Jeannine Hall Gailey has posted a great interview with poet and radio producer Elizabeth Austen. They talk about all sorts of important topics, like how to prepare for a radio interview and how to read your poems on the air.
This interview is full of all sorts of great tips, like to keep the poems for a radio interview shorter than ones you might read for a live literary event. Keep them accessible too: “remember that radio listeners are almost surely multi-tasking.”
Austen even gives great advice for those of us who don’t have a radio interview lined up, but would like to know how to go about arranging one or two: “The important thing is to remember that producers are looking for content that fits their programming needs. If you do a little work up front, you can write your email in such a way that you show how you are a good fit with their program. Make it easy for them by keeping your correspondence brief and professional—you know, the same way you’d approach the editor of a journal.”
Gailey asks the right questions, and Austen generously shares her wealth of knowledge–this interview is a true gift!
June 7, 2011 at 9:12 am
Thanks for this post, Kristin, and to both poets for the interview!!
June 7, 2011 at 9:57 am
It makes so much sense – poets + radio! J.P. Dancing Bear’s “Out of Our Minds” radio show is poetry-focused and features some great interviews. Thanks for posting, Kristin.