David Baker is the author or editor of many books of poetry and criticism. His latest collection of poems, Whale Fall, was published by W. W. Norton in July 2022. Baker taught at Kenyon 1983–84 and began a long association with The Kenyon Review then, including service for more than twenty-five years as poetry editor. He continues to curate the magazine’s annual environmental feature, “Nature’s Nature.” Baker is emeritus professor of English at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio, where he offers two classes each spring semester.
Nature's Nature
Summer 2024
“Nature’s Nature” at Ten
In the May /June 2015 issue of the Kenyon Review appeared what I thought would be a one-time feature on poetry and the environment, “Nature’s Nature.” For several years I’d compiled […]
Nature’s Nature
Mar/Apr 2021
Nature’s Nature
There is no hiding. There is no sanctuary. There is no safe place that does not bear the pressure, nor indicate the destruction and contamination, of climate change. Damian Carrington, […]
Poetry
Nov/Dec 2020
Four Poses
You bend your foot, slow as the heron at hunt, who shifted to the sun side of the shoulder to let us pass, yesterday, beneath those reedy capers. It flew, […]
Nature’s Nature 2020
May/June 2020
[Introduction]
Today, as I write this, is December 26, 2019 — the day, as it happens, between Christmas and my birthday. It is my pleasure, for the sixth year now, to offer you […]
Nature’s Nature
May/June 2019
Nature’s Nature
Rob Picheta reports on CNN what we all know. Global wildlife populations have fallen, he writes, “by 60% in just over four decades, as accelerating pollution, deforestation, climate change and […]
Introduction
Summer 2023
Introduction to Nature’s Nature
The Kenyon Review · Nature’s Nature Introduction Joanna Klink’s poem “Processional” opens with a vivid provisional, perhaps also a prayer: “If there is a world, let me be in it.” […]
May/June 2022
Nature’s Nature
I woke, shaken from the dream. It was not quite dawn but that filtered darkness just as the first light shadows the curtains. It had been a dream of words, […]
Getting and Spending
Nov/Dec 2018
Introduction: Getting and Spending
“Money is a kind of poetry.” This is one of Wallace Stevens’s zingers in “Adagia.” Stevens dealt with money in his daily business at Hartford Indemnity, and I imagine he […]
Nature's (Human) Nature
May/June 2018
Introduction: Nature’s (Human) Nature
It’s July 30, 2017, as I start taking notes for the present introduction to “Nature’s (Human) Nature.” It is December 1, 2017, when I finish. Four months. During this time, […]
The Hybrid Lyric
Sept/Oct 2017
Introduction: The Hybrid Lyric
Absolute purity does not exist in poetry—not in form, rhetoric, image, or any other poetic component. Of course. The simple relation of subject to predicate imposes a narrative complication on […]
Nature's Nature
May/June 2017
Introduction: Nature’s Nature
The old binary just doesn’t hold up. You know, that science accomplishes the nitty-gritty technical work of identifying, analyzing, and deducing—everything from quantum processes to actions on the cosmological scale—while […]
Book Reviews
Jan/Feb 2017
Representative Men
Bastards of the Reagan Era by Reginald Dwayne Betts. Four Way Books, 2015. 72 pp. $15.95. The Orchard Green and Every Color by Zach Savich. Omnidawn, 2016. 96 pp. $17.95. […]
The Longer Lyric
Nov/Dec 2016
Introduction: The Longer Lyric
Many lines of Dan Beachy-Quick’s “A Century of Meditation” end with—or evaporate into—a dash. His method in this beautiful lyric sequence about belief and the “eternal soul” is a blend […]
Nature's Nature
May/June 2016
Introduction: Nature’s Nature
We are pleased to offer this second annual installment of “Nature’s Nature,” a suite of poems and one lyric essay gathered around the subject or location of the “natural.” I […]
Poetry in Transylvania
Mar/Apr 2016
Introduction: Poetry in Transylvania
Sibiu, Romania, is an ancient city, one of seven walled citadel-cities built in the twelfth century by the Germanic Saxons. It’s a gorgeous place, modern and ancient at once, nestled […]
"Oh Abuse": Poets Regarding Pain
Jan/Feb 2016
Introduction: “Oh Abuse”: Poets Regarding Pain
“In my life, I was trying to be / a witness not a theorist,” writes Louise Glück in “Nest.” If to “witness” means to see a thing, it also means, […]
Walking with Poets
Nov/Dec 2015
Introduction: Walking with Poets
We make our way across the world by walking. Walking impels the body through time and across spaces, however large or small. In the interval, the interstices, things evolve, decay, […]
Nature's Nature: A Gathering of Poetry
May/June 2015
Nature’s Nature: A Gathering of Poetry Introduction
I am pleased to offer this gathering of new poems to our readers, as I have been pleased to read the work of so many poets in assembling this feature […]
A SYMPOSIUM ON EMILY DICKINSON
Summer 2014
At Home with Emily Dickinson
“There is no Frigate like a Book / To take us Lands away,” Emily Dickinson famously wrote. But Dickinson lived nearly all her life at home, in Amherst, Massachusetts. […]
A SYMPOSIUM ON EMILY DICKINSON
Summer 2014
Thresholds
Emily Dickinson entered into this world on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and died in the same town, in the family homestead, “quite suddenly” as her friend Clara Newman […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Fall 2012
Introduction: 2012 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
This is our ninth year of judging and awarding the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers at The Kenyon Review. The magazine’s staff remains grateful to Patricia Grodd for […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Fall 2011
Young Poets Introduction
2011 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers This is the eighth year we have offered the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers here at The Kenyon Review. Our […]
A Symposium on John Keats
Fall 2011
Corresponding Keats
John Keats lived a very short life. He was born on Halloween at a livery stable north of London, in 1795, and died in a little room at 26 Piazza […]
A Symposium on John Keats
Fall 2011
Re: Keats
Since 2000 a group of poet-critics has presented a series of lectures at the annual conference of the Associated Writing Programs in an ongoing discussion of lyric poetry and some […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Fall 2009
Young Poets Introduction
Poetry Editor 2009 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers This is the sixth year that we at The Kenyon Review have offered the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young […]
Nonfiction
Summer 2009
A Conversation with Fady Joudah
Fady Joudah was born on New Year’s Day in 1971 in Austin, Texas, to Palestinian refugee parents. He grew up in Libya and Saudi Arabia, speaking Arabic as his first […]
New Voices
Winter 2009
On Kascha Semonovitch
For the last decade The Kenyon Review has been pleased to offer this feature of New Voices. Here we focus on writers who are just emerging in the publishing world […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Fall 2008
Young Writers Introduction
Poetry Editor 2008 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers For five years now The Kenyon Review has been proud to sponsor the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Fall 2007
Introduction: 2007 Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize For Young Writers Commentary Here is our fourth annual presentation of The Kenyon Review‘s feature on high-school poets, the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers. […]
Book Reviews
Autumn 2006
Introduction
A new book of poems comes into the world more by stealth than splash. Typically a new book will sell a thousand copies, maybe wo thousand, during its first year. […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Autumn 2006
Introduction: On the Third Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers Commentary We are excited to present the third annual installment of The Kenyon Review‘s feature on high school poets, now formally known […]
Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize
Winter 2006
Introduction: On the Second Kenyon Review Poetry Prize for Young Writers
Young Writers Commentary The Kenyon Review’s history is rich with the best work from the best writers here and abroad. We have published the poetry of Robert Lowell and […]
New Voices
Spring 2005
On Priscilla Sneff’s “O Woolly City”
Winner of the 2004 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry As poetry editor of this magazine, I am pleased to serve as the continuing judge of the Kenyon Review / […]
New Voices
Spring 2004
On Randall Mann’s “Complaint in the Garden”: Winner of the 2003 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry
This is the third year of The Kenyon Review’s sponsorship of the Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry, an annual book award given by Zoo Press to a poet for the […]
New Voices
Spring 2003
On Christopher Cessac’s “Republic Sublime”
Winner of the 2002 Kenyon Review Prize in Poetry Two years ago The Kenyon Review entered into a relationship with a new independent book publisher, Zoo Press, located in […]
Book Reviews
Spring 2002
Story’s Stories
Vagrant Grace by David Bottoms. Port Townsend: Copper Canyon, 1999. 95 pp. $14.00. Men in the Off Hours by Anne Carson. New York: Knopf, 2000. 166 pp. $24.00. Erotikon by […]
Nonfiction
Spring 2000
Heresy and the American Ideal: On T. R. Hummer
1. Any significant poetic based on romantic aesthetics must contain the impulse for, and then must enact, an overthrow of some sort. That is to say, the heart of romanticism […]
New Voices
Summer/Fall 1999
Audition: On Alison Stine
Over the past decade I have had the privilege of writing about the work of nearly eighty poets. For this magazine alone my essays have considered more than thirty poets, […]
Book Reviews
Summer/ Autumn 1997
Hieroglyphs of Erasure
Adventures in Ancient Egypt by Albert Goldbarth. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1996. 109 pages. $20.00, cloth. Erasure derives from the Latin verb eradere, to scrape, scratch out: to […]
Book Reviews
Summer 1996
Line by Line
That Kind of Danger by Donna Masini. Boston: Beacon Press, 1994. 106 pages. $22.00; $12.00 paper. Fresh Peaches, Fireworks, & Guns by Donald Platt. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, […]
Kenyon Review Classics
Spring 1996
Re: Wright
We are building a huge cottage industry out of the ranking and aligning of cultural works and literary authors. The two Blooms—Harold and Allan—have constructed, quite independently, their lists of […]
Book Reviews
Spring 1996
Who Done It?
After the Death of Poetry: Poet and Audience in Contemporary America by Vernon Shetley. Durham: Duke University Press, 1993. xii, 209 pages. $39.95, $13.95 paper. Many critics have decided that […]
Book Reviews
Autumn 1994
The Push of Reading
Materialism by Jorie Graham. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1993. 146 pp. $22.00. Red Trousseau by Carol Muske. New York: Viking Penguin, 1993. 82 pp. $18.00. The City of Women by […]
Book Reviews
Winter 1993
Kinds of Knowing
Apocrypha by Eric Pankey. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. 78 pages. $19.00. The Wild Iris by Louise Glück. Hopewell, NJ: Ecco Press, 1992. 63 pages. $19.95. Heart and Perimeter […]
Book Reviews
Summer 1992
Against Mastery
An Atlas of the Difficult World by Adrienne Rich. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. 60 pages. $17.95. What Work Is by Philip Levine. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. […]
Book Reviews
Winter 1992
Probable Reason, Possible Joy
The Collected Poems of Henri Coulette edited, with an introduction, by Donald Justice and Robert Mezey. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press. 1990. 252 pages. $24.95; $14.95, paper. Pieces of a […]
Book Reviews
Summer 1991
Framed in Words
Selected Poems by Louis MacNeice. Ed. Michael Longley. Winston-Salem, NC: Wake Forest University Press, 1990. 160 pages. $15.95. Selected Poems 1966-1987 by Seamus Heaney. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, […]
Book Reviews
Winter 1991
Recent Poetry
Boy on the Step. By Stanley Plumly. New York: Ecco Press, 1989. 58 pp. $17.95. House of Light. By Mary Oliver. Boston: Beacon Press, 1990. 80 pp. $14.95. Dangerous Life. […]
Poetry
Summer 1989
Cardinals in Spring
After Whitman I Tens of thousands on the wing, perennial in April —think how pure we are, in retrospect—tens of thousands in our red caps wheeling down from Davenport, Saint […]
Poetry
Spring 1988
Generation
imagining a son As if the wind warns shh in the evening willows, two young redwings rinsing in the clear creek abandon their joy and sleek away, sudden as […]
Poetry
Spring 1988
Volunteers
picture postcard from afar Ragged-leafed and leaning among row after straight-laid row of soybeans, these few stalks of corn are last year’s good cash crop turned this year’s weed: […]
Book Reviews
Autumn 1987
Time and Time Again
And Venus Is Blue by Mary Hood. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1986. 293 pages. $15.95. Delia Racing’s father, James Racing, dies six times in the title story of […]
Six Poems, Three Poets
Autumn 1984
The Anniversary of Silence
May 1972, May 1982 Every night for weeks, from the lilac’s deep heart,a catbird has softly sung through my sleep,the same one always quietly mewing when I come homeor when […]
Six Poems, Three Poets
Autumn 1984
Running the River Lines
for Tim Gaines Tonight, on a bank line strungfor catfish, a crawdad hooked through the tailand dangled scarcely an inchin the murky water, we catch a loon. It must […]
In Memoriam
William’s Hand
Forty years of friendship one brown photograph to show for it how little it comes to William’s open hand reaching through the fence not by it do we know him […]
In Memoriam
In Memoriam: W.S. Merwin
No contemporary poet’s work has meant more to me than W. S. Merwin’s. We first met in 1979, when I was a twenty-four-year-old high school English teacher in Jefferson City, […]
KR Reviews
What I See Are Your Hands: On Look by Solmaz Sharif
Solmaz Sharif’s new book of poems, her first, is entitled Look, but it might more accurately be called Look Again. Sharif’s primary gesture—and her narrative strategy—is to reconsider and rearticulate: to see again and so to revise.
In Memoriam
In Memoriam: Miller Williams
The Kenyon Review wishes to salute the life and work of Miller Williams, who died on January 1, 2015 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Williams was a longtime friend and contributor to […]
Weekend Reads
On Restraint
An excerpt from “On Restraint,” published in Poetry, Vol. CLXVIII, No. 1, April, 1996, pp. 33-47. I am not concerned here with artistic timidity, moral constraint, or polite decorum—that is, […]
Spring 2013
Hunger to Hunger:
Hungry / Foame
An Introduction
Poems don’t begin. Poems continue. A poet may sit with pen and paper, or a blue-faced computer screen, and write that first word, but spinning in the poet’s head is a symphony of sounds and impulses, and preceding that first textual mark is a whole history of previous uses of that “first” word.