Southword Poetry Podcast
The Southword Poetry Podcast is produced by the Munster Literature Centre. Each episode, a guest poet talks in depth about their latest work and shares a few of their poems. We also hear a poem from a recent issue of the literary journal Southword. Sarah Byrne hosted the 2022 season. Clíona Ní Ríordáin hosted the 2024 season. Poets were selected by the hosts, Patrick Cotter and James O’Leary. The Munster Literature Centre is a grateful recipient of funding from the Arts Council of Ireland and the Arts Office of Cork City Council.
Southword Poetry Podcast
Martín Espada: Floaters
(00:00) - Clíona Ní Ríordáin and Patrick Cotter Discussion
(08:43) - Martín Espada interview
(01:14:46) - Southword poem, When Our Mother Dies by Jenny Mitchell
Martín Espada has published more than twenty books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator. His latest book of poems is called Floaters, winner of the 2021 National Book Award and the Massachusetts Book Award, and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He has received the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Shelley Memorial Award, the Robert Creeley Award, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, the PEN/Revson Fellowship, a Letras Boricuas Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. A former tenant lawyer in Greater Boston, Espada is a professor of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
This week's Southword poem is ‘When Our Mother Dies' by Jenny Mitchell, which won the 2023 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Competition and appears in issue 44. You can buy single issues, subscribe, or find out how to submit to Southword here.
