WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.720 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.720 --> 00:00:02.460 align:middle line:84%
Let me first
recommend that if you

00:00:02.460 --> 00:00:05.610 align:middle line:84%
want a copy of Witch
Wife, which you should,

00:00:05.610 --> 00:00:08.010 align:middle line:84%
and I think you
will, once you've

00:00:08.010 --> 00:00:11.370 align:middle line:84%
heard Kiki read, there's
only three or two,

00:00:11.370 --> 00:00:14.723 align:middle line:90%
so be the first one in line.

00:00:14.723 --> 00:00:16.890 align:middle line:84%
You can also get it elsewhere,
but you might as well

00:00:16.890 --> 00:00:19.830 align:middle line:90%
get them all here while we can.

00:00:19.830 --> 00:00:23.680 align:middle line:84%
It's got one of the best covers
I've seen in a long time.

00:00:23.680 --> 00:00:25.680 align:middle line:84%
I think this is just a
really fascinating cover.

00:00:25.680 --> 00:00:30.360 align:middle line:90%


00:00:30.360 --> 00:00:34.700 align:middle line:84%
On Kiki Petrosino, so
as a nonfiction writer

00:00:34.700 --> 00:00:37.080 align:middle line:84%
I'm obliged to
stick to the facts,

00:00:37.080 --> 00:00:39.050 align:middle line:90%
so I'd like to begin there.

00:00:39.050 --> 00:00:41.750 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino is the author
of three books of poetry,

00:00:41.750 --> 00:00:44.720 align:middle line:84%
most recent the bewitching
Witch Wife, which

00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:46.520 align:middle line:84%
has a stunning cover,
as I mentioned,

00:00:46.520 --> 00:00:49.850 align:middle line:84%
published like her previous
two by Sarabande Books,

00:00:49.850 --> 00:00:52.070 align:middle line:84%
a press near to my
heart, and recently

00:00:52.070 --> 00:00:55.390 align:middle line:84%
also home to my
colleague Fenton Johnson.

00:00:55.390 --> 00:00:57.850 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino teaches
in, and indeed directs,

00:00:57.850 --> 00:01:01.000 align:middle line:84%
the creative writing program at
the University of Louisville.

00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:02.710 align:middle line:90%
Yes, that's good.

00:01:02.710 --> 00:01:05.740 align:middle line:84%
Now I'll continue
with yet more facts.

00:01:05.740 --> 00:01:10.330 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino is one of our
most playful poetry weirdos,

00:01:10.330 --> 00:01:13.390 align:middle line:84%
or one of our weirder,
most playful poets,

00:01:13.390 --> 00:01:16.870 align:middle line:84%
or one of our most
poetic playful wizards.

00:01:16.870 --> 00:01:20.730 align:middle line:84%
She is definitely some
combination of the three.

00:01:20.730 --> 00:01:23.820 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino's
radiance is hard to dark.

00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:25.410 align:middle line:90%
She works the walk.

00:01:25.410 --> 00:01:27.360 align:middle line:90%
She wins awards.

00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:31.740 align:middle line:84%
She has been noted one of
poetry's secret ninjas.

00:01:31.740 --> 00:01:33.060 align:middle line:90%
She has a secret ninja poem.

00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:36.720 align:middle line:84%
I don't know if you're
going to read that tonight.

00:01:36.720 --> 00:01:39.210 align:middle line:84%
She orders off the menu,
and then writes the poem,

00:01:39.210 --> 00:01:41.340 align:middle line:90%
and then eats the menu.

00:01:41.340 --> 00:01:43.350 align:middle line:90%
She is bruised, too.

00:01:43.350 --> 00:01:46.830 align:middle line:84%
Her sends send nouns
and let light through.

00:01:46.830 --> 00:01:50.670 align:middle line:84%
Her poems bring some
somnambulance, some glee,

00:01:50.670 --> 00:01:54.540 align:middle line:84%
some psalm, some
mourn, some food.

00:01:54.540 --> 00:01:57.390 align:middle line:90%
Many Petrosino poems transform.

00:01:57.390 --> 00:01:59.580 align:middle line:84%
Martin Luther King
Jr. gets summoned

00:01:59.580 --> 00:02:01.800 align:middle line:90%
into a kind of a sestina.

00:02:01.800 --> 00:02:05.280 align:middle line:84%
Another poem is sourced
from the registers

00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:08.650 align:middle line:84%
of the annals of otology,
rhinology, and laryngology.

00:02:08.650 --> 00:02:14.480 align:middle line:84%
One repurposes Thomas Jefferson,
another takes from Moby Dick.

00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:18.440 align:middle line:84%
Her first book, Fort Red
Border anagrams Robert Redford,

00:02:18.440 --> 00:02:21.740 align:middle line:84%
and makes of him an
attendant lover, a foil,

00:02:21.740 --> 00:02:24.070 align:middle line:90%
a partial partner.

00:02:24.070 --> 00:02:28.570 align:middle line:84%
She hoovers language from a hymn
to mourn those killed by gun.

00:02:28.570 --> 00:02:30.580 align:middle line:90%
It forms a psalm.

00:02:30.580 --> 00:02:31.990 align:middle line:90%
Is it a balm?

00:02:31.990 --> 00:02:33.400 align:middle line:90%
A bomb?

00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:35.830 align:middle line:90%
It may be a bit of both.

00:02:35.830 --> 00:02:39.040 align:middle line:84%
A Petrosino produces
magic from what's around,

00:02:39.040 --> 00:02:44.950 align:middle line:84%
85% lean beef, mustard, Macbeth,
blood, and blade, and board,

00:02:44.950 --> 00:02:47.770 align:middle line:84%
thigh gap, and
tree dark, peacocks

00:02:47.770 --> 00:02:50.680 align:middle line:84%
moving their long,
slow tongues of ash.

00:02:50.680 --> 00:02:52.750 align:middle line:84%
In fact, there is
nothing I can't imagine

00:02:52.750 --> 00:02:55.570 align:middle line:90%
in a Kiki Petrosino poem.

00:02:55.570 --> 00:02:58.990 align:middle line:84%
Even her name invites
play, or maybe her poems

00:02:58.990 --> 00:02:59.867 align:middle line:90%
have driven me there.

00:02:59.867 --> 00:03:01.450 align:middle line:84%
So this is where my
introduction takes

00:03:01.450 --> 00:03:04.180 align:middle line:90%
a little bit of a weird turn.

00:03:04.180 --> 00:03:06.992 align:middle line:84%
I can't be sure, so I
apologize in advance.

00:03:06.992 --> 00:03:08.950 align:middle line:84%
You're going to like it
or you're not going to,

00:03:08.950 --> 00:03:10.280 align:middle line:90%
I don't know.

00:03:10.280 --> 00:03:12.220 align:middle line:84%
So with a remix,
or a little switch,

00:03:12.220 --> 00:03:19.330 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino becomes Erosion
Kipkit, Kooky Sin Tripp, Kirk

00:03:19.330 --> 00:03:23.320 align:middle line:90%
and Isotope, Ionize Kit Pork.

00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:25.450 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino,
your poems make me

00:03:25.450 --> 00:03:30.070 align:middle line:84%
hungry for Chinese food,
even the sci-fi kind.

00:03:30.070 --> 00:03:33.880 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino, you
are Opines I Kirk To,

00:03:33.880 --> 00:03:37.000 align:middle line:84%
when I Kirk at least,
which is often.

00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:40.420 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino,
my pinky irks too.

00:03:40.420 --> 00:03:43.247 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino, you
inspire it, kook.

00:03:43.247 --> 00:03:44.830 align:middle line:84%
In case you can't
figure it out, these

00:03:44.830 --> 00:03:47.230 align:middle line:84%
are all anagrams
for Kiki Petrosino.

00:03:47.230 --> 00:03:50.200 align:middle line:84%
I went way down this
hall for a long time.

00:03:50.200 --> 00:03:52.630 align:middle line:84%
There's about like
5,000, and you should

00:03:52.630 --> 00:03:54.610 align:middle line:90%
be happy I stopped with these.

00:03:54.610 --> 00:03:57.310 align:middle line:84%
It's fair to say
that no poet points

00:03:57.310 --> 00:04:00.370 align:middle line:90%
risk more than Kiki Petrosino.

00:04:00.370 --> 00:04:04.960 align:middle line:84%
Kiki Petrosino, before
you, kinkiest, I stoop.

00:04:04.960 --> 00:04:08.830 align:middle line:84%
All the cool kids say,
there's no spikier ink too

00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:11.140 align:middle line:90%
than Kiki Petrosino.

00:04:11.140 --> 00:04:16.300 align:middle line:84%
So without further anagrammatic
ado, Kiki Petrosino's spookier

00:04:16.300 --> 00:04:22.199 align:middle line:84%
I knit, my pie kiosk intro,
this evening here for you.

00:04:22.199 --> 00:04:24.000 align:middle line:90%