On today’s episode of The Poems We Made Along the Way Gregory Kearns speaks to Catherine-Esther Cowie about persona poetry as a type of mask work, how we are thoughtful about not perpetuating violence when we write about it, and making sure we don’t use craft to obscure the heart of the poem.

Catherine-Esther Cowie is a poet, fiction writer and visual artist. She was born and raised on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. She attended high-school, undergrad and graduate schools in Canada and the US. Currently, Catherine-Esther resides in Illinois. Her work has been nominated for AWP Intro Journal, a Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets 2018 and 2019. Her visual art was nominated for the Best of the Net Anthology 2023. Her debut Collection Heirloom is published by Carcanet .

Thank you to the T.S. Eliot Prize for facilitating this episode as part of a series of interviews with poets shortlisted for the 2025 prize. www.tseliot.com/prize/prize-year/the-t-s-eliot-prize-2025/       

Books and other things

Heirloom: https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800174795/heirloom/

You can also use our affiliate link for Bookshop to find most of the books by most of the guests from the show. They are organised into lists for each series. If you use this link, we get a fraction of the money you spend: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/series-five-the-poems-we-made-along-the-way           

We’d also recommend enquiring with your local bookshops or libraries as well.

Things to read/watch/listen/etc in relationship to this interview:

Young Critic Aphra Le Levier-Bennett reviews Catherine-Esther Cowie's Heirloom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysqPl9nMfT0

Poetry Today: 9/15/2025 Esther Cowie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFF5bSSEJXw&t=255s

ROSALÍA: The LUX Interview | The Zane Lowe Interview

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCcoi3Tzv_Y

The Usual

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Theme tune: Joe Chesterman-March who can be found here: https://joecm.co.uk    

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