CAT RADIO CAFÉ: A QUARTET OF POETS

On tonight’s show, we’ll host a reading by a Quartet of Poets, including D. Nurkse and Susan Wheeler, two of the original group of WBAI Poets who began regular readings here in 2004; the exceptional Mervyn Taylor, who first joined them in the spring of 2024 (and has been heard on more than several encores of those splendid readings); and Susana H. Case whom we welcome here for the first time.

D. Nurkse's twelfth collection, A Country of Strangers, was published by Knopf in 2022 and was a Library Journal Best Poetry Book of the Year. He's a recipient of  the Literature Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He has taught at Rikers island, in inner city programs, and in several MFA programs. He currently teaches at Sarah Lawrence.

Susan Wheeler is the author of six books of poetry, including Meme, shortlisted for the National Book Award, and Assorted Poems. About her Chicago-based novel, Record Palace, Toni Morrison wrote, “Susan Wheeler’s deft touch and flawless ear have produced an irresistible work, both fresh and sage.” Wheeler is Professor Emerita at Princeton University and lives in Philadelphia.

Mervyn Taylor, a Trinidad-born poet, is the author of nine full-length collections of poetry, including The Last Train and Country of Warm Snow, a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. A chapbook, News of the Living: Corona Poems, was published by Broadstone Books during the Covid epidemic. Getting Through: New&Selected Poems was recently published by Beltway Editions. A new collection, Unpainted Houses, is due out from Broadstone in February 2026. Taylor has taught at Bronx Community College, The New School University, and in the NYC public school system. Presently, he is one of the senior editors at Slapering Hol Press, Hudson Valley, New York.

 Susana H. Case is the author of nine books of poetry, most recently, If This Isn't Love,  published by Broadstone Books, and co-editor with Margo Taft Stever of I Wanna Be Loved by You: Poems on Marilyn Monroe  which received Honorable Mention for the Eric Hoffer Book Award and Finalist for several other awards. It is published by Milk and Cake Press. She won the Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition for The Scottish Café, which was re-released in English/Polish by Opole University Press and in English/Ukrainian by Slapering Hol Press. Case is co-editor with Margo Taft Stever and Sandra Yannone of the anthology Unsinkable: Poetry Inspired by the Titanic, Salmon Poetry, forthcoming in 2026. 

Hosted by Janet Coleman and David Dozer