The 21st Show

Best of: Historic poetry publication gets its first Black editor

Produced by Jose Zepeda
 
Adrian Matejka is the first Black editor of the more-than-100-year-old Chicago-based magazine

Adrian Matejka is the first Black editor of the more-than-100-year-old Chicago-based magazine "Poetry." Photo of Matejka by Polina Osherov

Listen
Download

Poetry, a monthly magazine dedicated to its namesake artform, has origins in Chicago, and the publication dates all the way back to 1912. The magazine became famous nationally and internationally for publishing poetry from such names as Carl Sandburg, Ezra Pound and Marianne Moore. In more recent years, the Poetry Foundation, the publishers of the magazine, were critiqued for not adapting to the times, particularly for how it handled its response to the death of George Floyd in 2020, for not including enough poets of marginalized groups or of color, and for not providing financial aid to artists during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Michelle Boone became the first Black woman to be the president of the foundation last year, and earlier this year, Poetry got its first Black editor, Adrian Matejka. Matejka joined The 21st today to talk about his plans for the publication and his own relationship with poetry.

This conversation originally aired Dec. 14, 2022.

GUEST: 

Adrian Matejka 

Editor, Poetry magazine | Author of Somebody Else Sold the World

 

 

Prepared for web by Owen Henderson

Help shape our coverage on The 21st by joining our texting group and answering weekly questions. To join, text “TALK” to 217-803-0730 or sign up with your phone number below: