Building Yesterday’s Future–For Everyone
Continuing to pair the early speculative tools for reading with more deeper analytical resources is still in order, so in that vein we’re going to converse about how speculative poetry wrestles with deeply sociopolitical thematic matter.
We should keep acquainting ourselves with some of the standout poets in this wonderful genre, so this week we’re chatting with SFPA Grand Master and editor David C. Kopaska-Merkel!
Now that we have enough early-stage tools to discuss what makes poetry speculative, it’s a good time to consider something just a little bit more complex: what is the poem confronting that is valuable for us?
Consider this a breakdown of not just the avenues to read your way into speculative poetry but also as an encouragement as to why you should.
At this point, we’ve been building up our muscles in finding ways to approach poems that intrigue and challenge us. Today, let’s consider yet another one of those reading tools: considering pop culture as an element of the speculative.
This week’s poetry chat is with the inimitable former president of the SFPA and an ambassador of speculative poetry, Bryan Thao Worra!
We’ve been talking about some of the ways one can start discovering and interacting with the speculative heart of these poems. Let’s keep going by using another question-metric one can apply while reading: What is the poem speculating about?
Following up with our wonderful chat with Science Fiction Poetry Association Grand Master Mary Soon Lee a fortnight ago, today we’re chatting with current SFPA President Colleen Anderson!
Today, let’s chat about (my probably controversial thoughts on) symbolic intensity and how even the most challenging poem can clearly reveal a speculative core.
When we started this Con-Verse-ation, we invited several standout poets to answer the pressing question of how to define and identify speculative poetry. Today, we’re chatting with multiple-award-winning poet and SFPA Grand Master Mary Soon Lee!