Episode 2: Niina Pollari

Niina gives me Kombucha counseling and lets me get away with asking incredibly general questions about the internet. Turns out, neither of us are interested in eating dolphin skin. Niina’s place on the web is Hideously, She Said, although her writing appears numerous places: Jezebel, Sadie Magazine, girlpants, and others. She is on twitter as @heartbarf.

Niina’s mom makes a cake with a drinking glass. This reminds me of 3 hole cake, also known as “crazy cake.” I am currently obsessed with figuring out a gluten-free version of the 3 hole cake. We talk everyday cakes. What if every house had a cake stand? The future is now.

We wonder why kids and adolescent folks fixate on rhyming poetry. We think Shel Silverstein might have something to do with this.

Niina teaches me that Silvia Plath was published in Seventeen magazine. Who knew?

I made Niina a honey-thyme bourbon sour with the below honey-thyme syrup while we chatted.

I ask Niina to read this poem of hers, Controls #13. It contains a grapefruit.

Niina mentions the (gorgeous! and smart!) book Of Lamb, by Matthea Harvey and Amy Jean Porter. It’s out now from McSweeney’s, but we own it so you can come over and read it if you want. I might make you some variation of a bourbon sour.

Flarf comes up. Here’s an article about flarf poetry in Poets & Writers.

She also reads one of her translations of the Finnish poet Tytti Heikkinen that appears in the Brooklyn Rail.

I am mesmerized by songwriters. Mindtroll, the band that Niina is in, has a song called Fort Greene Ice Cream.

Niina’s first chapbook Fabulous Essential is available from Birds of Lace press. Niina’s second chapbook, Book Four, was just released by Hyacinth Girl Press.

Click play below to listen to Episode 2, Niina Pollari.