At the end of 2020, the Keats-Shelley Podcast spoke to Erica Jong, the bestselling novelist, feminist icon and poet. In fact Erica was a poet before she was a novelist, publishing two poetry volumes making her name with 1973's Fear of Flying. While fiction has dominated her literay output, she has continued to release poetry throughout her 50 year career.

Indeed, the inspiration for our own conversation was a poem she wrote in 1975: 'Dear Keats', which we found while researching John Keats' epitaph 'Here lies one whose name was writ in water' during 2021's Keats-Shelley Prizes (Erica's poem quotes the line for her own purposes).

Part of the interview has already appeared: Erica offered some writing advice to our Young Romantics.

We are sending the full audio version to Friends of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association before releasing to the general podcast public later in 2022.

You can learn more about Erica Jong at www.ericajong.com

The Keats-Shelley Podcast is hosted by James Kidd. The music is 'Androids Always Sleep' By Chris Zabriskie. Visit http://chriszabriskie.com/

For more about 2022's Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes visit:

Young Romantics Prize 2022

Keats-Shelley Prize 2022

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