February 1, 2017
This Great Democracy: An Interview with Huda Al-Marashi
In 2006, I was still searching for a literary community in my adopted city of Cleveland. That’s how I found myself attending a public writing workshop every Wednesday night at […]
January 30, 2017
La La Land, Swing Time, and Nostalgia in 2017
Perhaps now is not the best time to discuss artistic nostalgia. We have just witnessed the inauguration of a president whose campaign routinely masked bigotry with invocations of longing for […]
January 30, 2017
On Carrying Each Other & Cosmic Debt
The world is gone, I must carry you. —Paul Celan If my father was not the kind of person he is, it would be a touchy subject. It bears […]
January 25, 2017
Celebration and Rage: The Women’s March in Reverse Chronology
Monday Two days after the Women’s March on Washington, a man comes to my house to install new carpet on the stairs and in the upstairs hallway. I have the […]
January 23, 2017
Signs at the Women’s March in D.C.
LOVE CONQUERS FEAR At the Metro Station: pink hats, state signs, cheering, patience at the kiosk, and once on the train, the soft singing of “This Land is Your Land.” […]
January 23, 2017
Gam Zu L’tova (This too Is for the Good)
And when they bombed other people’s houses, we protested but not enough, we opposed them but not enough. I was in my bed, around my bed America was falling: invisible […]
January 19, 2017
Packing List for the Women’s March in D.C.
Cash/credit card/motel reservation/SmarTrip card for the Metro. Do not pack the fact I really can’t afford this. No ticket required. I use my phone for everything. I booked the motel […]
January 17, 2017
Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks In Form: An Interview with Peter Kahn
In writing about the formal innovations of Terrance Hayes here on The Kenyon Review blog, I noted the soon-forthcoming The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks. This wasn’t the first time I’d […]
January 16, 2017
“Unstitched States”
The word “collaborate” has carried different meanings since the word emerged in the nineteenth century: from its more common connotation (“to work together”) to a lesser-known association in the mid-twentieth […]
January 15, 2017
An Open Letter from the Only Poet on the Professor Watchlist
Dear Charlie Kirk, Founder of Turning Point USA: It’s not every day that an American poet can address someone who thinks he is dangerous. For that alone I should thank […]
January 13, 2017
Goodbye, Marcus Aurelius
Blaming Russia for the outcome of our recent election is, among other things, a way of offloading collective guilt for its result. The same goes for blaming the electoral […]
January 8, 2017
Happy 100th Birthday, Peter Taylor
It is customary on a writer’s birthday, especially on a date so significant as his 100th, to grant his life and work a few moments of your attention. Today we […]