When I asked Jen who she wanted to read with for this month’s What The Universe Is, I was surprised and touched when she asked if I would join her. I’m excited to be able to chat with her about Boys Behind Glass, which is a revolutionary book in so many ways, and to share with you all some of what I’ve been working on.

Jennifer Sperry Steinorth’s books include Boys Behind Glass (TRP, 2026), A Wake with Nine Shades (TRP, 2019), and Her Read, A Graphic Poem (TRP, 2021), recipient of the Texas Institute of Letters’ Fred Whitehead Award and a Foreword Reviews Prize in Poetry. An interdisciplinary artist and licensed builder, she lectures at the University of Michigan and has received residencies and fellowships from Yale, Vermont Studio Center, Community of Writers, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and elsewhere. She spins the O is for Octopus substack & is the biographer of CD Wright.

A poet, editor, and occasional critic, Michael Mercurio lives and writes in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. His poems, interviews, and reviews have been published or are forthcoming in Palette Poetry, Thrush, The Common, Cream City Review, Sierra (the magazine of the Sierra Club), Sugar House Review, Lily Poetry Review, and elsewhere. In the summer of 2025, Michael participated in the Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Workshop.

Michael is the founder and curator of What The Universe Is: A (Virtual) Reading Series, where established and emerging poets read together monthly on Zoom. In addition, he posts regular dispatches on his Substack, A Slight Case of Overthinking, including close readings of notable poems and musings on life as an aging Gen Xer.

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