S7 Ep. 10: Chicago in Verse: Taylor Byas on Writing About Her Hometown

fiction/non/fiction

Poet Taylor Byas joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to discuss writing about Chicago, which she does in her Maya Angelou Book Award-winning collection of poetry, I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times. She talks about growing up in the country’s most segregated city, and considers its long traditions of Black, working-class, and ethnic literature, including writers like Nate Marshall, Lorraine Hansberry, Patricia Smith, and Jose Olivarez. She explains how moving away has given her a new perspective on Chicago’s politics, history, crime, and beauty. She reads a poem (“You from “Chiraq”?”) addressing how outsiders view the city, as well as from a crown of sonnets about the South Side.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Anne Kniggendorf.

Taylor Byas

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• I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times
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• Bloodwarm
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• Poemhood: Our Black Revival: History, Folklore & the Black Experience: A Young Adult Poetry Anthology (Ed.)
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Others:

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• Richard Wright
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• Saul Bellow
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• Gwendolyn Brooks
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• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
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• The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
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• Nelson Algren
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• Stuart Dybek
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• The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
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• Nate Marshall
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• 1919 — Eve L. Ewing
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• Patricia Smith
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• Promises of Gold by Jose Olivarez
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• Carl Sandburg
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• Chi-Raq (film, dir. Spike Lee)
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• Gordon Parks
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• Brandon Johnson
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