the extra/ordinariness of grief, and sexual assault (you know, LIFE) in the newest issue of Plume. plumepoetry.com/weird-wild-a...

“my mother dismantles / the false wall with the plastic crucifix, she explores / the passage from the dreamworld to the one / whose reign I herald, the world of hoarded women.” — @jamesallenhall.bsky.social, “Portrait of My Mother as Rosemary Woodhouse” pbqmag.org/james-allen-...

While we're working on Season 3 of Breaking Form, please enjoy a few encore presentations that you might have missed, or might enjoy revisiting. This week: Fan Fic Poetry. You can listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Scholarships available! Find your voice & your writing kindred at the Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference for high school students (rising sophomores, juniors, & seniors). July 15-18.2025 on the @washcoll.bsky.social campus. More info at www.washcoll.edu/ywc

Literary submissions are sometimes mysterious to folks, so in this episode, we're giving some of our favorite advice to people submitting to literary journals and book publishers (mostly poetry). Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you plant your eggplants. 🍆

Inspired by Aaron Smith's poem "Brad Pitt," we asked AI to write about Brad in the style of..... We were curious: what could our pedagogy and poetry gain? And what would Anne Carson's poem about Brad Pitt's butt look like? breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com

This week on the podcast, we talk about the Atlantic's list of "25 most consequential" books of the 21st C. Who's making your list?

This week on Breaking Form, we're discussing (yet another) article that purports to name "The Best Poetry of the 21st Century" (so far). Our episode title is obvs. very tongue-in-cheek. Have a listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your listicles.

We join our community in mourning Robert Earl Price, and celebrating his life & poetry. Here's an interview & reading Robert Earl did with Grace Cavalieri on The Poet and the Poem: www.gracecavalieri.com/images/Rober...

FAQ: What's a literature discussion like at the Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference? A: Here's Dr. Courtney Rydel, Chair of Washington College's English Dept., leading a discussion about what medieval stories can teach us about modern craft. More info can be found online at www.washcoll.edu/ywc

New on Breaking Form, we super-gay talk about the new super-gay anthology SUPER GAY POEMS, edited by @notquitehydepark.bsky.social and out tomorrow from @harvardpress.bsky.social Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get super, gay.

If you'll be in Los Angeles for AWP, please stop visit Cherry Tree at Booth 432 in the Bookfair to say hi, buy an issue, browse our famous letterpress broadsides, grab a free pin, tattoo, or mini notebook and bask in our LA Winter Wonderland vibe!

This week on the podcast, @brendashaughnessy.bsky.social joins us to talk about resistance, poetry, & joy. Listen anywhere you get your podcasts, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com. And here's a Spotify link to Brenda's resistance playlist!: open.spotify.com/playlist/5W4...

Bad Bunny = Goooooooood Bunny.

Remember, if you STAY messy, you ain't got to GET messy. #staymessy

every day is the anniversary of Elon Musk being wrong about something, but today really is one of the special ones

every day these days I wake up and wish my dissertation work on the 1630s in England had stayed irrelevant.

The Cherry Tree Young Writers' Conference is open for registration & scholarship apps. Write your truth with us this summer on the idyllic @washcoll.bsky.social campus! Scholarships available! More info: www.washcoll.edu/ywc

re the previous repost: if they can disappear permanent residents they can disappear citizens

Have you been her kind? This week we're talking Scorpio Queen, "Confessional" Icon, and author of poems like "Her Kind." Listen wherever you get your spells and break your curses, or online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com

Next week, we're serving up Sextonics in tribute to the author of poems like "The Ballad of the Lonely Masturbator," "The Abortion," "Menstruation at Forty," and "The Fury of Cocks." Bottoms up! Catch up online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your reference work in sin.

Today's moment in queer resistance: virulent homophobe Anita Bryant (may she broil in hell) was pied in the face by protester Thom L. Higgins as she spouted her hate. You'll want to bookmark this one. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tHG... #queer #messygays #creampie #lgbtresistance #queerhistory

BREAKING: In response to our lawsuit, the National Endowment for the Arts will no longer force grant applicants to certify that they won't promote "gender ideology." This is a big step toward defeating the NEA's unconstitutional censorship.

Thank you to the Board of Contributing Editors at @adroitjournal.bsky.social -- I'm honored & so glad to be among these fabulous writers!

We’re only blurry when you look at us that way. @danieljaenart.bsky.social, 3 Graces (2024)

Someone must have this data, no?

The EDMUND WHITE joins us this week to talk sex, style, & spill so much scalding literary tea. It's such a big deal we had to call in reinforcements: @miguelmurphy.bsky.social joins in for the fun, too! Catch it at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your podcasts!

Need some small but mighty poems? We've got you (barely) covered this week! Listen online at breakingformpod.buzzsprout.com, or wherever you get your micros mini'd.