A conversation with poet Reuben Gelley Newman about his debut collection, Dear Dear (Trio House Press, 2026). In Dear Dear Newman focuses on the work and queer lives of the musicians Arthur Russell and Julius Eastman. We share an appreciation for their radical boundary pushing careers which helped define the downtown New York scenes of experimental art music in the 70s and 80s. In the last 20 years, as myself and Newman came of age, much of Russell and Eastman's work was released and rediscovered, offering us both an exuberant connection to the past, and, in Newman's words, a wonder if "nostalgia" is "[t]he prerogative of queers."
The poems in Dear Dear—which also incorporate Newman's personal reflections on the music of Mitski, Sufjan Stevens, and Bach, paintings by David Hockney and Jasper Johns—make a music all their own. Newman crafts fascinating ways to voice the ecstacies, tensions, and ironies of finding poetic inspiration among the archives of what was lost or could have been. He is also a librarian at the New York Public Library, and our conversation touches on our shared experiences of the ecstacies, tensions, and ironies of library work.
Listen for provocative and playful poems (sometimes filled with hums, whistles, and footnotes!) from a poet who contains both echoes of the queer past and documents the way we live now.
You can find more about Reuben Gelley Newman on his website, or check out copies of Dear Dear in our Podcast Collection. Dear Dear was selected by the poet Randall Mann (previously featured two times on our Queer Poem-a-Day series) for the Louise Bogan Award. Newman is also the author of a chapbook, Feedback Harmonies, from Seven Kitchens, and his poems have appeared in Fence, Fairy Tale Review, and Denver Quarterly.
Special thanks to Matt Sitman for his help locating the quote from Edmund White's 2009 memoir, City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and '70s.
We hope you enjoy our 71st interview episode! Every month (or so), we release an episode featuring a conversation with an author, artist, or other notable guests from Chicagoland or around the world. Learn more about the podcast on our podcast page. You can listen to all of our episodes in the player below or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments and feedback—please send to podcast@deerfieldlibrary.org.
