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 […]
September 11, 2018
Luck, Lit, & Gutter Spouts
I was twenty-three years old when I won the Hopwood Award for Poetry. A recent college grad, I lived in a leaky apartment that I’d furnished with lawn furniture and […]
March 1, 2017
“They Leave Everything”: A Meditation on Robert Lowell’s 100th Birthday
This year marks the centennial of Robert Lowell’s birth, and not for that reason alone the time seems right to look again at one of his poems. While much of […]
January 8, 2017
Happy 100th Birthday, Peter Taylor
It is customary on a writer’s birthday, especially on a date so significant as his 100th, to grant his life and work a few moments of your attention. Today we […]
April 16, 2016
Iambic Pentameter Has Nothing to Do with Your Heart
It is time that all poets, critics, and readers dispense with the following metaphor: the iamb is a heartbeat. Let us refrain from settling arguments (or starting them) by asking […]
February 19, 2016
Un-Valentine’s Day
Just as Humpty Dumpty celebrated un-birthdays, some of us at the University of Michigan on Monday celebrated Un-Valentine’s Day. Our cupcakes were topped with hearts, yes; but they were also […]
October 31, 2015
Lowell, Bishop, Berryman
In today’s New York Times, Christopher Isherwood reviews Dear Elizabeth, a play by Sarah Ruhl that tracks the friendship (mostly epistolary) of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. Isherwood writes something […]