Remica Bingham-Risher, a native of Phoenix, Arizona, is an alumna of Old Dominion University and Bennington College. She is a Cave Canem fellow and Affrilachian Poet. Among other journals, her work has been published in the New York Times, the Writer’s Chronicle, New Letters, Callaloo and Essence. She is the author of Conversion (Lotus, 2006) winner of the Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award, What We Ask of Flesh (Etruscan, 2013) shortlisted for the Hurston/Wright Award and Starlight & Error (Diode, 2017) winner of the Diode Editions Book Award. Her first book of prose, Soul Culture: Black Poets, Books and Questions that Grew Me Up, was published by Beacon Press in 2022. Her next book of poems, Room Swept Home, was published by Wesleyan in February 2024. She is currently the Director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives at Old Dominion University and resides in Norfolk, VA with her husband and children.
Learn more about Remica: remicabinghamrisher.com
Interview location: Norfolk, VA
Remica’s Books on the Bed:
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
Home by Toni Morrison
The Book of Light by Lucille Clifton
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone by August Wilson
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Fast Animal by Tim Seibles
Matt’s gifts for Remica:
To ‘Joy My Freedom by Tera Hunter
Somerset Homecoming by Dorothy Spruill Redford
Episode timeline:
0:00-3:33 — Intro
3:34-28:17 — Remica's family history, new book Room Swept Home, reading poems
28:18-42:10 — Matt presents gifts to Remica
42:11-1:38:59 — Remica's Books on the Bed
Remica Bingham-Risher