This is a guide to selected online resources for audio recordings of poets reading and discussing their work. For video recordings of poets, see Guide to Poetry & Literature Webcasts. To suggest an addition to this page, please contact the Library's Digital Reference Section.
Academy of American Poets Audio Page
Offers more than 250 audio clips of poets reading their poems. Also available from the Academy is The PoetCast, the organization's official podcast.
The Atlantic Monthly: Soundings
Approximately two dozen poetry readings, with introductions, from The Atlantic Web site.
BBC Poetry Out Loud
Features 20 poems read by their authors. Also available on the BBC Web site is BBC Four Audio Interviews, which features audio interviews with 20 poets.
Classic Poetry Aloud
This podcast series features several hundred public domain, classic poems read by the site's anonymous creator.
Cloudy Day Art
This popular poetry podcast attempts to "connect poets to people, poets to poets, and people to people; with an emphasis on reaching out and encouraging poets who have never or rarely share their poetry." A recent interview features former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser.
The Cortland Review
An alphabetical list of poetry recordings available through The Cortland Review. To find audio files, select a feature under a poet's name and then check the page for an audio icon. Users may wish to review the instructions on how to listen to recordings.
Essential American Poets
A joint project of the the Poetry Foundation and the UK-based Poetry Archive, the Essential American Poets historic audio collection, launched September 2008, will make freely available the recordings of more than 100 American poets reading their own work, selected by former US Poet Laureate Donald Hall in consultation with UK Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.
From the Fishouse
An audio archive of emerging poets (poets with fewer than two published books of poetry at the time of submission) reading their own poems, as well as answering questions about poetry and the writing process.
The Gypsy Art Show: Interviews with Poets, Writers and Musicians
A podcast series produced by Belinda Subraman featuring interviews with dozens of poets.
HarperAudio!
A selection of HarperCollins recordings from major authors and poets, including Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, Dylan Thomas, and Anne Sexton.
The Internet Archive: Audio Books and Poetry
Makes available free audio books and poetry recordings. Use the subject browse option to locate poetry recordings.
The Internet Poetry Archive
Recordings of contemporary poets reading and discussing their work. Sponsored by the University of North Carolina Press and the North Carolina Arts Council.
The Jane Crown Show
Jane Crown's poetry radio program hosts includes interviews with poets, novelists and small press publishers.
Lannan Foundation Audio Archives
Makes available recordings of poets and novelists from the Lannan Foundation's Readings & Conversations series, other public Lannan events from the past 16 years, as well as selections from the award-winning literary radio program Bookworm with Michael Silverblatt.
miPOradio
The miPOradio podcast series is presented by MiPOesias Magazine. Programs feature current and past magazine contributors and a variety of live readings, reviews and interviews.
Naropa Poetics Audio Archives
Listen to more than 500 hours of recordings made at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. The archive contains readings, lectures, performances, seminars, panels and workshops conducted at Naropa by many of the leading figures of the U.S.literary avant-garde, incuding Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Anne Waldman, Bernadette Mayer, and Amiri Baraka.
National Public Radio Poetry Page
A listing of recent NPR poetry programs. Also see NPR's poetry RSS Feed.
New York Times (free registration required)
Recordings of the September 18, 1996 reading by 11 poets in celebration of the 50th birthday of the publishing house Farrar Straus Giroux.
PennSound
A larger, growing archive of poetry recordings from the Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania. Most recordings are of single poems, with an emphasis on experimental poetry. The site also features author discussions, videos, and a podcast series.
POG Sound
More than 35 audio recordings of Poetry and Arts Group readings and Chax Press-Cushing Street Bar and Restaurant readings in Tuscon, Arizona.
PoetCasting
"PoetCasting works with poets throughout the UK to podcast their work. The project features with performance poets, published poets, new poets, established poets and everything in between."
The Poetic Voice: Houghton Mifflin Poetry Podcast
Houghton Mifflin's poetry podcast features poets reading and talking about their work. Past poets on the program include Donald Hall, Natasha Trethewey, and Galway Kinnell.
The Poetry Archive
An extensive online collection of poets reading their own work. The Poetry Archive was conceived by U.K. Poet Laureate Andrew Motion.
The Poetry Foundation: Audio & Podcasts
Six different poetry podcast series made available by the Poetry Foundation. Individual poems are available for listening. See also the poetry videos available the Poetry Foundation Web site.
Poetry Out Loud: Poems with Audio Recordings
More than two dozen poems read by actors and poets in association with the National Endowment for the Arts' National Recitation Contest for poetry.
Salon.com Poetry Audio
An archive of poetry features, most including audio recordings, on the Salon.com Web site.
Slate Poetry Archive
Each Tuesday, Slate features a new poem selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinky. Each poem includes an audio recording of the poet reading his or her poem.
Slought Foundation
The Slought Foundation provides access to Fred Wah’s recordings of the 1963 Vancouver Poetry Conference, as well as select readings and lectures (1961-67) from Wah's collection. Includes hours of recordings of Denise Levertov, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, Margaret Avison, Philip Whalen Michael Palmer, Clark Coolidge, and others.
UbuWeb: Sound
The UbuWeb Web site, a resource for all forms of avant-garde arts, includes numerous poetry MP3s.
University of California, Berkeley, Moffit Library Media Resources Center
Includes recordings of poets and writers who have read at the University of California, Berkeley. Includes several readings by Robert Frost and Czeslaw Milosz.
Wired for Books
Listen to Don Swaim interview many of the greatest writers of the 20th century, including a number of poets, out of the CBS Radio studio in New York.
The Writer's Almanac
Listen to a daily poem read by Garrison Keillor.
The Writers' Block
A weekly reading series featuring poetry, fiction, and theater from California's KQED public radio. A list of authors who have appeared on the series can be found here.
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