Poetry with a Southwest Virginia pulse.
Poets & Writers carries poetry and conversation from the Emory & Henry airwaves with an easy Southwest Virginia cadence. Henry McCarthy welcomes poets, readers, producers, and storytellers into unrushed exchanges about craft, family, place, grief, books, and community.
PRESS PLAY
Poets & Writers sounds like literature taking the long way home. Henry McCarthy anchors the program from WEHC 90.7 and the Emory & Henry campus, where poems, books, old recordings, and regional stories are treated as part of everyday conversation. The pace is patient. Guests are allowed to wander. A poem about ancestry can become a meditation on climate, war, racial justice, and what a generation leaves behind. A talk about a book bag can turn toward focus, motorcycle repair, camping, Zen, and the practical relief of carrying books around. The show is literary, but it is not chilly. It prefers lived texture: trails, breweries, courtrooms, floodwater, mail carriers, campus studios, family history, and the familiar question of where someone is from. Robert Frost is heard through his own voice, with the program lingering on the sound of poems rising off the page. David Winship brings poetry rooted in Appalachian communities, storm damage, ten-minute plays, and a church bus outside an old brewery. Isaac Freeman brings legal knowledge and long-form storytelling, moving through court stories and comic turns with a roomful of patience. Michael Dechane talks through poems shaped by failed marriages, loss, and the fragile familiarity between people who once knew each other closely. Brenda Humphrey's conversation moves through Winston-Salem, Howard University, city planning, poetry, life, and Maya Angelou. The show often begins casually, then finds gravity. It also knows when to laugh. Its signature move is not analysis for its own sake, but a generous turn from reading to memory, and from memory back to the page. Listeners looking for tight literary criticism may find it too leisurely. Listeners who like local voices, spoken poems, and stories that gather meaning as they go will find a rare kind of intimacy. Poets & Writers makes poetry feel less like an assignment and more like something a person might carry into the yard, the car, the library, or the next conversation.
Made for: For listeners who like poems read aloud, local radio intimacy, regional history, and conversations that let memory and craft mingle. It especially suits people drawn to Appalachian voices and slow-form interviews.
What sets it apart: The program stands apart by placing poetry inside ordinary local life rather than treating it as a polished literary product. Its readings, guest stories, and WEHC setting make the region part of the criticism.
Henry McCarthy educates his audience on the philosophy of poets and writers; we write poems in our hearts every day, but are often afraid to share them. Interviews, poems and songs are presented and explored as to how they mesh into our everyday lives. Poets & Writers is a production of
Based on 5 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Henry McCarthy connects poems, books and regional storytelling through conversations that keep returning creative work to lived experience.
Poets & Writers lets poems arrive in the voices of their makers, then gives Henry McCarthy room to ask what sits behind the lines. With Michael Dechane, a discussion of heartache moves from a poem into failed marriages and the uneasy familiarity between people.
Robert Frost gets the microphone; you get poetry without the velvet-rope hush.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Valley-rooted poetry conversation centered on memory, history, and what a life leaves behind.
Christine McKenna and Reese Shearer join Poets and Writers for a conversation grounded in the valley, with the host keeping the questions loose enough for the talk to breathe.
Book talk that treats reading as part of daily life, not a performance.
Henry McCarthy keeps the hour centered on a plain question: what are people reading, and what does a book actually do in the middle of daily life?
Frost feels most immediate when the poems stay in his own voice.
Robert Frost comes across here as a voice, not a monument. Henry McCarthy opens on WEHC with a simple invitation to hear Frost read his own work, and the program stays close to the poems as it moves through 'Mending Wall,' 'The Death of the Hired Man,' and 'Home Burial.' That…
A genial legal storyteller turns Southwest Virginia memory into lively radio.
This Poets and Writers segment rests on Isaac Freeman's legal know-how and his way with a story. Henry McCarthy lets him range from Tazewell and Bristol into courtroom anecdotes and newspaper folklore, and Freeman keeps the talk grounded in Southwest Virginia.
Poetry about loss and storm-hit North Carolina, carried by plainspoken warmth and everyday detail.
Michael and Henry meet in a conversation where poetry, place, and loss stay close together. The episode follows a writer talking through a first-and-latest poetry book shaped by two failed marriages and life in storm-hit North Carolina, with weather and grief running through the…
Two classical-education teachers slow-read novels like Jane Eyre, chapter by chapter.
Book talk with room to wander.
WEHC keeps the room close to home.
Henry carries a big book bag.
Robert Frost has the room here.
This episode features an interview with poet David Winship, who shares his poem 'Night at the Brewery' and discusses local culture and music.
This episode features an interview with poet David Winship discussing his recent work, including a poem published in an Appalachian anthology about Hurricane Helene.
Isaac Freeman returns in a warm groove.
Michael Deshan arrives gently.
This episode features an interview with poet Brenda Humphrey discussing her poetry, life experiences, and connection to Maya Angelou.
Poet Miho Kinnas discusses her three poetry books, including her latest 'Waiting for Sunset to Bury Red Camellia' published in Charleston, and her earlier works from a Singapore publisher.
This episode of Poets and Writers features an interview with Clay Hipp, a well-read individual who discusses his background, including growing up in town, his mother being a teacher and Methodist preacher's daughter, his father attending Citadel, his military service, law school, career as a lecturer, and his collection of wine.
This episode features an interview with Earl Carter about his book 'Appalachian Album', which contains photographs and stories documenting his memories and experiences in the Appalachian region over 50 years.
This episode features an interview with writer and teacher Joe Mills, discussing his background, teaching career at the North Carolina School of the Arts, and his work in writing and literature.