Christian Gullette is a poet and editor whose work bridges the personal with the visual, blending themes of love, loss, and natural beauty through a lens shaped by both memory and place. His latest collection, Coachella Elegy, emerges from a period of deep introspection, shaped in part by the isolation and reflection of the pandemic years. What began as Beehive State eventually evolved into a more expansive meditation on grief, desire, and the stark beauty of California’s desert landscapes.

In this episode, Christian shares poems from the collection and speaks candidly about the evolution of the manuscript, the quiet rituals of his writing process, and the creative energy he draws from Palm Springs and the broader California landscape. Christian explores the crucial role of literary friendships in sustaining a writing practice, and the influence of visual artists like David Hockney on his approach to image and mood.

Join us for a thoughtful conversation on poetry, place, and the quiet forces that shape a body of work.

This is Christian Gullette Unbound.

Purchase your copy of Coachella Elegy directly from https://www.christiangullette.com/coachella-elegy

For more from Unbound Edition Press, visit us at https://www.unboundedition.com/

Taylor Portela is a queer, nonbinary poet and performer based in Portland, Oregon. A graduate of the University of Michigan (B.A.) and Virginia Tech (M.F.A. in Creative Writing), Taylor has performed under the name Lavender Scare and has had work featured in The Adroit Journal, Fence, WUSSY Mag, and more.

This week, we discuss their newest work, Tranny Muse, a hybrid poetry and prose collection forthcoming from Unbound Edition Press in June 2025. Blending drag, Mormonism, queer identity, and performance, Taylor explores themes of gender, sacredness, rebellion, and personal transformation. Through intimate conversation and live readings of poems like Prodigal and Mother, Taylor shares the inspiration behind the book’s bold title, the aesthetics of queer failure, and the deep emotional terrain of reclaiming identity.

Join us as we explore their collection of poetry and explore how their experiences with drag, queerness, and faith shape and deepen their creative work.

This is Taylor Portela Unbound.

Purchase your copy of Tranny Muse on amazon or directly from https://www.unboundedition.com/product/tranny-muse-taylor-portela-cross-genre/

For more from Unbound Edition Press, visit us at https://www.unboundedition.com/

Armen Davoudian is an Iranian-born poet who grew up in Isfahan and currently resides in California. He is the translator of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams, a collection of poems by the contemporary Persian dissident poet, published in English and German. Davoudian holds an MFA from Johns Hopkins University and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University, where his research focuses on metanoia in Renaissance poetry. His poems and translations appear in Poetry, The Yale Review, The Hopkins Review, and other literary journals. His chapbook, Swan Song, won the Frost Place Competition.

This week we discuss the debut of his newest poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, that was long-listed for the National Book Critics Circle Award and named a “Best Book of Spring” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Davoudian reads and reflects on several of his poems, including “27 Marjan Street,” “Travel Ban,” and the first sonnet from the book’s titular sequence. The conversation also explores how personal and cultural distances can enrich poetic insight, how form can be both a constraint and a generative force, and what Davoudian is currently working on.

Join us as we have a heartfelt conversation that revolves around his collection of poetry and explore how his experiences of migration, queerness, and cultural duality shape and deepen his creative work.

This is Armen Davoudian Unbound.

Purchase your copy of The Palace of Forty Pillars on amazon or directly from https://tinhouse.com/book/palace-of-forty-pillars/

For more from Unbound Edition Press, visit us at https://www.unboundedition.com/