s2e5 Poet Laureates and Publishing in the South
[link to transcript]
SHOW NOTES
S2E5
February 14, 2024
Martha Cinader speaks with Glenis Redmond and Anna Castro Spratt, the first Poet Laureate and Teen Poet Laureate of Greenville, SC about how it happened and what poetry is happening in Greenville, and they also share some poetry, of course. We also hear from Crystal Cauley and Albanian Landrum, who attended a Black History Open Mic hosted by Versers of Color in Hendersonville, NC. In the second part of the hour we speak with Meg Reid, the Executive Director of Hub City Publishing in Spartanburg, SC about what kind of books they are looking for, and also her upcoming workshop for writers about the path to publication.
HOST: Martha Cinader. GUESTS: Glenis Redmond, Anna Castro Spratt, Meg Reid ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: DJ Jeannie Hopper. EDITING: Jeremiah Cothren. MUSIC: Jay Rodriguez Sierra. Banned Book Theme by DJ Jeannie Hopper with the voice and words of Yvette Murray.
GUESTS
City of Greenville Poet Laureate Glenis Redmond is a renowned performance poet, founder of the Greenville Poetry Slam and former poet-in-residence for the Peace Center for the Performing Arts. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Warren Wilson College, is a Cave Canem alumni and has spent almost three decades touring the country as a poet and teaching artist. In 2020, Glenis received the Governor’s Award for the Arts, the highest honor the state of South Carolina gives in the arts, and in April, she was inducted into the South Carolina Academy of Authors, which recognizes the state’s most distinguished writers and their influence on our cultural heritage.
Anna Castro Spratt moved to Greenville from Brazil, and is fluent in both English and Portuguese. Miss Spratt has received numerous awards, including a National Gold Medal, three Gold Keys, three Silver Keys, Honorable Mention in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards (2023), and the South Carolina Junior Scholar Award of Merit (2021). As the City of Greenville’s Youth Poet Laureate, Miss Spratt hopes to inspire other young people to express themselves through poetry and to advocate for the issues that matter to them.
Meg Reid, Executive Director of Hub City Publishing, Spartanburg, South Carolina
Meg Reid finds and champions new and overlooked voices from the American South, including Carter Sickels, Drew Lanham, Ashley M. Jones, and Anjali Enjeti. An editor and book designer, her essays have appeared online in outlets like DIAGRAM, Oxford American, and The Rumpus. She holds an MFA in Nonfiction from the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where she served as Assistant Editor of the literary magazine Ecotone and worked for the literary imprint Lookout Books. She was a Publishers Weekly Star Watch 2021 Honoree. She loves literary nonfiction and braided essays. She lives in a bungalow in a historic district with her husband, two cats, and a short-legged terrier mix.
FEATURED BOOKS
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Good Women
A darkly funny and deeply tender collection, Hill observes how place, blood-ties, generational trauma, desperation, obsessions, and boundaries (or lack thereof), influence the navigation of the worlds of twelve Black women in Appalachia.
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Praise Songs for Dave the Potter, Art and Poetry for David Drake
David Drake is recognized as one of the United States’ most accomplished nineteenth-century potters. Yet, though his pots—many inscribed with original verse—sit in museums across the nation, he is too often passed over when considering the early foundations of African American poetry. Born in South Carolina at the beginning of the nineteenth century, Drake produced…
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Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts
“You are a rare bird, easy to see but invisible just the same.” That thought is close at hand in Sparrow Envy: Field Guide to Birds and Lesser Beasts, as renowned naturalist and writer J. Drew Lanham explores his obsession with birds and all things wild in a mixture of poetry and prose. He questions vital assumptions…
FEATURED SPOKEN WORD
Alabian Landrum, Crystal Cauley, Glenis Redmond, Anna Castro Spratt
Crystal Cauley and Alabian Landrum are pictured at the Versers of Color in Hendersonville, NC.
VIDEOS
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BANNED BOOKS
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in schools and libraries in the USA.
PEN America reported ‘While the movement to ban books is driven by a vocal minority demanding censorship, a 2022 poll conducted by The American Library Association found that over 70% of parents oppose book banning leaving many public school districts in a bind. We invite you to share your voice on the banning of books in schools and libraries in the USA.
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