Speedway & Swan Episode 19: TC Tolbert

Poet TC Tolbert joins host Brian Blanchfield for an episode of poetry not on the level, poetry wherein things are not as they seem, and poetry that remakes the world. Featuring work by Mathias Svalina, Ed Pavlic, Camille Rankine, Khaled Mattawa, CA Conrad, Connie Voisine, Maged Zaher, and Samuel Ace—and a recording of Marie Howe reading her poetry.

With musical selections by Black Violin, Aphex Twin, Kool & The Gang, Loretta Lynn, Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers, and more.

Maged Zaher | Two poems from What If Reality Doesn’t Work Out. Split Level Texts, 2014.

Mathias Svalina | “Creation Myth.” Destruction Myth. Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2010.

Connie Voisine | “Calle Florista,” Calle Florista. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

Camille Rankine | “The Current Isolationism,” Incorrect Merciful Impulses. Copper Canyon Press, 2016.

Samuel Ace | “I met a man,” Troubling the Line: Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics, Nightboat Books, 2013.

Marie Howe | “Magdalene of the Seven Devils,” Recorded on On Being, NPR, 2014.

Ed Pavlic | “Summertime, or Somewhere Just (South of) Above My Head,” Let’s Let That Are Not Yet. Fence Books, 2015.

CA Conrad | Two poems from The Book of Frank. Wave Books, 2010.

Khlaed Mattawa | “Heartsong,” Amorisco. Ausable Press, 2008.


SPEEDWAY & SWAN is a fortnightly one-hour free-format radio program that presents contemporary poetry against a context of variously compatible and offbeat musical selections.  Culling from the exceptional libraries of his partners, the University of Arizona Poetry Center and KXCI 91.3 Tucson Community Radio, creator and host Brian Blanchfield is joined in conversation each episode by a rotating guest co-host who brings to the hour a selection of poetry from his or her personal canon, which, along with the freshest and best from the "new shelves," they read live. 

Each show also features a recorded performance from Voca, the Poetry Center's audio archive of its legendary poetry readings since 1963. SPEEDWAY & SWAN represents a partnership between the Poetry Center, which will archive the show in listenable format with an annotated playlist, and KXCI, where the show streams live.   

Since 1983, KXCI 91.3 FM has been committed to connecting Tucson and Southern Arizona to one another and to the world with informative, engaging, and creative community-based radio programming.

Brian Blanchfield is a poet and writer whose two books of poetry, Not Even Then and A Several World, have won him The James Laughlin Award, a Howard Foundation fellowship, and recognition as longlist finalist for the National Book Award. A poetry editor of Fence, he teaches creative writing at the University of Arizona and runs the downtown Tucson reading series Intermezzo. Contact: speedwayandswan@gmail.com.

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