Living Writers 2026-03-18

The episode begins with host T. Hetzel welcoming Chris Crowder to the studio on the day his debut poetry collection 'The Kin of Nakedness' is launched at Literati Bookstore. Crowder shares that he started the book around 2021 after his MFA, having submitted an earlier manuscript 30-40 times without success. He credits professor Samita Chakraborty's class on failure as a major influence on the book's themes. Crowder describes his writing process, including isolating lines on strips of paper and keeping a disorganized notebook. He discusses choosing songs for the show, particularly a Proto Martyr track with lyrics about technique versus passion. The conversation turns to poetic form, with Crowder mentioning writing quaterns and being inspired by post-punk music's free association. He reflects on silence as a compositional tool, learned from Samita Chakraborty and Dorothy Chan. Crowder explains the book's title originated from a discarded line, influenced by Rita Dove's quote about daring to write vulnerably. He talks about reaching out to poets like Douglas Kearney, Courtney Lamar Charleston, and Francine J. Harris for blurbs. The interview touches on Crowder's upbringing in Flint, Michigan, including a childhood meeting with author Christopher Paul Curtis. Crowder reads an excerpt from his Ars Poetica about Flint, referencing poet Robert Hayden and images of Buicks and Chevys. He shares that the book includes diagrams of the body labeled 'hands' and 'feet' to structure sections. Crowder discusses his roles as a lecturer at the University of Michigan and managing editor of the Adroit Journal. He mentions attending the AWP conference in Baltimore and plans for future readings. The episode concludes with Crowder reading another poem, 'Two Triptychs to', and discussing how a typesetting issue led to changing an alchemical symbol from 'dissolve' to 'purify' in the book.

As heard by us

A book talk about bodies, design, and the work of making a self legible.

Chris Crowder's visit to Living Writers centers on The Kin of Nakedness, now out with Four Way Books, and on how the body is made visible both on the page and in the design. T.

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Why you'd press play

You want a book launch talk that treats the body, the page, and the room as one event.

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