Hi, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. So you might have heard, but our friend and colleague

Petra Mayer died suddenly a few weeks ago. She was an editor of books coverage on the culture desk,

which meant she, you know, fielded reviews and did interviews and made sure I didn't say anything stupid in these intros.

We're going to play just a smidgen of what she had to offer this network in a bit,

but all of us at the BooksPod and at NPR have sort of been just processing the news.

Actually, one of the last interviews Petra vouched for to run on this platform

was this interview between NPR Scott Simon and Sir Andrew Motion, the former poet laureate

of the United Kingdom, and they taped it just ahead of Veterans Day. Motion just edited the

folio book of war poetry, a collection of poems about war. And Petra, you know, self-without nerd,

passionate about a wide variety of things, loved this interview because she was a World War I

poetry dork. Those are her words, by the way. And, you know, it strikes me that war poetry,

by extension, is about loss and grief and mourning.

In this interview, Motion reads a poem by Sigfritz-Sassoon, and it actually reminds me a lot of Petra.

Not because she was a soldier or anything like that, but because it's a wry and biting poem, critiquing power in this

kind of darkly funny way, it's an energy Petra had for as long as I've known her, and one

I'm hoping to carry on for her. Give it a listen.

In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.

Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.

On our new show, Sources and Methods.

NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people

helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.

Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

...