NPR's All Things Considered Looks at Three Books of Poetry That Mine Nonfiction

At NPR's All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro talks with their poetry reviewer Tess Taylor about three new collections, Admit One (Pitt Poetry) by Martha Collins, Look (Graywolf) by Solmaz Sharif and Olio (Wave Books) by Tyehimba Jess. All three authors "have chosen to mine nonfiction to explore thorny subjects." From their conversation:

[ARI] SHAPIRO: Let's talk about the third collection here. It's called "Olio" by a poet named Tyehimba Jess. What's going on in this collection?

[TESS] TAYLOR: The content of this book really is a remarkable one. You know, Tyehimba Jess gathers the histories of the lives - untold lives of many of the African-American artists who sort of built the blues and jazz and the sound that we, you know, consider - sounds we consider quintessentially American. And he's written these poems as history in a variety of voices, in a chorus.

He's got snippets of letters, interviews with Scott Joplin's widow. He's got a whole poetic history of Millie and Christine McKoy, who were these conjoined twins who were born into slavery and taken on the road and eventually became part of P.T. Barnum's circus. It's a history of exploitation. It's a history of beauty. It's a history that, by and large, has not been written down properly.

SHAPIRO: But it's not a book you have to read beginning to end, page by page.

TAYLOR: I don't think so. I don't think that that - it's very pleasurable. It's got a lot of - it's got a really tactile quality to it.

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

TAYLOR: There's a page that just has F - like, the F note. And it says, pentatonic black keys raise up high into bliss, born to sing my name.

SHAPIRO: Here's a page with C on it, like...

SHAPIRO: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: ...The note C, and it says, my motto for life, merit, not sympathy, wins my song against death.

TAYLOR: But then on page 155 you have the Work Progress Administration field interview - text of interview unedited - name of worker, Eva Shu (ph), state - Ohio.

SHAPIRO: Tess, why do you think these different poets from different backgrounds tackling different subjects are all gravitating towards these scraps of nonfiction in their poetry collections?

TAYLOR: You know, I think maybe this is actually an American thing (laughter) to do...

Read the full transcript or listen to the show at NPR. And to hear Jess read his poem "Sissieretta Jones" from Olio, go here now!