The Personhood Project Episode 22: Luisa Muradyan

In this episode of The Personhood Project, guest host Brooke Pillifant turns her attention to the poetry of Luisa Muradyan, a Ukrainian-American poet and author of American Radiance. Brooke explores Muradyan’s understanding of poetry as a space of distance and quiet—a place to hide when vulnerability feels overwhelming. They discuss Muradyan’s metaphor of writing as navigating a dense forest, full of cover and shelter, and how that privacy enables her to write deeply personal poems rooted in family history and intergenerational trauma. The episode also considers Muradyan’s belief in poetry as a place to say the impossible, where tenderness and brutality can coexist, and where the act of naming pain becomes a powerful way to connect with others.