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Interview: Poet Sara Sams Reflects on Oak Ridge in Her New Book "Atom City"

Cover art Kristin Grey Apple, cover design by Elizabeth Maines McLeavy

Before the end of National Poetry Month, WUOT’s Claire Heddles caught up with Sara Sams, a poet raised in Oak Ridge and now living in Arizona. Her forthcoming book "Atom City" grapples with the often hidden, harmful aspects of Oak Ridge's nuclear legacy. 

In this interview Sams shares excerpts of two poems, "Deploying," inspired by an archival architectural sketch of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and "But Think, Are You Authorized to Tell It," titled after wartime propaganda urging secrecy.

Sams' new poetry collection "Atom City" comes out on May 14, and is available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press