In a lively conversation, Yael talks with Jennifer Maritza McCauley about her extraordinary poetry collection, Kinds of Grace.

In this episode of Each Bring a Poem, host Yael Valencia Aldana and her guest Nona Lea discuss their poem picks. Nona is the Marketing Manager at the Independent Press Purple Ink Press. Yael is the Managing Editor at Purple Ink Press. https://Purpleinkpress.com

The episode’s featured poems:

Nona’s pick

Blood is Thicker Than Water

By Maureen P. Medina

From her collection

My Fears Out Loud

https://linktr.ee/MaureenPMedina

Yael’s Pick

AGE OF BEAUTY

By

Emilia Phillips

From her collection

Embouchure

https://emiliaphillips.com/

In this episode of Each Bring a Poem, the poetic conversation is with Richard Blanco, 5th US inaugural poet. Richard misunderstood the brief and brought his own poem to the party with some ensuing hilarity. But watch his reading make me cry. 

Well the electronic gremlins got me again, and the sound dropped out in the 2nd half of the podcast. But I am sharing Part One now so can enjoy Richard Blanca’s beautiful poem and check him and the other wonderful poems at the Miami Book Fair.

Richard's poem, A Good Day to Die, is in his new book Homeland of My Body. Check out the book and learn more about Richard here https://richard-blanco.com/books/homeland-of-my-body/

Your host, Yael Valencia Aldana, is an Afro-Latinx poet living in South Florida. She is the author of the chapbook Aliens, the forthcoming poetry collection, Black Mestiza, and is a Founding Editor at Purple Ink Press. Find out more about her at YaelAldana.com.

Another joyful, deep dive into two poems. This time my guest is Elisa Albo, a local poet and professor. In this episode, Elisa picks the poem, Photograph of the Girl by Sharon Olds. Yael’s pick is The Last Thing by Ada Limón.

This episode’s guest, Elisa Albo is an award-winning professor of composition, literature, ESL, and creative writing at Broward College. A contributing editor of Grabbed: Poets and Writers on Sexual Harassment, Empowerment, and Healing, her poetry chapbooks are Passage to America, based on her family immigrant story, and Each Day More, a collection of elegies. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Alimentum, Bomb, Crab Orchard Review, Irresistible Appetites, MiPoesias, Notre Dame Review, Poetry Super Highway, SWWIM Every Day, Two-Countries: U.S. Daughters and Sons of Immigrant Parents, and Vinegar and Char. Nominated in 2021 for a Best of the Net award, she is an associate editor for the South Florida Poetry Journal and co-produces the Seahawk Writing Conference at Broward College where she also teaches a food-themed film and literature course. Born in Havana, she lives with her family in Fort Lauderdale.

Each Bring a Poem’s host Yael Valencia Aldana is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection, Black Mestiza (University Press of Kentucky, 2025) and of the chapbook, Alien(s) (Bottlecap Press). She is the winner of the University Press of Kentucky New Poetry and Prose Series Prize 2023 in poetry. She is a Guest Editor at Palette Poetry, Frontier Poetry, and Craft Literary. She teaches creative writing at Florida International University and lives in South Florida with her son and too many pets. You can find her online at YaelAldana.com.

Another wide-ranging discussion with two poets having a bit too much fun discussing two of their favorite poems, life, and everything in between. Host Yael Valencia Aldana welcomes Jubi Arriola-Headley.

JUBI ARRIOLA-HEADLEY (he/him) is a Black homoflexible poet, storyteller, first-generation United Statesian and author of the poetry collection original kink (Sibling Rivalry Press), recipient of the 2021 Housatonic Book Award; his second collection, Bound, will be published by Persea Books in early 2024. You can find Jubi at Justjubi.com

Yael Valencia Aldana is a Caribbean Afro-Latinx writer and poet. She is a descendant of the indigenous people of modern-day Colombia. Her work has also appeared or is upcoming in Stone Coast Review, South Florida Poetry Journal, and Cutbank Literary Journal, among others. She teaches creative writing in South Florida, where she lives with her son and too many pets. You can find her online at YaelAldana.com.

Julie and Yael have a joyful, complete unwieldy conversation between two poetry lovers about some of our favorite poems. We nerd out, delve deep and Virgo about these poems and poetry in general.

Julie’s pick is the poem “Tenue at Forty” is from the debut collection Bardo by Suzanne Paola. Yael’s pick is “Two Miles Away” by Margaret Atwood from her collection Two Headed Poems.

Some of the burning questions are answered:

What is Virgoing?

What was Julie reading in the fourth grade?

What is the difference between oral and aural?

Which independent New York bookstore did Yael work in?