100 WVIA Way
Pittston, PA 18640

Phone: 570-826-6144
Fax: 570-655-1180

Copyright © 2025 WVIA, all rights reserved. WVIA is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.
DONATE
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
In just 10 seconds, YOU can take a stand for WVIA! Tell Congress to Protect Public Media NOW!
Sign In
Poetry in America

Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper

Season 4 Episode 7 | 25m 21s

Long before he won the National Book Award, Latinx poet Martín Espada worked after school in a factory making legal pads. Espada, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, economists Natasha Sarin, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers, historian Jill Lepore, and actor John Turturro join Elisa New to reflect on social mobility, and what connects manual labor with the raw materials of poetry and law.

Aired: 05/12/24 | Expires: 06/10/24
Support for Poetry in America is provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Dalio Family Fund, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Deborah Hayes Stone and Max Stone, Nancy Zimmerman and Walmart. Seasons 4 & 3 are distributed to PBS stations nationwide by PBS Plus, with Seasons 1 & 2 distributed nationally by American Public Television.
Extras
Watch • 0:30
Poetry in America
Season 4 Preview
Performers, politicians, preachers and more join Elisa New to celebrate American poems.
Preview: S4 | 0:30
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Phillis Wheatley: To the University
Poems by Wheatley with Amanda Gorman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Richard Blanco, and more.
Episode: S4 E1 | 25:21
Watch • 25:41
Poetry in America
Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay
Leslie Jamison, Olivia Gatwood, & more read a sonnet by Millay with host Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E8 | 25:41
Watch • 25:14
Poetry in America
Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos
Linda Hogan & Alberto Ríos explore their poems with host Elisa New, Jeff Corwin & more.
Episode: S3 E7 | 25:14
Watch • 25:38
Poetry in America
Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer
Elisa New, Emily Oster, Sharon Olds, & Bernadette Mayer explore poems on motherhood.
Episode: S3 E6 | 25:38
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Mending Wall, by Robert Frost
Caroline Kennedy, Tracy K. Smith & more read Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” with Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E5 | 25:21
Watch • 25:22
Poetry in America
you can say that again, billie, by Evie Shockley
Cassandra Wilson, Elisa New & more read Evie Shockley’s “you can say that again, billie.”
Episode: S3 E4 | 25:22
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Cascadilla Falls, by A. R. Ammons
DJ Spooky, Joshua Bennett, & more discuss A.R. Ammon’s “Cascadilla Falls” with Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E3 | 25:21
Watch • 25:02
Poetry in America
Looking for The Gulf Motel, by Richard Blanco
Gloria Estefan & more read Richard Blanco’s "Looking for The Gulf Motel" with Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E2 | 25:02
Watch • 25:11
Poetry in America
The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman
Tony Kushner, David Strathairn & more read Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser” with Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E1 | 25:11
Latest Episodes
All
  • All
  • Poetry in America Season 4
  • Poetry in America
  • Poetry in America
  • Poetry in America Season 1
Watch • 24:42
Poetry in America
Steps
Play hooky with Frank O’Hara’s “Lunch Poems.” Poets and NYC-lovers join host Elisa New.
Episode: S4 E8 | 24:42
Watch • 25:43
Poetry in America
Emperor of Ice Cream, Motive for Metaphor
Murray Bartlett, Laurie Santos, and more guests join Elisa New to read Wallace Stevens.
Episode: S4 E6 | 25:43
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Hill Country
Drive through West Texas with Tracy K. Smith, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and host Elisa New.
Episode: S4 E5 | 25:21
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
July in Washington
David Axelrod, Bill Kristol and Andrea Mitchell read Robert Lowell with Elisa New.
Episode: S4 E4 | 25:21
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt
Consider the poetics, and politics, of fungi with poems by Sylvia Plath and Kay Ryan.
Episode: S4 E3 | 25:21
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Six Years Later, Epitaph for a Centaur
Read the elegiac poetry of Joseph Brodsky, a Cold War Russian exile, with host Elisa New.
Episode: S4 E2 | 25:21
Watch • 25:21
Poetry in America
Phillis Wheatley: To the University
Poems by Wheatley with Amanda Gorman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Richard Blanco, and more.
Episode: S4 E1 | 25:21
Watch • 25:41
Poetry in America
Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay
Leslie Jamison, Olivia Gatwood, & more read a sonnet by Millay with host Elisa New.
Episode: S3 E8 | 25:41
Watch • 25:14
Poetry in America
Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos
Linda Hogan & Alberto Ríos explore their poems with host Elisa New, Jeff Corwin & more.
Episode: S3 E7 | 25:14
Watch • 25:38
Poetry in America
Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer
Elisa New, Emily Oster, Sharon Olds, & Bernadette Mayer explore poems on motherhood.
Episode: S3 E6 | 25:38