October 22, 2018
Clifton, Pain, and Poetry
If you haven’t read Lucille Clifton’s “Wishes for Sons” before, you might assume from the title that it’s a poem about hoping for sons – a mother’s prayerful request for a […]
October 22, 2018
VERVE {IN} VERSE: IN CONVERSATION WITH MONICA LEWIS
Note: Verve {in} Verse is my new poet-focused feature here at The Kenyon Review in which I converse with poets about their work and interests both on and off […]
September 30, 2018
Verve {in} Verse: In Conversation with Edward Vidaurre
Note: Verve {in} Verse is my new poet-focused feature here at The Kenyon Review in which I converse with poets about their work and interests both on and […]
September 29, 2018
New Origins
Poetry may often come to us in small packages and brief passages, but poetry is rooted in our big human questions: who are we? how (and why) did we get […]
September 24, 2018
Little Monsters: On Time & The Consciousness of Poems
Hope is a pearl that I share I share it with you It’s a pearl that I share I share it with you, all the time I share it with […]
September 19, 2018
A Book to Help You Talk to Your Kids About Immigration
I went in search of books for children on immigration recently when deciding how to talk to my son about this topic. I found Cynthia DeFelice’s Under the Same Sky. […]
September 10, 2018
Little Monsters: On Sex, Exorcisms & Efes
I’d lay down my life for the fawn who, arising, at night to the sweet sound of harp and flute, saw a cup in my hand, said: “Drink your […]
August 30, 2018
Present in Process: An Interview with Caryl Pagel
Caryl Pagel’s vision has shaped not only her own poems, essays, books, and chapbooks, but two presses, a literary magazine, and now a new literary fellowship focused on inclusion, equity, […]
August 27, 2018
Catholic Scandals
In his Sunday (8-26-18) column for The Washington Post, E. J. Dionne raises a question that is on my mind often: given everything that’s coming out about the extensive sexual […]
August 20, 2018
The International Congress of Youth Voices: An Interview with Jamesha Caldwell
Earlier this month, young writers and activists convened in San Francisco for the inaugural International Congress of Youth Voices. Among those student delegates was 18-year-old “Baltimore-bred poet and storyteller” Jamesha […]
July 25, 2018
“the little song pulsing”: An Interview with Oliver de la Paz
[Continued from “Scaffolding”] * When I read Oliver de la Paz’s poem “Diaspora Sonnet 25,” which the Academy of American Poets featured as its Poem-a-Day selection earlier this month, I […]
July 17, 2018
Beginning of the End?
William J. Clinton built a reputation for weathering scandals while maintaining high approval ratings, but Donald J. Trump must be the most thoroughly Teflon-coated president in modern history. This afternoon […]