April 27, 2016
Other Inquisitions: Chasing the Northern Lights
…[T]he universe had no beginning. It existed forever as a kind of quantum potential before ‘collapsing’ into the hot dense state we call the Big Bang. Unfortunately many articles confuse […]
April 21, 2016
Poem in Your Pocket Day is almost here
This is the twentieth year National Poetry Month has been commemorated–it began with the Academy of American Poets in 1996–and we’re pleased to be part of the national celebration. As […]
November 27, 2015
“Merely in living as and where we live”: Part I
In my previous post, I imagined the thrill of a first encounter with Wallace Stevens’s “Sunday Morning,” which appeared for the first time in Poetry 100 years ago this month, November 1915. […]
November 19, 2015
Notes on Love and Violence
‘Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.’ — Max Frisch (1) My mother did not like me hanging around outside: to stand on a street corner any day, […]
September 22, 2015
On the Wings of a Power Ballad: Atonement and Yom Kippur
* Phoenix the pyre the self-resurrected Obscures everything ardently briefly with ash —“Zone,” Guillaume Apollinaire When I fast on Yom Kippur, my prayers sound like this. In the film Under […]
September 18, 2015
Not-Quite Goodbye (Aseret Yemei Teshuva)
I mean, you must take living so seriously that even […]
September 13, 2015
On Books and Silence: Why I Cannot Pray on Rosh Hashanah
“Where are you?” “In what I say.” “What is your truth?” “What lacerates me.” “And your salvation?” “Forgetting what I said.” –“At the Threshold of the Book,” Edmond Jabès […]
January 8, 2015
Who Has the Loudest Voice?
All literature offends someone. To offend our fixed ideas, even our most sacred truths, is one of the ways in which writers compel us to think, to question, and to […]
October 3, 2014
Online Book Discussion of Ann Patchett’s STATE OF WONDER: Week One
This is the first in a series of posts about Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder. Please click on the links below to access additional posts. Natalie Shapero, Week One Natalie […]
March 10, 2014
KR Fellows Transition
We’ve had the first sweet taste of spring here in Gambier after a brutal winter. After a couple three days now of 40s and 50s there’s still a fair bit […]
February 24, 2014
KR in Seattle
Even more than reading, which may be shared as a bedtime story or a tale around a campfire, writing has always been a solitary endeavor. One labors at night or […]
February 10, 2014
Weekend Reads: 2 in 1
Starting this past Friday, KR’s Weekend Reads expanded to include both a poem of the week and a story (or essay) of the week. The first edition includes Erin McGraw’s dazzling […]