June 10, 2019
Poetry for People Who Hate Poetry – June
But does poetry actually change anything? Does it need to? Maybe poets are, as Percy Bysshe Shelley writes, “the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” Or maybe W.H. Auden is right that […]
June 10, 2019
A Decade of CantoMundo: In Conversation with Celeste Guzman Mendoza & Deborah Paredez
This past weekend was the last year of a 10-year term for Co-Directors Celeste Guzman Mendoza and Deborah Paredez, who along with Carmen Tafolla, Norma E. Cantú and Pablo Martínez […]
June 7, 2019
On the World War II Novel
Writing fiction about World War II from the vantage of the twenty-first century presents a rare challenge. Of all of history’s wars, this one has always felt the most uncomplicated, […]
June 6, 2019
This Party’s Dead: A Conversation with Erica Buist
Erica Buist is a freelance journalist. She writes mostly for The Guardian and Medium, but has also appeared in various literary magazines, The Times, The Mirror, The Debrief, and has been […]
June 5, 2019
“Song of Myself,” the Beer
“Sobriety,” Walt Whitman wrote in 1842, is “that virtue which every mother and father prays nightly” will reside “in the character of their sons.” Tell that to Bell’s Brewery, which […]
June 4, 2019
Amsterdam
A decade ago, well before I dared to call myself a writer and certainly before I published two books, I gave myself the extravagance of a week in a city […]
June 3, 2019
Kenyon Review’s Summer Reading Recommendations
Forget January. Avid readers know that the time for personal resolutions is the cusp of summer, when warm breezes, lingering light, and the prospect of vacation invite the mind to […]
June 3, 2019
The Doodles of Famous Authors
I’m not shy about my love of words, letters, and even whole sentences. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon a truly impressive feat of cultural curation over at […]
June 2, 2019
VERVE {IN} VERSE: IN CONVERSATION WITH MARCUS JACKSON
Note: Verve {in} Verse is my poet-focused feature here at The Kenyon Review in which I converse with poets about their work and interests both on and off the page. […]
May 31, 2019
Why American Poets Ought to Translate More Poems
As literary translators go, I am mostly a fraud, and thus beset by a fear that all frauds—from TV psychics to reality TV presidents—share: to be exposed by those who […]
May 31, 2019
Awkward Family Photos
I love to visit Awkward Family Photos. It’s a site heavy on the nostalgia. Each new photograph carries with it reminders of the moments you want to remember and maybe […]
May 30, 2019
Let It Be: In Memory of Wendell Mayo
Before sitting down to write this blog post, I went to the bookcase in my writing room and pulled out a tiny cloth sack of worry dolls. I hadn’t […]