The University of Arizona Press
February 4, 2026
Neda Ulaby interviewed Kimberly Blaeser, author of Ancient Light on National Public Radio for “All Things Considered.” Blaeser spoke about her book being a National Book Foundation Science +Literature selected title, and she spoke about finding inspiration from social issues. Ancient Light is a poetry collection that uses lyric, narrative, and concrete poems to give voice to some of the most pressing ecological and social issues of our time.
In the interview, Blaeser read her poem “About Standing (in Kinship).” Listen to the full interview here.
Blaeser is the author of six poetry collections and served as Wisconsin Poet Laureate from 2015–16. An Anishinaabe activist and environmentalist, Blaeser is an enrolled member of White Earth Nation, an MFA faculty member for Institute of American Indian Arts, and professor emerita at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She also mentors Indigenous poets through Indigenous Nations Poets (In-Na-Po), an organization she founded in 2020.
