July 29, 2015
The Poet’s Salter: An Appreciation of James Salter
About a year and a half ago I began writing a fan letter to James Salter. Salter was in residence at the University of Virginia, and this fact, I thought, […]
June 1, 2012
A Craft Note On the Duet (part 4) and On the Elegy (part 2)
Several several weeks ago now, Tarfia Faizullah and I exchanged notes on the elegy in what was billed as the first part of a multi-part craft note on the elegy. […]
March 27, 2012
Namesakes: On Titles
A few weeks back, I was in Boston for a reading when a friend showed me the Amazon page for Jane Springer’s forthcoming book, Murder Ballad. My friend asked “Doesn’t […]
March 21, 2012
Craft Note: The Elegy (part one)
[Blogger’s note: This post is part of a series of craft notes that look forward to the work Tarfia Faizullah and I will be doing at the Kenyon Review Writers […]
March 6, 2012
A Craft Note on The Craft Note
I spent this past weekend at the annual AWP Conference in Chicago, alternately overstimulated by the crowd in the bookfair and by the conversations in and around the panels. I […]
February 23, 2012
Matchup #1: O Rare Ben Jonson vs. A Little-Known 15th Century Welsh Poet
In any discussion of elegies for a lost child, Ben Jonson’s frequently comes up. You may know the one I’m talking about: Farewell, thou child of my right hand, […]