Last month, Commonweal hosted a book launch in New York City with poet Christian Wiman. The topic was his new book Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair, a mixture of poetry, essays, quotations, and close readings. 

The former editor of Poetry magazine and now a professor at Yale Divinity School, Wiman has long been an admirer of Commonweal. As he told the audience, he dutifully reads every issue cover to cover.

On this episode, we’re featuring some of the conversation from that evening—including Wiman reading and discussing his poetry—and his interview with Commonweal senior editor Matthew Boudway.

More from Christian Wiman in Commonweal: 

• The radicality of poet Lucille Clifton
• Hearing the poetry of the Bible
• On the mystic Etty Hillesum