For Episode Nineteen, we talk to one of our most recent poet laureates, Tami Haaland, about two of her collections, When We Wake in the Night, much of which was written while she was a mother of teenage boys, and What Does Not Return, a collection that revolves in large part around Tami’s experience of caring for her mother, who struggled with dementia.

We also talk to Tami about one of her mentors, Madeline DeFrees, a former nun who became a highly respected poet and professor of poetry who taught at the University of Montana Creative Writing Program for many years. DeFrees taught well into her eighties, and her collection Blue Dusk, is an astonishing exploration of her journey from the world of someone seriously committed to their faith to a completely different world.