Andrew MacFadyen-Ketchum, who runs the terrific site PoemoftheWeek.org, presents here an audio essay on the late, young poet Joshua Vinzant and his chapbook, Max, which was released earlier this year with RopeWalk Press. Vinzant’s widow, RopeWalk, and the poet Rodney Jones worked to put the book together after Vinzant’s suicide. With readings by Robert Wrigley, Andrew Hudgins, Kim Addonizzio, and Jones.

“Joshua Vinzant was not only one of the sweetest and gentlest men that [I] have known, but a gifted, highly original poet. Max, he ironically calls himself in poems that, like the man, are minimalist, but also given to wild excesses of spirit, and to undiluted candor. That he took his own life is a nearly unbearable sadness, but this beautiful small book sustains his humor, irreverence, and compassion, and affirms his essential joy.” —Rodney Jones

Click here to listen.

If you’re at the conference, Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum will be on a panel Saturday, Noon-1:15 p.m, Virginia A Room, Marriott Wardman Park, Lobby Level, S158, called “From the Page to the Small Screen: What the Information Age Means for Us.”