Hi Folks,
Long time no see. It’s been a busy few months wrapping up my first year of my PhD, traveling across the South, and kicking off an undergraduate research program I’m mentoring this summer. There’s been a lot to say and not quite the words yet to say it. I’ve been mostly offline, both here and social media, focusing on live events, in-person community building, and lots of in-depth research time. As you might have guessed, Good Folk is going through some changes—stay tuned for a newsletter post that outlines more in depth some of where I am with this project these days. Good Folk is not going away, but the format of this newsletter will be shifting up a bit!
As we make that shift, I want to take a second to express gratitude for all of the amazing podcast guests we’ve been lucky to feature. It’s been an honor to facilitate these conversations and this project would be nowhere without the community that has gathered around it.
And now, let me introduce you to someone who is very much Good Folk: Rosa Castellano. Rosa is a poet and educator. born and raised in Tampa, Florida, and currently based in Richmond, Virginia. Her work is deeply rooted in storytelling, language, and the exploration of identity and place. With a passion for both writing and teaching, she actively contributes to the Richmond literary community, fostering creativity and engagement among fellow poets and aspiring writers. Rosa was a finalist for Cave Canem’s Starshine and Clay Fellowship and is the co-founder of the Richmond Poetry Festival, a platform that celebrates poetry and brings together Richmond’s diverse writing community.
Her poetry has been featured or is forthcoming from RHINO Poetry, Diode, Passages North, Nimrod, The Ninth Letter, and Poetry Northwest, among others. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Her highly anticipated debut poetry collection, All is the Telling, was recently released from Diode Editions.
All is the Telling is a compelling, transformative collection bridging the personal and political with an emotional intensity that lingers long after the final page. The text invites readers to reflect on their own lives as they are drawn into the intricate web of memory, identity, and survival, grounding in the immediacy of lived experience and stretching outward to echo the broader struggles of our time.
This conversation dives deeper into All is the Telling, as well as Rosa’s broader career path as a poet. Jumping from Florida to Virginia, we unpack various portrayals of the South, echoing my favorite reminder that the South is nowhere near a monolith. This is an episode for Southerners, poets, and artists of all kinds. Thank you to Rosa for joining us, and to all of you for listening.
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