Advice From an Unknown Poet

About Advice From an Unknown Poet

Two friends try to figure out what it means to write poems and stay sane while putting one foot in a poetry world that seems to baffle us all. By Alice Allan & Jonathan Farmer.

Publisher

Advice From an Unknown Poet

Category

arts

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

21 Mar 2026

Latest episode

6 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

12 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Jun 2026

   12. Good Advice!

   What are the things that have turned out to be helpful for you? Show notes Eileen Myles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Myles) Poetry Says ep 212. with Paul Kane (https://poetrysays.com/ep-212-paul-kane-the-view-from-the-volcano/) Ronin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHrhOuz_QEk) (1998) Elijah’s podcast Versecraft (https://versecraft.substack.com/) Alice’s article about envy (https://newversereview.substack.com/p/we-hate-it-when-our-friends-become) Scared Shitless (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk0hSeQ5s_k) by Merlin Mann Spiderman pointing at Spiderman (https://imgflip.com/memegenerator/110133729/spiderman-pointing-at-spiderman) HEAT (https://giramondopublishing.com/heat/) SLEERICKETS (https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets)

2. 

   30 May 2026

   11. Poets

   Tell me about a poet you admire. Show notes Lucille Clifton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucille_Clifton) won’t you celebrate with me (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50974/wont-you-celebrate-with-me) by Lucille Clifton The Ern Malley hoax (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern_Malley_hoax) Pam Brown (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Brown)‘s book click here for what we do (https://vagabondpress.net/products/pam-brown-untitled) The ALS gold medal (https://www.asal.org.au/awards/als-gold-medal/) Poetry Says episodes with Pam: 104 (https://poetrysays.com/ep-104-pam-brown-skeptical-optimism-in-a-post-human-age/) (underprepared) and 175 (https://poetrysays.com/ep-175-pam-brown-returns/) (better prepared) The satin bowerbird (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satin_bowerbird) Rae Armantrout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rae_Armantrout)

3. 

   23 May 2026

   10. Promotion

   How do you promote your poetry and put yourself out there without going insane? Show notes Alice’s Substack (https://aliceallan.substack.com/) Alice’s book The Empty Show (https://rabbitpoetry.com/shop/allan-the-empty-show) The AWP conference (https://awpwriter.org/AWP/AWP/Conference-Bookfair/Overview.aspx) Catalogue of Unabashed Gratitude (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uURnrX_-v6o) by Ross Gay (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Gay) At Length (https://atlengthmag.com/)

4. 

   16 May 2026

   09. Poetry

   What’s the point of poetry? Show notes Timothée Chalamet’s statement on opera and ballet (https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PH4SqEuCewo) Ep 01. Fear (https://www.unknown-poet.com/2026/03/21/01-fear/) Asphodel, that Greeny Flower (https://poets.org/poem/asphodel-greeny-flower-excerpt) by William Carlos Williams Poetry Says Ep 270. Jonathan Farmer: “I don’t think I love poetry.” (https://poetrysays.com/ep-270-jonathan-farmer-i-dont-think-i-love-poetry/) On Convention (https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/convention/) by Alan Shapiro Paradise Lost (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost) by John Milton Five Bells (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Bells) by Kenneth Slessor One Art (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art) by Elizabeth Bishop The Moose (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48288/the-moose-56d22967e5820) by Elizabeth Bishop Jane Kenyon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Kenyon)

5. 

   9 May 2026

   08. Kindness

   How do you manage your obligations to the people who appear in your poems? Show notes The Dolphin (https://www.amazon.com.au/Dolphin-Two-Versions-1972-1973/dp/0374538271) by Robert Lowell Alice’s poem Bad Boys for Life (https://www.newversereview.com/2-1-alice-allan) Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Michael-Nott-Thom-Gunn:-A-Cool-Queer-Life-9780571362561) by Michael Nott The Hug (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57038/the-hug)by Thom Gunn Can Love Last? (https://www.amazon.com.au/Can-Love-Last-Fate-Romance/dp/0393323730) by Stephen A. Mitchell How to Be a Family (https://www.dankois.com/how-to-be-a-family) by Dan Kois The Night of the Gun (https://www.amazon.com.au/Night-Gun-Reporter-Investigates-Darkest/dp/1416541535) by David Carr Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz (https://www.amazon.com.au/Fire-Belly-Times-David-Wojnarowicz/dp/1608194191) by Cynthia Carr Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay (https://www.penguin.com.au/books/savage-beauty-9780375760815) by Nancy Milford Philip Larkin: Life, Art and Love (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1620407817/?tag=slatmaga-20) by Peta Leith Jonathan’s review of the Larkin biography (https://slate.com/culture/2014/11/james-booths-biography-of-philip-larkin-reviewed.html) Jonathan’s review of Patricia Lockwood (https://slate.com/culture/2014/06/patricia-lockwoods-poetry-collection-motherland-fatherland-homelandsexuals-reviewed.html)

6. 

   2 May 2026

   07. Community Pt. 2

   How do you find your people? Show notes Bonny Cassidy (https://www.bonnycassidy.com/) Marrickville (http://cordite.org.au/poetry/notheme5/marrickville/) by Louise Carter (https://louisecarter.net.au/) Thom Gunn: A Cool Queer Life (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Michael-Nott-Thom-Gunn:-A-Cool-Queer-Life-9780571362561) by Michael Nott Jonathan’s essay “A Giving of the Self”: on Thom Gunn and Courtliness (https://www.ronslate.com/a-giving-of-the-self-on-thom-gunn-and-courtliness/) Donald Hall (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Hall) Melinda Bufton (https://www.instagram.com/melindabufton/) The Alderman (https://www.thealderman.com.au/) Pam Brown (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Brown) Mrs Dalloway (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs_Dalloway) by Virginia Woolf

7. 

   25 Apr 2026

   06. Productivity

   Why do you have such a strong need to be productive? Show notes Merlin Mann (https://www.merlinmann.com/) The 4-Hour Work Week (https://fourhourworkweek.com/) by Tim Ferris Getting Things Done (https://gettingthingsdone.com/) by David Allen The Worst Person in the World (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_cV1q02cyE) (2021) Yelling at clouds (https://aliceallan.substack.com/p/yelling-at-clouds) (Alice on love hearts)

8. 

   18 Apr 2026

   05. Bad Advice

   Which pieces of writing advice get on your nerves? Show notes On Writing (https://dn720006.ca.archive.org/0/items/english-collections-k-z/On%20Writing_%20A%20Memoir%20of%20the%20Craft%20-%20Stephen%20King.pdf) by Stephen King What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_I_Talk_About_When_I_Talk_About_Running) by Haruki Murakami The Creative Habit (https://www.amazon.com.au/Creative-Habit-Learn-Use-Life/dp/0743235274) by Twyla Tharp The Writing Life (https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Annie-Dillard-Writing-Life-9781837264162) by Annie Dillard Big Magic (https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/books/big-magic/) by Elizabeth Gilbert Scrivener (https://scrivener.app/) The Artists Way (https://juliacameronlive.com/book/the-artists-way-a-spiritual-path-to-higher-creativity/) by Julia Cameron Eileen Myles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eileen_Myles) Ep 232: Mr Bones, ft. Shane McCrae (https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets/f27amak4rbj4esx-d5797-rxn52-7bg5j-xft4b-g72lt-78wx6-26ec3-jnxhh-f9tgj-8mllm-56554-hdcsy-hremz-kwj5p-dfrnl-7ryny-2pc44-yte8t-k65rd-led2k-6kwsd-spbp9-fbpcl-lmtft-8rnna-43bfh-4x9mn-m2kjm-356se) Joshua Mehigan (https://www.joshuamehigan.info/) George Oppen (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/george-oppen) SLEERICKETS group chat! (https://sleerickets.substack.com/chat) Scared Shitless (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk0hSeQ5s_k) by Merlin Mann

9. 

   11 Apr 2026

   04. Learning

   How should we learn poetry? Show notes Siegfried Sassoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon) Dulce et Decorum Est (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46560/dulce-et-decorum-est) by Wilfred Owen Open Yale Courses’ Modern Poetry (https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-310) taught by Langdon Hammer Modern & Contemporary American Poetry (https://modpo.org/) taught by Al Filreis The Orange (https://gladdestthing.com/poems/the-orange) by Wendy Cope Asphodel that Greeny Flower (https://poets.org/poem/asphodel-greeny-flower-excerpt) by William Carlos Williams Easter, 1916 (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43289/easter-1916) by William Butler Yeats In Memory of W. B. Yeats (https://poets.org/poem/memory-w-b-yeats) by W. H. Auden Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k98Afd7Nf3Y) (2021)

10. 

    4 Apr 2026

    03. Desire

    If you could clear away all the striving and the desire for recognition, what would you want to make in your poems? Show notes Scrambled Eggs & Whiskey (https://www.coppercanyonpress.org/books/scrambled-eggs-whiskey-poems-1991-1995-by-hayden-carruth/) by Hayden Carruth The Other Side of Daylight (https://www.uqp.com.au/books/the-other-side-of-daylight) by David Brooks SLEERICKETS Ep 178: All the Supposedly Wonderful Poetry (https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets/sh7gk2sjw3cma67-23e9s-b73tn-4yrww) Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form (https://www.amazon.com.au/Our-Secret-Discipline-Yeats-Lyric/dp/0674026950) by Helen Vendler Golden Repair (https://giramondopublishing.com/books/louise-carter-golden-repair/) by Louise Carter

11. 

    26 Mar 2026

    02. Community

    How do you deal with the weird mix of professional and personal connection that comes along with relationships in the poetry world? Show notes SLEERICKETS: Five Blade Mode, ft. Jonathan Farmer (https://sleerickets.substack.com/p/five-blade-mode-ft-jonathan-farmer) To the Dead (https://awp.diaart.org/poetry/87_88/bidart1.html) by Frank Bidart

12. 

    21 Mar 2026

    01. Fear

    What do you do with the fear that you aren’t very good? Show notes Berryman (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58530/berryman) by W. S. Merwin Proxies (https://nightboat.org/book/proxies/) by Brian Blanchfield

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

12 ratings