Tag Archives: Forrest Gander

Podcast

Coyote: Robert M. Dowling on Sam Shepard and the American Psyche

Writer’s Voice: compelling conversations with authors who challenge, inspire, and inform.

Episode Summary:

In this episode of Writer’s Voice, Francesca Rheannon speaks with biographer Robert M. Dowling about his biography, Coyote: The Dramatic Lives of Sam Shepard.

Dowling explores Shepard’s groundbreaking theatrical innovations, his jazz-inspired rhythms, and his shamanistic approach to performance — along with the deep fear that powered his work. 

“He feared the estrangement — our estrangement from the earth, from ourselves, from reality even.” — Robert Dowling

Another writer who loved the deserts of California, as Sam Shepard did, was the poet Forrest Gander. We re-air a conversation with him from April of 2025 about his book-length poem, Mojave Ghost.

And finally, Francesca reads a powerful ode written by former US Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman to Renee Nicole Good, For Renee Nicole Good Killed by I.C.E. on January 7, 2026.”

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Tags: Sam Shepard biography, Robert M. Dowling, Coyote, American playwrights, Forrest Gander, Renée Nicole Good, Amanda Gorman, Writer’s Voice podcast

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Podcast

Poetry of Place and Freedom with Forrest Gander and DaMaris Hill

Episode Summary

This is the first week of April and April is Poetry Month. So we are so pleased to feature two conversations with poets who use their genre as a vehicle for historical witness and spiritual transformation.

First, we talk with poet, geologist and translator Forrest Gander about his novel in poetry Mojave Ghost. It’s a lyrical journey through the arid landscapes of the Mojave Desert that interweaves ecological awareness with personal loss.

First, we talk with poet, geologist and translator Forrest Gander about his novel in poetry Mojave Ghost. It’s a lyrical journey through the arid landscapes of the Mojave Desert that interweaves ecological awareness with personal loss. — Forrest Gander

Then, we revisit my 2019 conversation with poet DaMaris Hill, about her book of poems: A Bound Woman Is A Dangerous Thing. It’s a searing poetic exploration of Black women’s incarceration and resistance throughout American history.

“Black women’s resistance has always been an act of storytelling—of making sure we are seen, heard, and remembered.” — DaMaris Hill

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Key Words: Forrest Gander, Mojave Desert, poetry and nature, ecological poetry, Pulitzer Prize poet, environmental literature, contemporary poetry, DaMaris Hill, A Bound Woman Is a Dangerous Thing, Black women in poetry, historical poetry, poetry and activism, feminist poetry, poetry and social justice, contemporary Black poets, Poetry Month,

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