97.9 The Hill WCHL and Chapelboro.com are your headquarters for local news and local voices in Chapel Hill-Carrboro. Every weekday morning, 97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck chats with government officials, UNC scholars, business and nonprofit leaders, area musicians, and others in our community as they share their thoughts, their experience, and their expertise on the central issues of today. Click here to listen back to all of Aaron’s conversations – and tune in to “This Morning with Aaron Keck” at 7:30 a.m. on 97.9 The Hill to hear those conversations live.

Welcome to Talking Culture! In this weekly interview series from 97.9 The Hill WCHL, you’ll hear from writers, performers, musicians and individuals involved in advancing and promoting cultural arts in our community.

Talking Culture is presented by Duke Arts, bringing “Fight Night” from October fourth through fifth. Political debate turned gameshow — a comedic performance examining democracy and free will. Tickets at DukeArts.org.

This week, Aaron is joined by poet Paul Deblinger, co-author of the new book “White Fence: An Ekphrastic Collaboration Across Ten Images.” Ekphrastic poetry is poetry inspired by a work of art, an approach that dates back to ancient Greece; in this case, Deblinger and his fellow poets were inspired by ten photographs from Paula Siwek, of subjects ranging from fences to hula hoops. The poets (Deblinger, Alan Basting, Marilyn Hedgpeth, and Bruce Metge) hail from different locations but all came together in Deblinger’s workshop at Duke’s OLLI Institute: each author wrote a poem inspired by each photo, making 40 poems in all. To publish the book, Deblinger revived Window Press, a publishing company he originally launched back in 1975.

You can order the book now at WindowPress.org.

Paul Deblinger stopped by 97.9 The Hill to discuss the book and read one of his entries: “Retroactive Love,” a melancholy response to Siwek’s “Hula Hoop” photo.

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