National Poetry Month will soon come to a close, so we thought it would be a good time to check in with Illinois Poet Laureate Kevin Stein. (Yes, Illinois has a poet laureate). It’s Stein’s job to make poetry more accessible to the public and to study and promote the work of Illinois poets past and present. He’s sort of like an ambassador for poetry from the state of Illinois.

Kevin Stein joins us to discuss his work as poet laureate, the history of poetry in our state and what distinguishes Illinois poetry from, oh, say, Indiana poetry. Seriously, there’s a difference.