Happy Fall from PopPoetry!

It's been a bustling, busy summer. Who's ready for a slowdown this fall?

Photo by Luca Bravo on Unsplash

I wish I could tell you I had a restful summer, but because I am wicked I have had no rest. We bought a house!

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Searching for it, getting financing, and now moving into it (finishing up this weekend!) has absorbed most of our extra (ha!) brainpower, but things are evening out a bit now, thankfully. That means I have a little more bandwidth to write about all things poetry and pop culture. But the key words are a little…

PopPoetry News

I’ve had a long hard think about this in the past few months, and for the rest of the year, PopPoetry will be published on a periodic basis.

This was a really tough call to make since I’ve been publishing weekly with only scant breaks for years now. But with a growing family, a new house, an increased workload, and lots of poems and essays and other things to write and get out into the world, publishing right on schedule just doesn’t feel viable at this particular moment.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: thank you for recognizing that a human being is behind this Substack. I abhor the term “content creator” because I feel that writers have substantially more to offer the world than “content,” or something to idly scroll through while sitting on the toilet. If I could make PopPoetry my full-time job, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But at the moment, I’m spinning a lot of plates personally and professionally.

FAQ

What happens to my paid subscription?

Paid subscribers won’t be exchanging their dollars for guaranteed weekly posts going forward, but they’ll still have access to special posts and promotions. If you’d like to go paid or continue your paid subscription, you might think of it as a kind of patronage or sponsorship of the work I’m doing here more generally. I would be deeply, deeply grateful if you’re able to show your support for quality writing, lifting up poetry, and investigating poetry’s role in pop culture by becoming or remaining a free or paid subscriber.

When will new PopPoetry posts appear?

You won’t hear from me on Wednesday morning like clockwork going forward, but there will be new posts happening whenever I’m able to get them out. I’ll reevaluate how this feels in 2025 and keep you updated about future publishing plans.

Are you still open to guest post pitches?

Absolutely! Email me at poetrygoespop at gmail dot com to pitch or start a conversation about what you’d like to write about. I’d love to hear about your ideas for new posts.

What kind of posts can I look forward to?

Don’t fret! I still have lots of great things planned: guest posts, interviews and reviews, returning features like Poets Wearing Headphones, All That Glitters, and Poets Watching TV, new voiceovers, and hopefully more one day. I just have to take a little pressure off the weekly post in order to bring you excellent content that’s worth the read.

Here are some things to look forward to:

• A fresh course syllabus from Dr. Jenny Molberg, who has been using PopPoetry as a teaching tool for years.

• Posts from Mr. PopPoetry himself on Rancid, Jim Carroll, Batman the Animated Series, and William Blake.

• A dispatch from the world of higher education, where English departments are still grappling with the question of Taylor-Swift-as-poet.

• New book reviews, poet interviews, and more!

I’ll be sharing Dr. Molberg’s syllabus next week. Until then, have something to eat—you look famished!

Poetry & Pop Culture Snacks: Deluxe Edition

Poetry is in the news as of late. Here are some recent tidbits that caught my attention:

• Amanda Gorman is at it again. (FWIW: I find Danez Smith’s recent work to be a great antidote to some of Gorman’s party-line toe-ing work.)

• NYT’s Culture Desk gave some love to Warsan Shire, who Beyonce helped reach a wider audience via Lemonade.

• Playwright Annie Baker’s debut feature-length film Janet Planet highlights a Rilke poem, one of the Duino Elegies, at a critical moment.

• A well-known Maya Angelou poem is featured in a new Simone Biles documentary. Narrated by Viola Davis, the doc features Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” which you can hear part of in the trailer.

• Earlier this summer, poet Jorie Graham took to Twitter (I will never refer to the site as X, ever, just as an FYI) to condemn artistic censorship and support the release of the film The Apprentice, which chronicles the relationship of Roy Cohn and a certain former president. Graham calls out the “pre-internalization of the autocratic world” that she feels has held up the release. The film will finally hit theaters on October 11.

• An oldie I missed this spring but wanted to post—how did Patti Smith feel about being namedropped on Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department? She was flattered:

  thisispattismith

  

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Book Tour News

I’ve got some great readings coming up if you’re in or near Chicago or Ann Arbor! Come by to meet me, get a signed copy of my book, and hear me read from Happy Everything (and maybe some new stuff, too!)

Literati Bookstore (Ann Arbor) and The PO Box Collective (Chicago)

November 7, 2024

Literati
124 E Washington St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
@ 6:30pm
with Saba Keramati and Jordan Windholz

November 21, 2024

The PO Box Collective
6900 N Glenwood Ave
Chicago, IL 60626
@ 7:00pm
with Megan Pinto

Thank you, thank you, thank you for reading and championing PopPoetry. I’ll see you again soon!

—Caitlin