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Jeff Friedman is the author of four collections of poetry; Black Threads is his newest work. In it he explores the meeting ground of ancient stories he learned in childhood and his own family's history. His poems and translations have appeared in many literary magazines, including American Poetry Review, Poetry, New England Review, Poetry East, Literary Imagination and The New Republic. We'll talk with him about his work and the ways a place unconsciously establishes itself as the basis for meaningful poetry.

Jeff Friedman's Poems:
Notes from the Emperor
Two Salesmen
Hymn to Your Tongue

Later in the show, we'll hear from a group of Maine teenagers who write and perform skits, poems, and letters based on their life experiences. Many of them face a pretty daunting world, and they use their art as a way of dealing with it. This piece comes to us from producer Catie Talarski through the Public Radio Exchange. You can listen to it again and write a review of it by clicking here.

Magicians and mathematicians have pondered the impossibility and mystery of the square root of minus one for centuries. Tonight on the Front Porch we're going to let our minds run free while we explore the importance of imaginary numbers. We'll find out why electricity as we know it wouldn't exist without an understanding of the unreal numbers, and find out about the earliest searches for the square root for minus one. Our guest is Paul Nahin, author of An Imaginary Tale: The Story of the Square Root of Minus One.

Science fiction writers and readers often make big distinctions bewteen the subgenres within their craft. We're going to explore part of that world tonight with authors James Patrick Kelly and Maren Tirabassi. Kelly's newest book Burn has been nominated for a Nebula Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. Maren Tirabassi is a former poet laureate of Portsmouth, a pastor in the United Church of Christ, and the author or editor of eleven books. She presents programs as part of the New Hampshire Humanities Council on “Faith and Fantastic Fiction."

Check out the list of books and programs related to Speculative Fiction that the New Hampshire Humanities Council is presenting during all of 2007.

When most Americans think about the influence and character of the Catholic Church, they see it through a Western lens. But a new book examines the relationships between the Church and governments around the world. We’ll talk with one of the editors to find out how the Church manifests itself in different societies, and what lessons can be learned through those interactions. Our guest is Chris Reardon, associate professor of Political Science at the University of New Hampshire and co-editor of the new book The Catholic Church and the Nation-State.

Jack McCarthy calls himself a "stand-up" poet. He's something of a legend in the Boston open-mic scene, where he got his start late in life. His poems are marked with blunt, straightforward language, and they're likely to make his audience both laugh and cry. He lives in Washington now, but he was on the East Coast last Fall for a series of readings. He joined us on the Front Porch to talk about his work and to share some of it with us.

***This interview originally aired October 12th, 2006***