To the Best of Our Knowledge: Poems Old and New

In this hour, as editor of Poetry Magazine, poet and essayist Christian Wiman's got a great vantage point from which to survey the state of English-language poetry. He and Steve Paulson sit down to talk about the magazine, poetry criticism and finding new voices.

Next, the Poetry Foundation's mandate is to support "a vigorous presence for poetry." In our digital age, that means getting poems onto our screens, big and small. Catherine Halley run the Foundation's digital programs. She tells Anne Strainchamps about how people are reading poems online, and we sit on a meeting about a new project in development.

Then, this month, Natasha Trethewey was appointed to be the next US Poet Laureate. In this interview with Steve Paulson, Trethewey talks about writing and rewriting history and memory.

Finally, although Anne Carson doesn't call her work poetry, her translations, short talks, verse novels, essays as tangos, prose poems, illustrated poetry collections don't seem to fit in any other category. In this conversation with Jim Fleming, Carson talks about forms, old and new. [Broadcast Date: June 20, 2012]