Books and Brews: Poetry with Andrew Coons

Books and Brews with Laura Vosika has, for its first three months, aired in the Food Freedom time slot once a month on Saturday mornings and been recorded live.  We are now moving into our own time slot at 10 am Sunday, last Sunday of the month, although we are working toward becoming a weekly program.  (Interested in sponsoring the program as a weekly advertiser?  This is what we're working on right now.)

Today, for the first time, Michael and I pre-recorded with our guest, Andrew Coons, poet.  Andrew has recently released his first book, Sin Eater, a collection of poetry:

From the mysteries of fatherhood and the beauty of a newborn child to the pain of loss and the isolation of depression, Sin Eater speaks to the very nature of humanity within us all. The balance between good and evil, light and dark, structure and chaos are all on display in this first confessional collection of work from Minneapolis poet Andrew Coons

About two weeks ago (just before I set out on my Epic Adventure, including the Epic Bruce and the Moose Moment), Andrew sent me four poems and I sent the four poems on to Michael.  This morning, Michael brought a beer specifically paired to each poem.  Yes, you can pair beers to poems!  We talked about how he does this pairing process for oh, say, flowers, as Michael has done in the past.  But as you can't smell a poem, there was clearly a different process at work this time.  It was really interesting to see the brews he picked, and hear why, and I could definitely see how that worked, on two of the poems in particular.

Among other things, we talked about Andrew's poems (of course!) and about depression and anxiety and the healing power of poetry both to the poet and the reader.  And I have to say--I think we all had a lot of fun.  I really like Andrew's poetry.  It's very readable with beautiful turns of phrases and touches on things we all experience.  It was great to meet Andrew after weeks of talking via e-mail.

And Michael picked some great beers!  My life seems to attract irony:  The kid who got kicked out of organ lessons now teaches music lessons!  I have never liked beer and now I'm hosting a program featuring beer!  However, I find that I do like some beer.  Among my favorite of all we've tried so far on the program was today's Dragon's Milk.  Tune in on Sunday to hear about it, and the poem it went with!

Watch for a guest post from Andrew Coons in the next two or three days.  If you're local to Minneapolis, you can hear the program when it airs at 10 am this Sunday.  If not, I'll be posting the link to listen online after it airs.

We're talking to a slam poet for our May program and the owner of Eat My Words, a local bookstore, will appear with us in June.  Also coming in June (the 24th--hey, that's the anniversary of Bannockburn!), Michael Agnew and I will be doing a reading at Eat My Words. 

COMING UP:

• Hiking the Grand Canyon, Daley and His Dogs, and other adventures on the road
• More guest posts from Megan Easley-Walsh and other authors (Would you like to be featured here?)
• June 24, 2017: Reading at Eat My Words Books
• April 30, 2017: I will host Books and Brews with Laura Vosika in a new time slot, 10 am on the last Sunday of each month.  Guests: Michael Agnew, craft beer expert, and Andrew Coons, Minnesota poet.
• Listen to January's program: poetry and coffee beer
• Listen to February's program: Russian literature and Russian beer
• Listen to March's program: Irish music with Tom Dahill and Ginny Johnson, Irish beer

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