Volume Seven: Chapter Thirteen - Our Conversation with Maya Marshall

In Volume Seven: Chapter Thirteen, we welcome Poet, Writer, Editor, Educator, and Author Maya Marshall. She is the Poetry Director and an editor at Haymarket Books, co-founder of underbelly, a journal dedicated to the art and practice of poetic revision, and a MacDowell and Cave Canem fellow. She is the author of All the Blood Involved in Love, winner of the 2025 Holmes National Poetry Prize. In our conversation, we trace Maya’s creative journey back to a childhood where art, literature, politics, and public service were woven into her everyday life. She reflects on growing up around Austin, Texas's Black Arts Alliance, traveling throughout the state as her mother performed a one-woman play, writing her own “little poems” while waiting in the wings, and giving her first public poetry reading at an anti-Klan rally in Austin when she was seven years old. We explore the experiences that transformed an early instinct for writing into an intentional study of the craft—from Writers in the Schools and afternoons spent reading poetry in bookstores to her lifelong fascination with books, music, galleries, museums, and language itself. Maya discusses the difference between loving poetry and learning how to write a good poem, why she doesnt romanticize inspiration, and the importance of practice, revision, and eventually learning when to trust a poem enough to let it go. Our conversation also examines poetry as the constant Maya continued returning to while trying to imagine a practical life as a writer, and her belief that poetry may be the closest thing to faith she has. We discuss the balance between solitude and community throughout her life, reflecting on a remarkable personal practice she began at sixteen—writing herself a letter every birthday documenting what she is proud of and grateful for—and what those letters have revealed about confidence, ambition, and a deepening acceptance of self. From the little girl surrounded by artists and books to the poet whose own work now sits on shelves alongside writers she once admired, this is a conversation about learning not simply how to write poetry, but how to build a life around it—and what it means to eventually help create that space for others. Contact Maya: Instagram: @maya.marshall.16 Website: mayamarshallpoetry.com Recorded Spoken Word Performances Featured Include: Ayanna Albertson – What That Mouth Do Instagram: @untouchableyann Shanelle Gabriel – Daddy's Girl Instagram: @shanellegabriel Website: shanellegabriel.com Christopher Diaz – Again Instagram: @lightbulbchris Website: christopherdiazcreates.com Leah V – 3am Instagram: @leahvspeaks Website: leahvspeaks.com Ebony Stewart – Single Instagram: @gullyprincess Website: ebpoetry.com Support the show