{"id":1664325,"date":"2026-03-11T14:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T18:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/11\/\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T18:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T22:07:14","slug":"richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life","status":"publish","type":"daily","link":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/11\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Richard Hell on <em>Godlike<\/em> and Poetry as a Way of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this episode of&nbsp;<em>Private Life<\/em>, Richard Hell joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss his novel&nbsp;<em>Godlike<\/em>&nbsp;(newly reissued by NYRB Classics), his creative process, the love of poetry, and the stories behind his work. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/share.transistor.fm\/e\/0113eb07?color=990101\"><\/iframe><br><p class=\"color-gray mb-0 text-label font-ivar text-center mt-xs-1 img-caption d-none d-lg-block\">Click the \u201cSubscribe\u201d link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform.<p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Richard Hell is a writer and former musician best known as a pioneer of the punk rock scene in 1970s New York. Originally from Kentucky, he moved to New York at the age of seventeen and began publishing his poetry. In his early twenties, along with his friend Tom Verlaine, he started the Neon Boys, which later became the influential punk rock band Television. He went on to form the bands the Heartbreakers and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. In addition to&nbsp;<em>Godlike<\/em>, Hell has written several novels, poetry collections, and essay collections, as well as a memoir,&nbsp;<em>I Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp<\/em>&nbsp;(2013).&nbsp;<em>Godlike<\/em>, which was&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyrb.com\/products\/godlike\">reissued last month by NYRB Classics<\/a>&nbsp;with a new afterword by Raymond Foye, was originally published in 2005. Crossing Hell\u2019s experiences in the demimonde of 1970s New York City with the doomed romance of the nineteenth-century&nbsp;<em>po\u00e8tes maudits<\/em>&nbsp;of France, it traverses the profane and the profound in the story of a poet perambulating downtown Manhattan and pining for a young poet who probably won\u2019t love him back.&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this episode of&nbsp;Private Life, Richard Hell joins Jarrett Earnest to discuss his novel&nbsp;Godlike&nbsp;(newly reissued by NYRB Classics), his creative process, the love of poetry, and the stories behind his work. &nbsp; Click the \u201cSubscribe\u201d link in the player above to follow this podcast on your favorite listening platform. Richard Hell is a writer and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":1664326,"template":"","categories":[18758,18757,18759],"tags":[31385],"daily-type":[20612],"coauthors":[16405,20460],"class_list":["post-1664325","daily","type-daily","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fiction","category-literature","category-poetry","tag-private-life","daily-type-conversations","author-roles-by","author-roles-in-conversation-with","author-cap-richard-hell","author-cap-jarrett-earnest"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/11\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Richard Hell on Godlike and Poetry as a Way of Life","url":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/11\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/online\/2026\/03\/11\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/PL-Episode_5-FeaturedImage.jpg?w=125","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/PL-Episode_5-FeaturedImage.jpg"},"articleSection":"Fiction","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Hell"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Jarrett Earnest"}],"creator":["Richard Hell","Jarrett Earnest"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The New York Review of Books","logo":""},"keywords":["private life"],"dateCreated":"2026-03-11T18:30:16Z","datePublished":"2026-03-11T18:30:16Z","dateModified":"2026-03-11T22:07:14Z"},"rendered":"<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"wp-parsely-metadata\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"headline\":\"Richard Hell on Godlike and Poetry as a Way of Life\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/online\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/11\\\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\\\/\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/online\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/11\\\/richard-hell-on-godlike-and-poetry-as-a-way-of-life\\\/\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/PL-Episode_5-FeaturedImage.jpg?w=125\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.nybooks.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/03\\\/PL-Episode_5-FeaturedImage.jpg\"},\"articleSection\":\"Fiction\",\"author\":[{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Richard Hell\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"name\":\"Jarrett Earnest\"}],\"creator\":[\"Richard Hell\",\"Jarrett Earnest\"],\"publisher\":{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"name\":\"The New York Review of Books\",\"logo\":\"\"},\"keywords\":[\"private life\"],\"dateCreated\":\"2026-03-11T18:30:16Z\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-11T18:30:16Z\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-03-11T22:07:14Z\"}<\/script>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nybooks.com\/p.js"},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1664325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/daily"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1664325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1665274,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily\/1664325\/revisions\/1665274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1664326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1664325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1664325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1664325"},{"taxonomy":"daily-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/daily-type?post=1664325"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1664325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}