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Boots!

Where would we be without boos?

Where would we be without good-nosed bird?

It's a rhetorical question, sir, but where would we need without books?

From KCRW and KCRW.com, I'm Michael Silverblatt, and welcome to Bookworm.

Today I have, in front of me, two poets.

As most of you know, we've been taping over the phone. These two poets

are both present in my apartment. My guests are my dear Carol Muskie Dukes and Teresa K. Miller.

You'll mostly be hearing the poetry and Teresa K. Miller. You'll mostly be hearing the poetry of

Teresa K. Miller, but there's a magnificent series. It's called the National Poetry Series.

This series has existed for nearly 43 years, and every single year, five books are chosen by five poet judges

and published by five publishing houses. This year, the books were published by Penguin, Echo, University of Georgia Press,

Milkweed Editions, and Beacon Press. Quite an impressive roundup. The presses change from year to year.

The judge this year has been Carol Muskie Dukes, who is meeting my guest,

Teresa K. Miller, first time face to face. Teresa's book is called Borderline Fortune. It's published by Penguin. You can get it in paperback.

The judge was Carol Muskie Dukes. Now, your editor, Paul Slovak, is one of the people who's asked to choose a judge and present for the National

Poetry Series. Tell me, this was your first time judging Carol Muskie Dukes. What was that

experience like? Well, I should mention that Penguin is also my publisher, and Paul has been,

and Random House before that, but Paul has been my editor for years, a very long time. The subject

of judging the NPS or National Poetry Series had come up prior to this, but this is the first

time I could make it work out, and Paul asked me, and I said,

...