Cynthia Reeves began her writing life over thirty years ago as a poet, but she found that her poetry more often than not drifted into narrative. She gravitates toward forms that lie in the gray area between poetry and prose—prose poems and flash fiction.

She’s the author of three award-winning books: the novel The Last Whaler (Regal House Publishing, September 2024), the novel-in-stories Falling Through the New World (Gold Wake Press 2024), and the novella Badlands (Miami University Press 2007). Reeves’s short stories, poetry, and essays have been widely published. Most recently, three of her Maine-based poems appear in Echoes in the Fog: Reflections on the Liminal Spaces of Maine’s Coast (12 Willows Press).

A Hawthornden Fellow, she’s been awarded residencies to the Arctic Circle Summer Solstice Expedition, Spitsbergen Artists Residency, Art & Science in the Field, and Vermont Studio Center. A graduate of Warren Wilson’s MFA program, she taught in Bryn Mawr College’s Creative Writing Program and Rosemont College’s MFA program. She serves on the board at Millay House Rockland and lives in Camden, Maine.

Learn more at: www.cynthiareeveswriter.com.

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College. She is the author of Who’s Your Daddy, co-editor of Home Is Where You Queer Your Heart, and co-author of Biddy Mason Speaks Up, the second book in the Fighting for Justice Series for young readers. Post Pardon: The Opera marked Arisa’s debut as a librettist, and the libretto is forthcoming from Ecstatic Motion Press in 2026.

Her poetry is widely published, and her collections have been nominated for both the NAACP (N-double-A-C-P) Image Award and the Lambda Literary Award. She has also won the Per Diem Poetry Prize, the Maine Literary Award, the Nautilus Book Award, an Independent Publisher Book Award, the Golden Crown Literary Award, and the Airlie Press Prize. The poem installation, look after your heart, is permanently displayed at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. She is a Cave Canem fellow and serves on the Community Advisory Board for Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. Learn more at arisawhite.com

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com

Claire Millikin is a poet and long-distance runner originally from Georgia (USA), and now lives in coastal Maine. The author of ten poetry collections, including Magicicada, a book of poems about juvenile solitary confinement and winner of the 2024 Foreword Indies Award for Poetry, Millikin’s recognitions also include an Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite and the WB Yeats’ Society Prize. Claire teaches art history and writing for the University of Maine system and for the Maine Media Workshops and College. Learn more at: www.claireraymond.org.

This podcast is hosted and produced by John Gillespie. Check out our website for more episodes: https://poetry-medicine-for-the-soul.simplecast.com/

Listen and subscribe to Poetry Medicine for the Soul in Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Get in touch with us at: info@poetrymedicineforthesoul.com