MINDS ON FIRE: Conduit poets read their Conduit poems. Our field recording team finds the writers in their natural habitats, e.g., beside waterfalls and on dark rainy sidewalks. Sometimes the poets record themselves alone in their rooms.


 
 

Dominique Townsend

Dominique Townsend is Associate Professor of Buddhist Studies at Bard College in Annandale on Hudson, NY. Her primary research interests include Tibetan Buddhist history, aesthetics, cultural production, poetics, and translation theory. Columbia University Press will release her first scholarly monograph, A Buddhist Sensibility: Aesthetic Education at Tibet’s Mindröling Monastery, in March 2021. She is also a poet and published a book of poems called The Weather & Our Tempers with Brooklyn Arts Press in 2013. She has an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD from Columbia University. You can find "conjugate the verb succumb" in "Alone Togerther."


Tone Škrjanec

Born in 1953 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Tone Škrjanec studied sociology at the Ljubljana University. He had worked as a journalist for almost ten years before he became program and poetry events co-ordinator at KUD Franceta Prešerna, an institution of culture, arts and media. He has also been the organizer of the poetry festival Trnovski terceti in Ljubljana. Škrjanec is the translator of Croatian, Serbian and English. These poems were translated from the Slovene by Matthew Roher with Ana Pepelink and first appeared in Democracy.

 

Joshua Gottlieb-Miller

Recorded live, in part, at the White Squirrel Bar, as part of our Minds on Fire Live reading series, Mr. Gottlieb-Miller reads from The Art of Bagging, which won the Marystina Stantiesteven First Book Prize. He earned his his MFA and PhD from the University of Houston and honed his bagging skills at Trader Joe’s where he's worked three times: once in Silver Spring, Maryland, and twice in Madison, Wisconsin. Joshua currently teaches at San Jacinto College and lives in Houston with his wife and son.

 

Oksana Maksymchuk

Oksana Maksymchuk is a bilingual Ukrainian-American poet, scholar, and literary translator. Her poetry appeared in The Irish Times, The Paris Review, PN Review, The Poetry Review, and many other journals. In the Ukrainian, she is the author of poetry collections Xenia and Lovy. Born and raised in Lviv, Ukraine, she has also lived in Chicago, Philadelphia, Budapest, Berlin, Warsaw, and Fayetteville, Arkansas. These poems can be found in Time Being, our 33rd dispatch.


Pablo Saborio

Born in 1982, Mr. Saborio is originally from San José, Costa Rica. Currently he lives in Copenhagen, Denmark where he edits Red Door Magazine. "House of Body" first appeared in Alone Together.

 

Melissa Studdard

Melissa Studdard is the author of five books, including the poetry collections Dear Selection Committee and I Ate the Cosmos for Breakfast, the poetry chapbook Like a Bird with a Thousand Wings, and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. Her work has appeared in POETRY, Kenyon Review, Psychology Today, New Ohio Review, Harvard Review, New England Review, and Poets & Writers. "A Little Bit of Rain" first appeared in Alone Together.

 

David keplinger

David Keplinger is the winner of the 2020 Minds on Fire Prize for his book The World to Come. His translations of Danish poet Carsten René Nielsen have appeared in three volumes, World Cut Out with Crooked Scissors (New Issues), House Inspections (BOA Editions), a Lannan Literary Series Selection, and Forty-One Objects (Bitter Oleander), longlisted for the 2020 National Translation Award. David lives in Washington, DC and teaches at American University.

 

jose hernandez diaz

Jose Hernandez Diaz is the author of the chapbook of prose poems, The Fire Eater (Texas Review Press, 2020). He has been awarded a fellowship by the National Endowment for the Arts, and he lives in southern California. "Voice" can be found in our Democracy issue.

 

Suphil Lee Park

Suphil Lee Park is a bilingual writer who was born and grew up in South Korea. Her name 수필 리 박 consists of Chinese characters, 秀筆 李 朴, each of which means “outstanding,” “writing brush,” “plum tree,” and “silver magnolia.” She graduated from New York University with a BA in English and from the University of Texas with an MFA in Poetry. Ms. Park's Present Tense Complex won our third annual Marystina Santiestevan First Book Prize.


Joshua Burton

Joshua Burton is a poet and educator from Houston, Texas. Joshua earned his MFA in poetry at Syracuse University. His debut poetry collection is forthcoming in the spring of 2023 by way of the University of Wisconsin Press. "Elegy for Threats with Grace" can be found in our thirty-first issue Alone Together.

 

Rachel Abramowitz

Ms. Abramowitz won the four annual Marystina Santiestevan Book Prize for her breathtaking debut The Birthday of the Dead. Rachel is the author of the chapbooks The Puzzle Monster, winner of the 2021 Tomaž Šalamun Prize, and Gut Lust, which won the 2019 Burnside Review Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the University of Oxford and has taught English Literature at Barnard College in New York.

 

Alexis Orgera

Ms. Orgera has published of two books of poetry, How Like Foreign Objects and Dust Jacket, three chapbooks, and a fragmented memoir about Alzheimer’s, grief, and other brainstorms called Head Case. She lives triumphantly in Greensboro, North Carolina. This poem first appeared in issue #31, Alone Together.

 

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Kate Lindroos

A denizen of the wild hills and valleys of Western Massachusetts, Ms. Lindroos is the author of the chapbook The Costume of a Hunter from Factory Hollow Press. Her poems have appeared in jubilat, Jospehine Quarterly, and Sixth Finch. These two poems first appeared in our Underground issue.


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Becca Barniskis

With poems in previous issues of Conduit, Ms. Barniskis is a happy repeat offender. After hours, Becca performs with Pancake7, a funk/rock/soul collective. She is also a teacher based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. "The Atheist Test" first appeared in Sweet Mobile Home.

 

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Shanti Thakur

Born in Canada and based in New York, Shanti Thakur is one creative dynamo. When she isn't writing poems like "Western Fantasy," which first appeared in Sweet Mobile Home, Shanti's making award-winning films and teaching at Hunter College.

 

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Michelle Lewis

Michelle won the first annual Marystina Santiestevan Book Prize. Woohoo! Her book Animul/Flame won the Midwest Book Award for Debut Poetry collection. Ms. Lewis lives triumphantly in West Bath, Maine. She has been described (by herself) as bawdy, floral, and regularly sanitized.


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Caroline Davidson

Caroline Davidson is a poet and musician from the great state of Ohio. Her poems, "One Less Organ" and the prescient "Modern Plague Doctor," can be found in Gut Feeling. She currently writes, works, and makes gypsy/gothy/synthy tunes in Brooklyn, New York.

 

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Fred Schmalz

Hailing from the the Hog Butcher of the World, Schmalz is a writer and artist with boundless energy and a generous heart. Fred is a long-time Conduit collaborator who first appeared in issue #8. His book Action in the Orchards should be on your quarantine reading list. These three poems can be found in our Underground issue and have us looking forward to his next book.


Carrie Shipers

Carrie Shipers

"On Days That I Don't Hate My Job" can be found in Gut Feeling. And, who can't relate? While "The Deadman" first appeared in the Wonder issue. Shipers is the author of Ordinary Mourning, Cause for Concern, and Family Resemblances. She lives and teaches in Providence, Rhode Island.


Elisa Gabbert

Elisa Gabbert

Elisa Gabbert and Kathleen Rooney present a formidible tag team. Gabbert is a poet and essayist and the author of three collections: L’Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems, The Self Unstable, and The French Exit. She lives in Denver. Rooney is a founding editor of Rose Metal Press and the author of eight books of poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, including the novel O, Democracy! and the novel in poems Robinson Alone. She lives near Lake Michigan. Their collaborations gave Supply & Demand a one-two punch.


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Alina Gregorian

Ms. Gregorian is the author of Flying Bark, Navigational Clouds, and Flags for Adjectives. "The Boats They Carried" first appeared in Wonder. (Follow the link to read the poem.) Recently, she made a gif for each letter of the Armenian alphabet. This is her name in Armenian: Ալինա. Alina lives in Brooklyn, around the corner from one of the city's twelve thousand bodegas.

 

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Dean Young

You may have noticed our affection for Dean Young's poetry. We love his language, his wild imagination, his authentic compassion, and his boundless daring. And, in keeping with his free-swinging spirit, Dean reads a new poem.

 

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Elizabeth Onusko

Elizabeth Onusko is the author of Portrait of the Future with Trapdoor, which received the Bryant-Lisembee Book Prize and was published by Red Paint Hill in spring 2016. She is a founding editor of Guernica. She lives in New York with a toddler and a family of very loud air-conditioners. "Soft Target" first appeared in the Digging Lazarus.

 

Noah Falck

Noah Falck

Although he hails from the Buckeye State, Noah Falck now resides near Lake Erie in Buffalo, New York. Science tells us that the lake's eastern shore is higher than its western because of the prevailing westerlies, but we suspect it is because of Mr. Falck and his poetry. "Poem Excluding Politics" first appeared in the Wonder issue.

 

Jeanne Marie Beaumont Conduit Audio

Jeanne Marie Beaumont

The divine Ms. Beaumont co-edited the anthology The Poets' Grimm: Twentieth Century Poems from Grimm Fairy Tales. She is the author of three scintillating collections of poetry and a denizen of Gotham. "Dear Breathing" and "If" are alive and well in our current issue, Digging Lazarus. "Exit Corpse" first appeared in Extinction.


Sommer Browning

From high up in the stacks in a library atop the Rockies, Sommer Browning is concocting ways to rearrange the cells in our gray matter. Librarian, poet, artist, and trickster, Ms. Browning is obviously an undercover superhero, which explains her curious crosbow skills. Sommer's poems appear in our notorious and essential money issue.


Paula Cisewski

From her forward operating base in Northeast Minneapolis, longtime friend and ally, Pauls Cisewski batttles the forces of complacency and comformity. Her poem “The Word String Can’t Blister Your Hands” first appeared in Big Bang way back in the twentieth century. Thankfully she returned to our pages in Failing Famously.


Josh Lefkowitz

Josh Lefkowitz

Josh Lefkowitz lives and laughs in the hamlet of Brooklyn. If his voice sounds familiar, you may well have heard him on All Things Considered. Really. His poem "I Saw James Tate" first appeared in Last Laugh.

 

Lorna Loy

A classical pianist, Lorna Loy was born in India and raised in Oklahoma. Her "Scavenger" roams the pages of Wonder. She lives in Boston, Massachusetts, the friendliest city in America.

 

Kristin Bock

Ms. Bock is the author of Cloisters, winner of the Tupelo Press First Book Award. "Belief Is a Default Setting" appears in our current issue, Wonder. She lives in Montague, Massachusetts, which some believe to be a suburb of Greenfield.

 

Joshua Marie Wilkinson

Born and raised in Seattle, Joshua Marie Wilkinson is the author of seven books of poetry and the editor of Volta. His "Cincinnati Poem" first appeared in Deep Water. He lives in Tucson, which is a long way from both Seattle and Cincinnati.

 

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Matt Hart

Matt lives, works, and triumphs in Cincinnati. Mr. Hart is the author of five books of poetry. He is also the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio and a mad muscian. His poem "Radiant Reflection" first appeared in Wonder.

 

Josefine Klougart

Josefine is a Danish-born writer living in Copenhagen. She is the author of four novels. Her short stories "Fall" and "Grandmother" first appeared in Night Light. She worked with Alexander Weinstein to translate them. Listen to them in both Danish and English.


Betsy Brown

Ms. Brown is a poet and fiction writer living majestically in the City of the Lakes. She is the author of Year of Morphines, a National Poetry Series winner. Her poem "Lac qui Parle" first appeared in Night Light.

 

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William Stobb

Before hitting paydirt by landing a gig at Conduit, William Stobb was merely a human...and a husband...and a soccer father and a professor and a MC and a riverboat captain, a sex symbol and a poet. Mr. Stobb is the author several books of poetry including Absentia. These two poems first appeared in Out the Door. He lives in La Crosse, down by the river.


Sarah Fox

Doula, diviner, and poetic aeronaut, Sarah Fox has conjured forth two breathtaking books, most recently, First Flag. She operates the Center for Visionary Poetics from a secret location in the North. "Thanatopsis" can be found in Drunk Genius.

 

Brett Ralph Conduit Audio

Brett Ralph

Sonic and poetic juggeranut Brett Ralph reads "Junior's Muse," which first appeared in Drunk Genius and "Punk Rock," which knocked off more than a few socks in our Premier issue. Mr. Ralph is the author of Black Sabbatical and Kentucky's eighth natural wonder.


Terri Ford Conduit

Terri Ford

Ms. Ford lives triumphantly wherever she goes. Ford is the author of two amazing books of poetry and the curator of one phenomenal shoe collection. She reads "Mister Hymen, which won the Patricia C. Astor Prize in Poetry and appeared in Drunk Genius,. Terri won the contest so convincingly we retired the prize.

 

Dobby Gibson Conduit Audio

Dobby Gibson

Mr. Gibson resides along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is the author of three books of poetry. Gibson possesses a scooter and an alias. Readings include "Depth Charged" and "For an Object to Float, It Must Displace Matter Equal to Its Weight" from Last Laugh.


Bianca Stone Conduit Audio

Bianca Stone

Bianca Stone reads "Even Moon," which first appeared in Bodies in Motion.

 

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz Conduit Audio

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz reads "Hysterical," which first appeared in Bodies in Motion,.

 

Dieter M. Gräf Conduit Audio

Dieter M. Gräf

Dieter M. Gräf was born in 1960 in Ludwigshafen, Germany and lives in Cologne. He has published three books of poetry, Rauchstudie: Vater + Son, Triebender Kopf, and Westrand. Andrew Shields is a translator and poet living in Switzerland. Hear the poems that appear both in Westrand and our very own Gray Matters read in German and English by Gräf and Shields respectively.


Tomaž Šalamun Conduit Audio

Tomaž Šalamun

Jorie Graham calls Tomaž Šalamun "one of Europe's great philosophical wonders." Hear Salamun read four poems in Slovenian and English. Hey, you can read along with him in both languages, but you won't top his beautiful renditions. These poems first appeared in Pedestrian.


Amanda Nadleberg Conduit Audio

Amanda Nadelberg

Amanda Nadelberg reads "Feivel" from Holy Hootenanny.

 

Nate Pritts Conduit Audio

Nate Pritts

Nate Pritts reads "Collected Poems" from Moving Images.

 

Joanna Fuhrman Conduit Audio

Joanna Fuhrman

Joanna Fuhrman reads "The Automythologist Takes a Vacation" from Moving Images.