SoundBox Signals
SoundBox Signals is a podcast that brings literary archival recordings to life through a combination of curated close listening and conversation.
Hosted and co-produced by Karis Shearer, each episode features a conversation with a curator and two special guests. Together they’ll listen, talk, and consider how a selected recording signifies in the contemporary moment and ask what listening allows us to know about cultural history. Full-length versions of these archival recordings are available here on our website.
Listen to the full episodes linked below on our website or wherever you get your podcasts.
Latest Episode
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S2, Episode 1: Sharon Thesen’s reading at the Bowerings’
University of Exeter undergraduates Sofie Drew and Emily Chircop carry out a close listening of a 1980 recording of Sharon Thesen reading from her first book Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house. Drew and Chircop’s conversation focuses on the intimacy, sociality, and ambiguity of the recording, and how this shapes interpretation. The…
Season 1
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S1, Episode 1: Is That Me?
Host Karis Shearer, curator Mathieu Aubin and guests do a “close listening” of a recording of bill bissett’s previously unpublished poem from circa 1966. “Is that Me?” features guests Mathieu Aubin, Lauren St. Clair, and Nour Sallam. This episode was co-produced by Karis Shearer and Nour Sallam.
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S1, Episode 2: Performing the Archive
Host Karis Shearer, guest curator Megan Butchart, and poet Daphne Marlatt have a conversation about Daphne Marlatt’s 1969 archival recording of leaf leaf/s and her experience of performing poetry with the archive in 2019. This episode was co-produced by Karis Shearer and Nour Sallam.
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S1, Episode 3: Only the Imagination Carries Forward
Host Karis Shearer is joined by curator Amy Thiessen and special guest-poets Nancy Holmes and Sharon Thesen. Together they talk about a November 14, 1986 recording featuring Sharon Thesen’s visit to Warren Tallman’s English 205 class at UBC’s Vancouver campus.
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S1, Episode 4: Is Robin Here?
“Is Robin here?” On this episode, we ask what we can “know” about the dynamics of a space through listening. We listen to the “Charles Olson Memorial” recording and talk about mourning, spontaneity, relationships, authority, and poetry recitation.
Season 2
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S2, Episode 1: Sharon Thesen’s reading at the Bowerings’
University of Exeter undergraduates Sofie Drew and Emily Chircop carry out a close listening of a 1980 recording of Sharon Thesen reading from her first book Artemis Hates Romance at George and Angela Bowerings’ house. Drew and Chircop’s conversation focuses on the intimacy, sociality, and ambiguity of the recording, and how this shapes interpretation. The episode features multiple archival clips from the digitized cassette tape, alongside interview audio from Karis Shearer and George Bowering. “Sharon Thesen’s Reading at the Bowerings’” was co-produced by Emily Chircop and Sofie Drew as part of the Press Play project. The SoundBox Collection is part…