6 — Poet Talk about Swimming featuring Diana Khoi Nguyen

04/20/25 • 75 min

In the sixth episode of Poet Talk, we’re joined by one of our favourite poets: Diana Khoi Nguyen.

Together, we explore swimming as both a poetic and life practice. A master class on the body's inherent abilities as well as the legacy of inherited sound, this episode dives deep into what it means to sculpt language like water.

What does learning to speak have to do with learning to swim? How does the sheet music of the body emerge from silence? And where, in poems, might the natural cadence of our language lead?

Tune in as we explore these questions and more.

Notes

🌱 Resources on Indigenous Peoples in "Pittsburgh"

📗 Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen

📘 Root Fractures by Diana Khoi Nguyen

🎙️ Diana Khoi Nguyen vs Silence

📝 "Grief Logic" from Ghost Of

🎙️ Helena Bonham Carter reads Danusha Laméris' "Small Kindnesses"

💬 Proprioception

📒 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

📈Đổi Mới

🚼 Researchers find meaning in baby babbling

📝 Excerpt of "Đổi Mới" from Root Fractures

Support Crips for E-Sims for Gaza. ❤️

Support the show

🔔 Follow, rate and subscribe to Poet Talk wherever you're listening.
✨ Poet Talk is independently run, created and produced by Sanna Wani.
♫ Check out the show music in the album Hélice's Awesome Dance Adventure and the creator Komiku on their website.
📲 Don't forget to follow us on Instagram, @talkpoet.

In the sixth episode of Poet Talk, we’re joined by one of our favourite poets: Diana Khoi Nguyen.

What does learning to speak have to do with learning to swim? How does the sheet music of the body emerge from silence? And where, in poems, might the natural cadence of our language lead?

Tune in as we explore these questions and more.

Notes

🌱 Resources on Indigenous Peoples in "Pittsburgh"

📗 Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen

📘 Root Fractures by Diana Khoi Nguyen

🎙️ Diana Khoi Nguyen vs Silence

📝 "Grief Logic" from Ghost Of

🎙️ Helena Bonham Carter reads Danusha Laméris' "Small Kindnesses"

💬 Proprioception

📒 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

📈Đổi Mới

🚼 Researchers find meaning in baby babbling

📝 Excerpt of "Đổi Mới" from Root Fractures

Support Crips for E-Sims for Gaza. ❤️

Support the show

Previous Episode

5 — Poet Talk about a Poem: "God is an American" by Terrance Hayes

In the last episode of 2024, Jody and Sanna reflect on the first year of the podcast and their own places in writing community. They also do a close reading of one of their favourite poems: “God is an American” by Terrance Hayes. Together, they investigate beauty’s difficulty and longing’s limits, informed by the wisdom of Audre Lorde, Heather Christle and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha among others.
How is the artist a cultural worker? What constitutes an American poetics? And why, most importantly, was Terrance Hayes labelled “Handsome Mystery Man” on the news in 2021? Tune in and find out.
This month, we're partnering with Arc Poetry Magazine! Learn more about their Poem of the Year contest here. Submit your poems by February 1, 2025.
"God is an American" was first published in Guernica Magazine in 2007 and then in Hayes' fourth collection, Lighthead (Penguin Random House, 2010).
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Cool Stuff Below! 🛍️
📢 Toronto Writers Against the War on Gaza
🗣️ Canlit Responds: Boycott Giller
🚨 No Arms in the Arts
📝 Read Jody’s Counter-Gala speech
💬 Schadenfreude
📙 Where Things Touch by Bahar Orang
📝 Audre Lorde quote from "We Must Learn to Use Our Power”
🎙️ Lena Khalaf Tuffaha's speech at the National Book Awards
📒 America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
📗 America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
📘 Heather Christle quote from The Crying Book☀️ Nuclear fusion (not fission) at the heart of the sun📝 "Notes on Craft: Writing in the Hour of Genocide" by Fargo Tbakhi
📸 Terrances Hayes as Handsome Mystery Man on the news