I was first introduced to Callie Siskel’s poetry when she sent in a poem called “In the Territory of the Sonnet” to an online magazine I coedited, Unsplendid, and have been a fan ever since. She published her chapbook, Arctic Revival, through the great Poetry Society of America chapbook series. It was a pleasure to see her first full-length book arrive—Two Minds—a book, in part, about her father, the late, wonderful film critic, Gene Siskel, and the grief of his loss. What is particularly great about those poems is that they are about him as her father, and not about how the public knew him. Outside of one poem we talk about on the show, “Transparent Man,” you wouldn’t know you might know who he was, only that he seemed to be a very loving dad.
She writes beautifully about painting as well, and if you know my poetry at all, you know that ekphrastic poetry is a mode I love and practice often.
Callie reads her poem “Late Interior” on the show, which references Pierre Bonnard’s “Before Dinner,” and if you’d like to view the poem, you can see it on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website.
Find the show on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, Transistor, and many other podcast hosts.
Callie Siskel’s poetry appears in The Paris Review, The Atlantic, and The New York Review of Books. A former Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she has received scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.
She holds an MFA from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles, where she is a poetry editor at The Los Angeles Review of Books.
Pick up a copy of Two Minds here.
Read more about Callie Siskel.
Coming soon on the podcast:
Next is a Sidebar episode featuring poet Barbara Jordan! And then it’s a brief hiatus while I travel to Ireland, though Substack subscribers will likely see some small posts on Yeats and other Irish poets as I travel around the country.
Some notes:
Siskel referenced a New Yorker review of a recent Brancusi exhibition, and here is a link to that, if you’d like.
The Yale Review published an Annie Berke essay review of a new book about Siskel & Ebert, called Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel and Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer. Seems like a good read for those interested in film criticism and/or grew up watching those two on TV.
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If you’re interested in poetry podcasts, you should definitely check out Sleerickets, hosted by Matthew Buckley Smith, whom I hope to have on this show soon, to talk about his new book Midlife. His shows are in depth, and give a great deal of time to whatever topic is at hand, which is a rare thing these days.
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I’m on another podcast! My friend, Vicky Derkson, hosts the podcast Night Sky Tourist, and graciously asked me to read some “twilight” poems for her forthcoming episode on the subject. You’ll hear me read my own poem, “Twilight” (originally published on Rust & Moth) and Barbara Jordan’s poem, “Threshold,” from her book, Trace Elements. It’s a great podcast for night sky gazers; do give it a listen.
Other ways to follow us:
Website: http://drunkasapoet.com
Instagram: @drunkasapoetonpayday
BlueSky: drunkasapoet.bsky.social
TikTok: @jgraypoet
About your host: Jason Gray is the author of the poetry books Radiation King (Idaho Prize for Poetry) and Photographing Eden (Hollis Summers Prize), and his poems and reviews have appeared in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Southern Review, American Poetry Review, and Image. His career in publishing has brought him to the university presses of Ohio State and Wisconsin, and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.
A note on the podcast title. I am an unabashed fan of The Simpsons, and in Season 8, Episode 9 “El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Jomer (The Mysterious Voyage of Homer),” Marge attempts to stop Homer from going to the local chili cook-off, because, as she says, every time he does, he “get[s] drunk as a poet on payday.” And that has made me laugh for decades now.
I in no way endorse getting oneself overserved and behaving like a jackass, poetic or otherwise. And if you or anyone you know is struggling with alcohol, there are resources for you: Alcoholics Anonymous Al-Anon