recent writing
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In an Unexpected Emergency, I Find Myself
In the lovely, centerpiece poem from his latest collection, Birth Center in Corporate Woods, BJ Soloy reminds us—with couplets that are manic, comic, and deftly enjambed—that “We’ll find a way though this like an inmate / finding a way // to hang himself.” This is a poem for our moment, whether we like it or not.
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Nemo
“You must understand what I cannot make you understand,” Raymond McDaniel writes about Micronauts, the 1970s action figures: “I used these toys in the same way I used reading itself: to be the other that was actually the self.” This essay’s observations—on humanity, selfhood, autonomy, and vision—are a delight to behold.
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The Dreams and Damnation of Bishop Koyle
“The figure then looked Koyle in the eye and said, ‘Brother Koyle, do you believe that even a man’s lust for gold can be consecrated for the work of the Lord?’” Revelation sets a man on a path that will transform geography and transcend reality in this excerpt from Jeremy Grimshaw’s novel-in-progress.
from the archive
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An Arsenal of Sand
“Anger in our family was like the water: it had to go somewhere. Rise up, sink down, or burst everywhere at once.” An excerpt from Angela Palm’s Riverine: A Memoir from Anywhere but Here.
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Amy Jorgensen: an Interview
Amy Jorgensen talks with Debra Klomp Ching about Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue.
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The Cats of Old San Juan
“The cats are here because of the rats. / The rats are here because of the Americans. / The Americans were here because of the Spanish. / The Spanish were here because fuck the Spanish.” Combining the force of logic with bitter irony and sharp humor, a new poem from David M. de León tracks the confusions of Puerto Rico’s colonial past and present.