Episode 125 - Poetry Spotlight with Shuly Cawood

Episode 125 - Shuly Cawood.jpg

Episode One Hundred Twenty Five Show Notes
KEY: CW = Chris Wolak and EF = Emily Fine

Emily read a poem by Shuly Xóchitl Cawood titled “If” from her new collection Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning.

– Currently Reading –
The Hare – Melanie Finn (EF)
Everything I Found on the Beach – Cynan Jones (CW)
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen – Laurie Colwin (EF)
A House at the Bottom of the Lake – Josh Malerman (CW)
Reading Rooms – edited by Susan Allen Toth and John Coughlan (CW)

– Just Read –
We Run the Tides – Vendela Vida (EF)
The Drowning Kind – Jennifer McMahon (CW)(EF) release date 4/6/2021
The Stills – Jess Montgomery (EF)
Women and Other Monsters Building a New Mythology – Jess Zimmerman (CW)(audio)

– (Couch) Biblio Adventures –
Chris attended a session of the Yale Biography Symposium with Ruth Franklin Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life and Imani Perry author of Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry

Emily attended an event via Politics & Prose and Harvard Bookstore with Kazuo Ishiguro and Kat Darling, author of The New Breed: What Our History with Animals Reveals about Our Future with Robots, about his new book Klara and the Sun.

Chris attended a conversation with Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist, with Lynn Wooton, President of Simmons University.

Emily tuned into a conversation with Gregory Brown, author of The Lowering Days, and Kerri Arsenault via Print: A Bookstore. Check out Kerri’s review of the book in the Boston Globe.

Chris had a Couch Biblio Adventure and watched Bridget Jones’s Baby based on the book Bridget Jones’s Baby: The Diaries by Helen Fielding.

Emily watched the movie News of the World based on the book by Paulette Jiles.

Emily attended a joint event with Savoy Bookshop & Cafe, The Tapped Apple Cidery & Winery and Dan Pucci and Greg Cavallo the authors of American Cider: A Modern Guide to a Historic Beverage.

– Upcoming Jaunts –
Chris is attending an event on March 25th with Julia Alvarez in conversation with Sarahi Almonte Caraballo through the Hartford Public Library’s Big Read. You can register for the event here.

Emily plans to attend the book launch for We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida via the Sausalito Books by the Bay Wednesday, March 24th 8:30 EST. You can register for the event here.

Chris is attending a fundraiser through the Willa Cather Center with Dr. Melissa J. Holmstead in conversation with Alex Ross, author of Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, to discuss Holmstead’s new book, The Only Wonderful Things: The Creative Partnership of Willa Cather & Edith Lewis. Tickets are available here.

– Upcoming Reads –
Klara and the Sun – Kazuo Ishiguro (EF)
The Great Circle – Maggie Shipstead (EF) release date 5/4/2021
What’s Mine and Yours – Naima Coster (EF)
These Women – Ivy Pochoda (CW)
The Shipping News – Annie Proulx (CW)

– Author Spotlight with Shuly Xóchitl Cawood –
Shuly’s new poetry collection is Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning
You can learn more about Shuly here.
Shuly reads her poem “Cooking.” You can read it online at Rust + Moth.

– 17th Readalong discussion –
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The discussion will drop on June 8th via Episode 131, please get questions/comments to us by June 2nd.
The Goodreads discussion thread can be found HERE.
The Zoom discussion will take place on Sunday, May 30th at 7:00 p.m. (EST). If you would like to join in please send an email to save a spot.
You can find the beautifully bound anniversary edition of the book here. Note: this is in celebration of Milkweed Editions 40th anniversary, not the anniversary of the book which was originally published in 2013.

With Jenny / Reading Envy Podcast – we will be reading When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry – edited by Joy Harjo, Jennifer Elise Foerster, and Leanne Howe

More details about the  readalong can be found on the Reading Envy Goodreads discussion thread.

Extra Credit: A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

– Also Mentioned –
Two Dollar Radio Press
Cove – Cynan Jones
Matthew Goodman
Bird Box – Josh Malerman
Amy Tan
Believer Magazine
Also by Jess Montgomery who was on Episode 93The Widows and The Hallows
Halsey Street – Naima Coster
The Sun Magazine
Wildness from Platypus Press
Poetry Foundation

You can help support the Book Cougars via our affiliates:
Libro.fm audiobook platform: Follow
this link for the monthly membership. (promo code: bookcougars)
We are an affiliate of Bank Square Books and Savoy Bookstore & Café, click
HERE to start shopping.
Bookshop.org – support us and independent bookstores!

If you’d like to help financially support the Book Cougars, please consider becoming a Patreon member. You can
DONATE HERE. If you would prefer to donate directly to us, please email bookcougars@gmail.com for instructions.

Join our Goodreads Group!

We have a BookTube Channel – please check it out
here, and be sure to subscribe!

Please subscribe to our email newsletter
here.