In a special two-part episode for the Commonplace Podcast, host Rachel Zucker speaks with BOA poet Erika Meitner (Copia, 2014) about "her circuitous route to becoming a poet, her early influences (especially the work of Mark Doty), her conversational diction and increasingly straight-forward poetics, [and] her experience of reporting in verse while in Cleveland during the Republican National Convention."

According to Commonplace, Meitner "explains that much of her work arises from a commitment to writing accurately and respectfully about the small town in which she lives, and the challenges of writing as an engaged member of her community while being an othered outsider, a poet, a Jew, and the white mother of a black son.

"Meitner and Zucker discuss documentary poetry, the ethical considerations of writing about real people, alternatives to the pastoral, and 'gritpo,' a term neither of them really understand. . . . Their conversation explores the difference between poetry and media, the challenges of working on commission and on deadline, and the efficacy of poetry as a tool for social justice."

Click here to listen to the full Commonplace episode.

Meitner's latest poetry collection, Copia, is available now at the BOA Bookstore.