Queer Poem-a-Day 2022, an introduction

We are so excited to launch the second year of our special Pride Month podcast series Queer Poem-a-Day. Exclusive to the Deerfield Public Library Podcast, Queer Poem-a-Day is the first daily poetry podcast to focus exclusively on the LGBTQIA+ community. Once again we are thrilled to feature many award-winning, leading, and emerging poets—as well as several poets with Chicagoland connections—and provide this unique snapshot of LGBTQIA+ poetry today. An archive of our first year (June 2021) is available on our website.

Every day of June 2022, you can read and hear a poem on our website, deerfieldlibrary.org/queerpoemaday, or subscribe to the Deerfield Public Library Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. You can also follow along on social media with the hashtag #queerpoemaday and find books and ebooks by our participating poets in our Library’s catalog. Additionally, we’re hosting several related programs, listed below. 

Queer Poem-a-Day is founded and co-directed by poet and teacher Lisa Hiton and Dylan Zavagno, Adult Services Coordinator at the Library and host of the Deerfield Public Library Podcast. This year we received generous support from both the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission. 

To kickoff season two of our series, Lisa and I had a short conversation reflecting on the success and excitement of our 2021 run, which attracted many new listeners and was featured on Chicago Public Radio WBEZ and PEN America and in curriculums at Stanford University, Boston University, and Illinois public schools. We also discuss our series as a public library program against a climate of newly introduced, specifically anti-trans, and broadly anti-LGBTQIA+ laws and book bans throughout the country. To reflect a different year, our music has changed as well: our Chicago-based pianist, Daniel Baer, aptly chose the first movement, Schéhérazade, from Masques, Op. 34 by composer Karol Szymanowski.

Listen to our short kickoff podcast intro below and subscribe now to get the poems on the podcast feed starting June 1. 

Queer Poem-a-Day is a program from the Adult Services Department at the Library and may include adult language. 

Related Programs:

Adult Programs

Classics Book Discussion: Selected Poems by Federico García Lorca, Thursday, June 16, 7:00pm R Hybrid: In Person & Virtual

The Book and the Body: Queer Poetry in Public Spaces, Thursday, June 30, 7:00pm R Virtual

Teen Program

Workshop: Poetry is Who I Am, Wednesday, June 15, 5:00-6:15pm R Virtual

Queer Poem-a-Day is presented with generous support from the Friends of the Deerfield Public Library and the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission.