Jeevika Verma
Jeevika Verma joined NPR's Morning Edition and Up First as a producer in February 2020. During her time there, she's produced a variety of stories ranging from Afghanistan peace talks, COVID surges in India and local & state elections. Verma also contributes to arts and poetry coverage for NPR's culture desk, and is always trying to get more poets on air. She leads the Morning Edition diversity council and works on DEI efforts across the network to help NPR live up to its mission.
Verma came to Morning Edition from WNYC's The Takeaway where she produced national segments in addition to supporting the daily live show. Originally from India, she got her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she spent months producing long-form works of narrative journalism on the opioid crisis, power struggles within the South Asian community and the mental health of couples struggling with addiction. Prior to that, she worked in marketing, public relations and publishing. Her first stint at NPR was actually a corporate communications and media relations internship in 2017. Verma is a part-time tarot reader and full-time poet. She also spent the last few years as a freelance writer for several publications and created some independent zines.
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Words can seem infinite — but language has limits. In his new poetry collection, Pilgrim Bell, Kaveh Akbar shapes language into prayer, into body, into patchwork — but only into what can be known.
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If you, like many people, are getting through the dragging months of the pandemic by being Very Online, you'll find poet Leigh Stein's new book is a perfect encapsulation of that experience.
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Maggie Smith's new poetry collection considers the human tendency to search for universal truths — but she looks for those truths in things we can see every day, as ordinary as rosebushes and rocks.
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Poet Adrian Matejka used to be a DJ — and when he got stuck in pandemic-induced misery, it was music that lifted him up and helped him finish writing his latest book, Somebody Else Sold the World.
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"Antiman" is a slur for gay men — poet Rajiv Mohabir reclaims it in his new memoir, which mixes poetry, song and prose in an investigation of his sexuality and his Guyanese Indian heritage.
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In India, a generation of new doctors enters the field at a time of crisis. One new doctor in New Delhi is haunted by a woman who begged for a hospital bed — but they were all full.
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In her latest book of poems, artist Kate Durbin looks at modern consumerism and the way people process trauma and loss through the objects they hoard. Durbin was inspired by the A&E show Hoarders.
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National Poetry month is almost over, but poetry can provide consolation all year round, especially in times of pandemic and political upheaval.
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The Afghan politician has survived two assassination attempts and is one of four Afghan women negotiating with the Taliban. "The power of words is stronger than the power of bullets," she tells NPR.
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In her third collection of poems, Natalie Shapero takes a blunt, funny look at the uncomfortable realities of life under capitalism. She says her work engages with the things people don't talk about.