Poets Joe Hall and Jae Newman discuss the relationship between religion, spirituality, and poetry. We learn how these have informed their poetry, how their poetry engages the spiritual, and how their work is received by the broader literary audience. Joe Hall and Jae Newman also give us some moving readings of their poems.
About Joe Hall:
Joe Hall is a writer, teacher and scholar. His collections of poetry from Black Ocean Press are Pigafetta Is My Wife, The Devotional Poems, and Someone's Utopia (forthcoming). With Cheryl Quimba, he wrote the chapbook May I Softly Walk. Post Colonial studies recently published an article he wrote on representations of water in Palestinian Literature. He is completing a dissertation on commons, water, and poetry in the literature of the long eighteenth century. He lives in Kenmore, NY.
About Jae Newman:
Jae Newman lives in Rochester with his wife and three children. A graduate of the MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University, Newman's work has appeared in journals like Redivider, Bellingham Review and Rock & Sling and received nomination for a Pushcart Prize. He worked recently as a blogger for Ruminate Magazine, the well-respected journal of the intersections of faith and art. His first collection of poems, Collage of Seoul, was published in 2015 by Cascade Books. He works as a teacher and writing instructor at St. Paul Lutheran School, Roberts Weselyan College, and Northeastern Seminary, where he graduated from in 2015 with an MA in Theological Studies.