Today we remember Renee Nicole Good through poetry: her own award-winning poem from 2020 and new poems by Cornelius Eady and Amanda Gorman.

Renee Nicole Good

• Poem: "On Learning to Dissect Fetal Pigs"
• About Renee Nicole Good: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/we-had-whistles-they-had-guns-says-wife-of-minnesota-woman-killed-by-ice-agent

Cornelius Eady

• Poem: "Renee Nicole Good is Murdered"
• About Cornelius Eady: https://poets.org/poet/cornelius-eady
• About Cave Canem: https://www.nationalbook.org/people/cave-canem/#fullBio

Amanda Gorman

• Poem: "For Renee Nicole Good, Killed by I.C.E. on Jan. 7, 2026"
• About Amanda Gorman: https://poets.org/poet/amanda-gorman
• Website: https://www.theamandagorman.com/

Audre Lorde

• Essay: "Poetry is Not a Luxury"
• About Audre Lorde: https://poets.org/poet/audre-lorde

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Welcome to 2026 and Season 2 of Literative! We begin the new year by reading Joy Harjo's "For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet," a poem about loss and restoration, about wandering and welcome. Joy Harjo reminds us to treat our spirit like a beloved child and celebrate its recovery by helping those still searching.

Be sure to join us in January for our New Year’s series, “Normal Plus.” We'll begin with a powerful tool for identifying and removing creator's block, courtesy of Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.

Links for Joy Harjo

Poem: For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet

Collection: Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

Website: https://www.joyharjo.com/

Photo credit: Karen Kuehn

Additional Resource

The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32, KJV)

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Year's end is a busy festive time, but it can also be a sad and lonely one for people who are grieving a loss. If you’re having a Blue Christmas this year, this episode is for you. We'll read several passages from the poem In Memoriam in which Alfred, Lord Tennyson reveals the journey that enabled him to write, "’Tis better to have loved and lost / Than never to have loved at all."

Resource:

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord. In Memoriam A.H.H.

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In the first season of Literative, we learned that we need to make some space for inspiration and serendipity. In Season 2, our motto for January is "Normal Plus," borrowed from Sophie Kinsella's novel What Does It Feel Like? This thinly fictionalized novel recounts Kinsella's own battle with brain cancer; instead of a bucket list, the heroine adopts a strategy of "normal plus," upgrading her ordinary routine to include more small pleasures. We'll do the same in the New Year, taking lessons for small changes from our reading list.

Resources:

Adachi, Kendra. The Lazy Genius Way.

Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.

Cameron, Julia. The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.

Kinsella, Sophie. What Does It Feel Like?

“Obituary: Sophie Kinsella,” JoJo Moyes, The Guardian (11 Dec. 2025).

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Happy birthday, Jane Austen! We're celebrating with a field trip to Winchester Cathedral, where Austen is buried, and Jane Austen's House in Chawton, where she spent the last years of her life.

Resources:

Jane Austen's House, Chawton, UK

Smart, Stephanie. The House of Embroidered Paper

Winchester Cathedral, Winchester, UK

Woolf, Virginia. "Jane Austen."

Worsley, Lucy. Jane Austen at Home: A Biography (2017)

Wykeham Arms, Winchester, UK

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I've been derailed in the best possible way, by discovering a book that I could not put down: The Betrayal of Anne Frank, by Rosemary Sullivan. I share my personal history with Anne Frank, some provocative ideas from Sullivan's book, and one surprising connection to Jane Austen. I also take this opportunity to remember theater director and educator Yatesy Harvey and playwright Tom Stoppard. Coming up: Jane Austen's birthday celebration!

If you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and share the link with your friends. Don't keep Literative a secret!

P.S. After finishing this episode, I learned there's some controversy about the conclusion of Sullivan's book, her identification of a single betrayer, and the "sensationalization" of history. I want to finish the book myself before commenting on the criticisms, but I find great value in what I've read so far of The Betrayal of Anne Frank.

Works Cited:

Anne Frank House. https://www.annefrank.org/nl/

Anne Frank's Only Existing Film Images: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hvtXuO5GzU

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility.

Stoppard, Thomas. Arcadia.

Sullivan, Rosemary. The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation.

Yatesy Harvey. https://www.instagram.com/p/DQAfEvKjQz9/

Photo:

Anne Frank passport photo, May 1942. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anne_Frank_passport_photo,_May_1942.jpg

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It's December, the holiday season has officially begun, and it's time to simplify our schedule! Today we reflect and reset with less regret for the past and more hope for the future, with a little help from Elinor and Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility) and Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Works Cited

Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "England in 1819."

---. "Ode to the West Wind."

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This season we're celebrating 250 years of Jane Austen, and she needs a proper introduction. We talk about her family and how they've helped and hindered our understanding of "Dear Aunt Jane." We discover how Austen's difficulties with publication helped her become a more confident and experimental writer, and we learn why there's no one to touch Jane when you're in a tight place.

Sources and Links:

Auerbach, Emily. Searching for Jane Austen (2004).

Gettmann, Royal A. A Victorian Publisher: A Study of the Bentley Papers (1960).

Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Imagination (1980).

“Portraits of Jane Austen.” Jane Austen Society of North America. https://jasna.org/austen/more-on-jane-austens-life/portraits/

Kendra, April. “‘You, Madam, Are No Jane Austen’: Mrs. Gore and the Anxiety of Influence” (2007).

Kipling, Rudyard. “The Janeites” (1924).

Worsley, Lucy. Jane Austen at Home: A Biography (2017).

Woolf, Virginia. A Room of One’s Own (1929).

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