New Books in Poetry
Episodes
Maria G. Rewakowicz, “Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets” (Academic Studies Press, 2014)
23 Feb 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In Literature, Exile, Alterity: The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets (Academic Studies Press, 2014), Maria G. Rewakowicz explores a unique collaborat...
Ashaki Jackson, “Language Lesson” (Miel Books, 2016)
23 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
How do we mourn those we’ve lost? What are the rituals and rites that allow us to understand our loss? To feel the measure of it? To heal, if we nee...
Terence Degnan, “Still Something Rattles” (Sock Monkey Press, 2016)
23 Dec 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I had the pleasure of interviewing poet, Terence Degnan while he sat on a bench in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. For those unfamiliar, we refer to Sunset not...
Margaret Bashaar “Some Other Stupid Fruit: A Problematic Feminist Narrative” (Agape Editions, 2016)
30 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What is the best way to be a feminist? What is the best way to be a poet, a musician, or a painter? As a woman, what is the best way to be a friend to...
Anthony Cappo, “My Bedside Radio” (Deadly Chaps Press, 2016)
26 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
The “coming of age narrative” will never lose its allure because we are constantly drawn back to the moments that shaped us into the adults we are...
Amanda Deutch, “Pull Yourself Together: The Gena Rowlands Poems” (Dancing Girl Press, 2016)
23 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
In Pull Yourself Together: The Gena Rowlands Poems (Dancing Girl Press, 2106), Amanda Deutch reminds us of the current and historic importance of the ...
Jonathan Brooks Platt, “Greetings, Pushkin! Stalinist Cultural Politics and the Russian National Bard” (U. of Pittsburgh Press, 2016)
19 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Greetings, Pushkin! Stalinist Cultural Politics and the Russian National Bard (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016) by Jonathan Brooks Platt explores...
July Westhale “The Cavalcade” (Finishing Line Press, 2016)
15 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Where personal history and shared history intersect, we are left with the figures of memory and myth. These poems seek to reclaim the portions of pers...
Noah Stetzer, “I Could See Needing a Knife” (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016)
12 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
I am not going to lie to you, dear reader, this collection will require you to be fully present. With each layer of the speaker that is revealed, you ...
Ashaki Jackson, “Surveillance” (Writ Large Press, 2016)
09 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Now in its fifth printing of a very short life, Ashaki Jackson’s Surveillance examines the relationship between acts of violence, the witnessing of ...
Heidi Czerwiec, “Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cycle” (Gazing Grain Press, 2016)
06 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
With a genre-bending hybridity that Czerwiec is well-known for, Sweet/Crude: A Bakken Boom Cycle (Gazing Grain Press, 2016) takes the structure of...
Roy Guzman, “Restored Mural for Orlando/Mural Restaurado Para Orlando” (Queerodactyl Press, 2016)
03 Nov 2016
Contributed by Lukas
After the enormity of our loss had been calculated, Guzman started writing. Drawn to the page to process his grief and to understand in the best way p...
Kate Partridge, “Intended American Dictionary” (Miel Press, 2016)
31 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
We commonly think of Walt Whitman as the great American poet, the gray-bearded bard who captures the democratic music of our country with, as he calle...
Kristen Case, “Abdication: Emily Dickinson’s Failures of Self” (Essay Press, 2015)
08 Oct 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Emily Dickinson is no ordinary poet. Her intelligent and profound work inspires a fierce attachment in those who love it. I know this first-hand. My w...
Amy Wright, “Cracker Sonnets” (BrickRoad Poetry Press, 2016)
18 Aug 2016
Contributed by Lukas
My grandmother, who’s now ninety-eight, lived most of her life in a little town in Southwestern Ohio called Waynesville. The town has reinvented its...
Fox Frazier-Foley and Erin Elizabeth Smith, “Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity” (Sundress Publications, 2016)
20 Jun 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Readers gather around: Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of Identity (Sundress Publications, 2016) is an anthology for a new era. A...
Janice A. Lowe, “LEAVING CLE: Poems of Nomadic Dispersal” (Miami University Press, 2016)
16 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
“Poems of Nomadic Dispersal” This latter phrase in the title of Janice A. Lowe‘s new book–LEAVING CLE: Poems of Nomadic Dispersal (Miami Univ...
Rodrigo Toscano, “Explosion Rocks Springfield” (Fence Books, 2016)
10 May 2016
Contributed by Lukas
What is explosion? What does language look like when it mimics a gas leak, a bang, or rubble? What does language look like when it orbits other sounds...
Paul Rouzer, “On Cold Mountain: A Buddhist Reading of the Hanshan Poems” (U. of Washington Press, 2015)
14 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Paul Rouzer‘s new book offers a Buddhist reading of a famous collection of poems and the author associated with them, both of which were called Hans...
Simon Critchley, “ABC of Impossibility” (Univocal Publishing, 2015)
07 Mar 2016
Contributed by Lukas
From its opening fragment on “Fragments” to its “Possibly dolorous tropical lyrical coda,” Simon Critchley‘s new book is a pleasure to hold ...
Tina Escaja, “Free Fall/Caida libre” (Fomite Press, 2015)
16 Feb 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Tina Escaja‘s, Free Fall/Caida libre, translated by Mark Eisner (Fomite Press, 2015), is an exceptional example of poetry in translation as artistic...
James Franco, “Directing Herbert White” (Graywolf Press, 2014)
21 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Every poet has their obsessions and for James Franco they are childhood, gender, sex, innocence, and the work place he knows best: the film industry. ...
Mary Meriam, Lillian Faderman, Amy Lowell, “Lady of the Moon” (Headmistress Press, 2015)
17 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In Lady of the Moon (Headmistress Press, 2015), the reader is graced not only with the poetry of Amy Lowell, but with sonnets in response and a schola...
Marisa Crawford, “Big Brown Bag” (Gazing Grain Press, 2015)
03 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Winner of the Gazing Grain 2015 Chapbook contest, BIG BROWN BAGby Marisa Crawford is our final Chapbookapalooza installment. And what a way to end a g...
Anders Carlson-Wee, “Dynamite” (Bull City Press, 2015)
31 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Dynamite (Bull City Press, 2015) is transit distilled. Anders Carlson-Wee‘s poems employ movement as mechanism and movement as reverence in a journ...
Lynn Strongin, “The Burn Poems” (Headmistress Press, 2015)
27 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When Denise Levertov called Lynn Strongin a “true poet,” she recognized an awareness that transcended the young poet’s age. This very human awar...
Alexis Rhone Fancher, “State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies” (KYSO Flash Press, 2015)
25 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Alexis Rhone Fancher‘s State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies (KYSO Flash Press, 2015) is not an “easy” collection. This is not a group of poems tha...
Hope Wabuke, “Movement No. 1: Trains” (Dancing Girl Press, 2015)
21 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The poem fragments in Hope Wabuke‘s Movement No. 1: Trains (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) function more as meditations than portions of a whole. They me...
Lauren Gordon, “Fiddle is Flood” (Blood Pudding Press, 2015)
13 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In her macabre pastoral landscape Fiddle is Flood (Blood Pudding Press, 2015), Lauren Gordon conjures up a persona far-reaching enough to grapple with...
Tim Tomlinson, “Yolanda: An Oral History in Verse” (Finishing Line Press, 2015)
10 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Think of a place you have visited and to which you feel a connection. Now think of that place in utter ruin and devastation mere months later. You fee...
Metta Sama, “le animal and other creatures” (Miel Press, 2015)
07 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
As pleasing to the eye as it is to the ear the contents of Meta Sama‘s le animal and other creatures (Miel Press, 2015) remind us that creativity t...
Suzanne Bottelli, “The Feltville Formation” (Finishing Line Press, 2015)
05 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
When I first read Suzanne Bottelli‘s The Feltville Formation (Finishing Line Press, 2015), I was struck by the quietude and steadiness of the poems....
Ross White, “How We Came Upon the Colony” (Unicorn Press, 2014)
02 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
With air-tight verse and talent for the surreal, Ross White invokes a sibling version of our world in his new collection How We Came Upon the Colony (...
Ryo Yamaguchi, “The Refusal of Suitors” (Noemi Press, 2015)
14 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Does form make the poem? Robert Frost claimed that writing free verse poetry was “like playing tennis without a net.” Ryo Yamaguchi‘s poetry ch...
Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, “Dear Continuum: Letters to a Poet Crafting Liberation” (Grand Concourse Press, 2015)
07 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Poetry is far more than crafting verse. Poetry is a way of thought and a way of being. It seeps into every aspect of a poet’s life only to reveal th...
Karina Borowicz, “Proof” (Codhill Press, 2014)
26 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Karina Borowicz‘s collection Proof (Codhill Press, 2014) in three parts is a slow emerging, a crawling toward understanding. In a way that only the ...
Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick, eds. “Please Excuse This Poem: 100 Poets for the Next Generation” (Viking, 2015)
14 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Four years in the making, Brett Fletcher Lauer and Lynn Melnick have released an anthology into the hands of a new generation of readers, writers, and...
Daniel Tiffany, “My Silver Planet: A Secret History of Poetry and Kitsch” (John Hopkins UP, 2014)
06 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Mass-produced, fake, sentimental, easily digestible: when we think of kitsch these elements often come to mind. Furthermore, kitsch is almost always a...
Rachel Mennies, “The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards” (Texas Tech UP, 2014)
03 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
To read this collection is to enter into a world of dimly lit rooms with candle light shimmering off errant metallic surfaces. It is mystical, it is b...
Rountable on the Poetry of Xu Lizhi
14 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
When Xu Lizhi committed suicide on September 30, 2014, he left a substantial body of work for his brief 24 years. In his poetry, he displayed an aware...
Ailish Hopper, “Dark Sky Society” (New Issues Press, 2014)
25 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
I won’t say Ailish Hopper‘s collection Dark~Sky Society (New Issues Press, 2014) is “about” anything because that would do it a disservice. Th...
Becca J.R. Lachman, “A Ritual to Read Together: Poems in Conversation with William Stafford” (Woodley Press, 2013)
14 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
About twenty years ago, I heard William Stafford read his poetry for about twenty minutes. For a young aspiring writer like I was then, he was mesmeri...
Aimee Nezhukumatathil and Ross Gay, “Lace and Pyrite” (Organic Weapon Arts Press, 2014)
08 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Aimee Nezhukumatathil & Ross Gay Lace & Pyrite Organic Weapon Arts Press, 2014 Two gardens, 500 miles apart, managed to be i...
Rachel Moritz, “Many Forms in Water” (above/ground press, 2014)
07 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Rachel Moritz Many Forms in Water above/ground press, 2014 Born of a connection to Theodor Schwenk’s 1965 text Sensitive C...
Nikki Wallschlaeger “I Would Be the Happiest Bird” (Horseless Press, 2014)
03 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Nikki Wallschlaeger I Would Be the Happiest Bird Horseless Press, 2014 It is transient, it is migratory, it embarks from the...
Daniel Borzutzky, “Bedtime Stories for the End of the World!” (Bloof Books, 2014)
01 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Daniel Borzutzky Bedtime Stories for the End of the World Bloof Books, 2014 This is a collection in which the synaptic leaps...
Amber Atiya, “the fierce bums of doo wop” (Argos Books, 2014)
29 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Amber Atiya the fierce bums of doo wop Argos Books, 2014 Densely-packed prosody and firecracker content fill the pages of th...
Ashley Inguanta “For the Woman Alone” (Ampersand Books, 2014)
23 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Ashley Inguanta For the Woman Alone Ampersand Books, 2014 More artistic creation than poetry collection, more journal than s...
Ken Pobo “When the Light Turns Green”
21 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Ken Pobo When the Light Turns Green Spruce Alley Press, 2014 A garden is not always a garden: our metaphors speak of our exp...
Laura Foley, “Joy Street” (Headmistress Press, 2014)
19 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Laura Foley Joy Street Headmistress Press, 2014 Within Joy Street are access panels to the poet’s mind. She has a stunning...
Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, “The Greenhouse” (Bull City Press, 2014)
17 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet The Greenhouse Bull City Press, 2014 In a collection that subverts sentiment even as it delves into...
Leslie McGrath, “By the Windpipe” (ELJ Publications, 2014)
13 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Leslie McGrath By the Windpipe ELJ Publications, 2014 A poetry of the mind, a poetry of form, a poetry of sound? McGrath’s...
Yu Han Chao, “One Woman Fruit Stand” (Imaginary Friend Press, 2014)
11 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Yu Han Chao One Woman Fruit Stand Imaginary Friend Press, 2014 Stunning and startling imagery carry this collection of fruit...
Dan Brady “Cabin Fever/Fossil Record” (Flying Guillotine Press, 2014)
08 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Dan Brady Cabin Fever/Fossil Record Flying Guillotine Press, 2014 Modeled after Eugene Leroy’s layered paintings, these po...
Megan Moriarty “From the Dictionary of Living Things”
06 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza 2014 Megan Moriarty From the Dictionary of Living Things Finishing Line Press, 2014 Part dictionary, part guide to living, and pa...
Lyric Hunter “Swallower” (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014)
05 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Chapbookapalooza, 2014 Lyric Hunter Swallower Ugly Duckling Presse, 2014 Mastering a bi-lingual prosody, these poems confront the idea of “city”...
Leah Umansky, “Don Dreams and I Dream” (Kattywompus Press, 2014)
02 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
At Chapbookapalooza, our headliner goes first. And here she is with a stunning collection of poetry that subverts pop culture by placing it in direct...
Darryl Whetter, “Origins” (Palimpsest Press, 2012)
19 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book of poems, Origins (Palimpsest Press, 2012), the Canadian writer Darryl Whetter uses metaphor to excavate the links between pre-histori...
Dorothea Lasky, “Rome” (Liveright, 2014)
30 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Dorothea Lasky‘s Rome (Liveright, 2014) is a collection that will catch you off guard. Lasky lures the reader in with familiar language and imager...
Kerry James Evans, “Bangalore” (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)
22 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Bangalore (Copper Canyon Press 2013) by Kerry James Evans calls out to its reader from an urgency that is its own place and time. He has inhabited man...
Kamilah Aisha Moon, “She Has A Name” (Four Way Books, 2014)
16 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
She Has A Name (Four Way Books 2014) by Kamilah Aisha Moon is a startling collection that dares to intimately address the way a family transforms when...
Eliza Griswold, “I am a Beggar of the World” (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2014)
23 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In my dream, I am the president. When I awake, I am a beggar of the world. The landay represents an oral tradition of a mostly illiterate people. It...
Cedar Sigo, “Language Arts” (Wave Books, 2014)
17 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Language Arts (Wave Books 2014) by Cedar Sigo is a departure and then reintroduction to form on avant garde’s terms. In addition to disparate explos...
Kevin Prufer “Churches” (Four Way Books, 2014)
09 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Prufer is a rare poet who manages to layer narratives and weave metrical variations seamlessly into his work, all while placing it on the page i...
Venus Thrash, “The Fateful Apple” (Urban Poets and Lyricists, 2014)
18 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
To read Venus Thrash‘s The Fateful Apple (Urban Poets and Lyricists, 2014) is to venture into two assertions of self-hood. The first is a rauc...
Jason Koo, “America’s Favorite Poem” (C and R Press, 2014)
12 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In Jason Koo‘s new collection, America’s Favorite Poem (C&R Press, 2014), we see a poet placing himself on the timeline of his art. This timeline ...
Mark Wunderlich, “The Earth Avails” (Graywolf Press, 2014)
04 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In The Earth Avails (Graywolf Press), Mark Wunderlich presents a world unfamiliar to most of us: rural life. While many poets are enamored by the impa...
Kenneth Goldsmith, “Seven American Deaths and Disasters” (powerHouse Books, 2013)
23 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Kenneth Goldsmith‘s latest book Seven American Deaths and Disasters (powerHouse Books, 2013), a title taken from the series of Warhol paintings by t...
David Biespiel, “Charming Gardeners” (University of Washington Press, 2013)
16 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
David Biespiel‘s Charming Gardeners (University of Washington Press, 2013) is unlike any book I’ve read in a long time. Filled with epistolary poe...
Don Share, “Wishbone” (Black Sparrow, 2012)
19 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Like great critics, the poetry of great editors is often overlooked, but I don’t see how this can be the case with Don Share, whose work is too good...
Adam Fitzgerald, “The Late Parade” (Liveright, 2013)
10 Dec 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The Late Parade (Liveright, 2013) has received a lot of attention and it’s well-deserved. Adam Fitzgerald‘s poetry is a berserk love song and betw...
Ange Mlinko, “Marvelous Things Overheard” (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013)
24 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In Marvelous Things Overheard (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013), Ange Mlinko‘s poems exhibit a sonically rich landscape articulated by a beautiful v...
Stephanie Strickland, “Dragon Logic” (Ahsahta Press, 2013)
21 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
At the age of five, poet Stephanie Strickland and her sister received a book from their grandmother that included a poem by John Farrar called “Seri...
Mary Ruefle, “Trances of the Blast” (Wave Books, 2013)
03 Nov 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Ruefle‘s newest book of poems Trances of the Blast (Wave Books, 2013) is brilliant. Her poems have the confidence of a poet who is utterly fear...
Elizabeth Winder, “Pain, Parties, Work: Sylvia Plath in New York, Summer 1953” (Harper, 2013)
18 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
It is a struggle sometimes in biography to find new ways to write about subjects about whom many biographies have been written. This is particularly p...
William Logan, “Madame X” (Penguin Books, 2012)
06 Oct 2013
Contributed by Lukas
William Logan is often thought of as a critic first and a poet second, so his verse doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves. In Logan’s poetr...
Paul Killebrew “Ethical Consciousness” (Canarium Books, 2013)
23 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In Paul Killebrew‘s latest book of poems, Ethical Consciousness (Canarium Books, 2013), the speaker inhabits the everyday structures of our lives, b...
Michael Robbins, “Alien vs. Predator” (Penguin Books, 2012)
02 Sep 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Robbins, author of Alien vs. Predator (Penguin Books, 2012), has gotten a lot of attention for his book of poems because of his relentless mas...
Dana Gioia, “Pity the Beautiful” (Graywolf Press, 2012)
06 Aug 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Dana Gioia‘s deference to poetic tradition and artistic beauty is intolerable to those who taste the venom of ideology in every linguistic expressio...
Lisa Olstein, “Little Stranger” (Copper Canyon Press, 2013)
11 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In Little Stranger (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), Lisa Olstein‘s poems are concerned with the tension between the public and the personal and how the ...
Stephen Burt “Belmont” (Graywolf Press, 2013)
01 Jul 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Belmont (Graywolf Press, 2013) is a book of poems written by both a grownup and a child and each seem quite aware of the other. This split-consciousne...
Katy Didden, “The Glacier’s Wake” (Pleiades Press, 2013)
18 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
The poems in Katy Didden‘s debut The Glacier’s Wake (Pleiades Press, 2013) are civilized and dignified and so are their surfaces: sophisticated so...
James Longenbach, “The Virtues of Poetry” (Graywolf Press, 2013)
11 Jun 2013
Contributed by Lukas
James Longenbach‘s The Virtues of Poetry (Graywolf Press, 2013) is not interested in the vices or failures found in some poems, so his concerns are ...
Joshua Edwards, “Imperial Nostalgias” (Ugly Duckling Press, 2013)
27 May 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Joshua Edwards‘ new book and its title, Imperial Nostalgias (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2013), hint at a yearning for a lost world all of us helped to de...
Erica Wright, “Instructions for Killing the Jackal” (Black Lawrence Press, 2011)
29 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
As I waded into Erica Wright‘s first books of poems, I immediately became not only aware of my gender, but the event that is female, woman, girl, an...
Kevin Goodan, “Upper Level Disturbances” (Center for Literary Publishing, 2012)
22 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
Kevin Goodan‘s latest book of poems, Upper Level Disturbances (Center for Literary Publishing at Colorado State University, 2012), directly challeng...
Matthew Pennock, “Sudden Dog” (Alice James Books, 2012)
06 Apr 2013
Contributed by Lukas
In Sudden Dog, the voice we encounter is a moody one to say the least. We find a poet who at times seems to believe the entire human project is stupid...
Samuel Amadon, “The Hartford Book: Poems” (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012)
25 Mar 2013
Contributed by Lukas
To read Samuel Amadon‘s latest book of poems, The Hartford Book (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2012), is to know for the rest of your li...
Lucas Klein (trans.), “Xi Chuan’s Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems” (New Directions, 2012)
18 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
First things first: this is a book of amazing, beautiful poetry, and you should read it. In translating Xi Chuan’s Notes on the Mosquito: Selected ...
Bruce Rusk, “Critics and Commentators: The ‘Book of Poems’ as Classic and Literature” (Harvard UP, 2012)
12 Feb 2013
Contributed by Lukas
What makes something a poem? What defines “poetry,” and how has that changed over space and time? Critics and Commentators: The ‘Book of Poems’...
Curtis Crisler, “Pulling Scabs” (Aquarius Press, 2009)
20 Dec 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Curtis L. Crisler is a prolific poet, novelist, and mix-genre author who writes about the American experience. In his work, Crisler turns a particular...
Cosima Bruno, “Between the Lines: Yang Lian’s Poetry through Translation” (Brill, 2012)
26 Nov 2012
Contributed by Lukas
Cosima Bruno‘s new book asks us to consider a deceptively simple question: what is the relationship between a poem and its translation? In the cours...
Nancy Hargrove, “T.S. Eliot’s Parisian Year” (University of Florida Press, 2010)
15 Jun 2012
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to writers and artists, biography plays a provocative role–yielding insight into both artistic influences and origins. This is especia...
Makalani Bandele, “Hellfightin'” (Willow Books, 2012)
19 Mar 2012
Contributed by Lukas
There is no better description of poet Makalani Bandele‘s debut book Hellfightin’ (Willow Books, 2012) than the one found on his comprehensive we...
Helen Vendler on Emily Dickinson
15 Sep 2011
Contributed by Lukas
[Re-posted with permission from Jenny Attiyeh’s ThoughtCast] When Helen Vendler was only 13, the future poetry critic and Harvard professor mem...
Nikky Finney, “Head Off and Split: Poems” (TriQuarterly/Northwestern UP, 2010)
06 Jul 2011
Contributed by Lukas
UPDATE: Nikky Finney’s Head Off and Split has been named a finalist for a National Book Award. Congratulations, Nikky, from the folks at New Boo...