In Volume Seven: Chapter Fifteen of the podcast, we welcome Seoul, South Korea-based Writer and Author Daeun Jung, whose debut novel, The White Blueberry, was released in July.

In our conversation, we trace Daeun's creative journey back to a childhood shaped by curiosity, observation, and imagination. She reflects on creating small comic books inspired by the everyday lives of her classmates, her fascination with history and the relationship between individual lives and larger societal stories, and the early instincts that taught her to look closely at people and turn what she observed into stories.

We also explore the two worlds Daeun currently inhabits as both a writer and medical student, and discover that medicine and literature may not be as different as they first appear. Daeun discusses the attention, listening, and empathy required by both, and how her study of medicine and interest in the human experience have influenced the way she approaches characters and storytelling.

Our conversation then turns to her debut novel, The White Blueberry, a story centered on Jane and J and the unusual idea of a 100-day breakup. Daeun takes us inside the creation of the novel, including its exploration of depression, the development of Jane and J through experience, emotion, and imagination, and the idea that understanding another person can sometimes require learning to better understand ourselves. We discuss the origins of the 100-day breakup, how Jane and J change over the course of those 100 days, and the emotional questions at the heart of their relationship.

Daeun also reflects on writing The White Blueberry in English while living in South Korea, connecting with readers internationally, and the process of bringing the novel to Korean readers. We explore how language can shape the expression of emotion and whether something inevitably changes when a story moves between languages.

Finally, Daeun shares an evolution in her relationship with writing and with herself. Once believing she needed to remain positive and emotionally strong to create meaningful work, she discusses learning to recognize honesty and beauty in broken and vulnerable states as well. We close by exploring how accepting the many shapes emotions can take has changed not only the way she writes, but the compassion she extends to herself.

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Contact Daeun:
Instagram: @pardua_

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Andrea Gibson – The Nutritionist
Instagram: @andreagibson

Asis Samson – As I Am
Instagram: @theasiaproject Website:: theasiaproject.com

Danez Smith – Waiting For You To Die So I Can Be Myself
Instagram: @danez_smif Website: danezsmithpoet.com

Lindsay Young – Queerphobic
Instagram: @lindsay.poetry

Elizabeth Acevedo - Afro-Latina
Instagram: @acevedowrites Website: acevedowrites.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Fourteen of the Program, we welcome Milwaukee, Wisconsin-born and based Poet, Author, Community Activist, and the 14th Poet Laureate for the City of Milwaukee, Shelly Conley. A seven-time member of Milwaukee’s National Poetry Slam Team, she serves as Program Director of My Sista’s KeepHer and is the author of Rewind: A Cathartic Autobiography.

In our conversation, we travel through Shelly’s creative history, beginning with journaling at nine years old, her early love of hip-hop, and eventually discovering poetry in middle school. We revisit the year she spent attending Dasha Kelly’s open mic at the old Mecca Nightclub before finally finding the courage to step on stage herself, and how that experience changed her relationship with poetry and taught her the power of sharing our words with others.

We discuss how Shelly has carried that lesson into her work today, from creating a space for emerging writers through The Writers Hive Poetry Open Mic to helping young women explore their emotions, experiences, and voices through My Sista’s KeepHer.

Shelly also opens up about her once-complicated relationship with her mother, the role writing played in their healing, and their decision to tell that story together through their book project, Writing It Together.

Finally, we discuss the journey that led Shelly to becoming Milwaukee’s 14th Poet Laureate, the surprise of learning she had been selected, and an incredible full-circle moment: years after finding the courage to share her poetry at an open mic created by Dasha Kelly, Shelly would eventually succeed her as Poet Laureate.

From a nine-year-old writing privately in a journal to helping others discover the power of their own words, Shelly’s story is one of finding your voice, having the courage to share it, and eventually creating space for others to find theirs.

Contact Shelly:
Instagram: @poeticworkinprogress Website: shellyconley.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Aleah Bradshaw – Questions
Instagram: @nyfe

Lyrical Faith – Bilingual
Instagram: @lyricalfaithpoetry

Jahman Hill– Cash Me Outside
Instagram: @jahman_rondo Website: jahmanhill.com

Shelly Conley – 2am Free Write
Instagram: @poeticworkinprogress Website: shellyconley.com

Natasha Ria El-Scari – The Secret Society of Black Mothers
Instagram: @natasharia Website: natasharia.com

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In Volume Seven: Chapter Thirteen, we welcome Poet, Writer, Editor, Educator, and Author Maya Marshall. She is the Poetry Director and an editor at Haymarket Books, co-founder of underbelly, a journal dedicated to the art and practice of poetic revision, and a MacDowell and Cave Canem fellow. She is the author of All the Blood Involved in Love, winner of the 2025 Holmes National Poetry Prize.

In our conversation, we trace Maya’s creative journey back to a childhood where art, literature, politics, and public service were woven into her everyday life. She reflects on growing up around Austin, Texas's Black Arts Alliance, traveling throughout the state as her mother performed a one-woman play, writing her own “little poems” while waiting in the wings, and giving her first public poetry reading at an anti-Klan rally in Austin when she was seven years old.

We explore the experiences that transformed an early instinct for writing into an intentional study of the craft—from Writers in the Schools and afternoons spent reading poetry in bookstores to her lifelong fascination with books, music, galleries, museums, and language itself. Maya discusses the difference between loving poetry and learning how to write a good poem, why she doesnt romanticize inspiration, and the importance of practice, revision, and eventually learning when to trust a poem enough to let it go.

Our conversation also examines poetry as the constant Maya continued returning to while trying to imagine a practical life as a writer, and her belief that poetry may be the closest thing to faith she has. We discuss the balance between solitude and community throughout her life, reflecting on a remarkable personal practice she began at sixteen—writing herself a letter every birthday documenting what she is proud of and grateful for—and what those letters have revealed about confidence, ambition, and a deepening acceptance of self.

From the little girl surrounded by artists and books to the poet whose own work now sits on shelves alongside writers she once admired, this is a conversation about learning not simply how to write poetry, but how to build a life around it—and what it means to eventually help create that space for others.

Contact Maya:
Instagram: @maya.marshall.16 Website: mayamarshallpoetry.com

Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include:

Ayanna Albertson – What That Mouth Do
Instagram: @untouchableyann

Shanelle Gabriel – Daddy's Girl
Instagram: @shanellegabriel Website: shanellegabriel.com

Christopher Diaz – Again
Instagram: @lightbulbchris Website: christopherdiazcreates.com

Leah V – 3am
Instagram: @leahvspeaks Website: leahvspeaks.com

Ebony Stewart – Single
Instagram: @gullyprincess Website: ebpoetry.com

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