In this premier episode, Jason Gray speaks with Cynthia Marie Hoffman, whose new book, Exploding Head, is a memoir-in-prose poems about her life as a young child and an adult with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which manifests in fearful obsessions and counting compulsions that impact her relationship to motherhood, religion, and the larger world.
Hoffman is the author of three previous books of poetry, Call Me When You Want to Talk about the Tombstones, Paper Doll Fetus, and Sightseer, as well as the chapbook Her Human Costume. Hoffman is the recipient of a Diane Middlebrook Fellowship in Poetry at the Wisconsin Institute for Creative Writing, an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and a Director’s Guest fellowship at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Italy. Her poems have appeared in Electric Literature, The Believer, The Los Angeles Review, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere.
What is Drunk as a Poet on Payday?
Good news is sometimes hard to come by for poets, and what’s better news than a new book! Celebrate with us as Jason Gray hosts an interview podcast with poets discussing their new books. Each episode is a smart, fun look into the world of poetry, where the guests read several poems for their new work, and talk about how their books came to be, and how they write the way they do.