Ghosts of the Mississippi
“Their affection, any love—good or bad—had me. I was the fool for love.” Ben Miller remembers his induction into an exclusive, eccentric group of writers in the prologue to his forthcoming book, River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa.
Superstition Freeway
“A tired voice we don’t remember fills us/ With its story half buried and held many exits away.” Circling over familiar roads and persistent appetites, a spare, sad, beautiful new sequence from Miles Waggener makes room for ghosts.
from In a Landscape
“We’re both happier this way, making these things/ real, because someday we won’t be.” Pulling meaning from contingency, John Gallaher composes a heartbreakingly sweet essay in verse.
Snapshot
“Our stories delight us intensely, yet often fail us, or come to an end.” An excerpt from The Beauty Experiment, a new memoir by Phoebe Baker Hyde.
Leaving the Image
In search of something other than an image, Lily Kuonen shakes up the painting, discovering a new space for play in the shake-up.
Anamnesis
“I cover it with a variety/of cloths, on which I like/to watch the material world/settle: leaves, dust,/the wings of flying insects.” G.C. Waldrep tells the story of a man and his machine, harnessing memory, appetite, and imagination.
No More Chatter
“We grew up without fear, and that taught us we deserved happiness. Now we couldn’t unlearn.” A funeral and a break-in are at the center of a new story by Willie Davis.
Elegy with Television
Haunted by the sense that there could be “some molten soul inside/the finite ways skin rides the bone and bone/pulls skin across it,” Peter Campion composes a beautiful and intricate elegy led on by appearances.
Composed
Seattle bassist and composer Jherek Bischoff talks about how his life growing up on the high seas prepared him for the extremely DIY recording process for his new art-pop album Composed.
from The Boss
“Who owns the land owns the buildings on the land owns the people in the/buildings unless an earthquake sucks the land in like a long noodle.” A vital new collection from Victoria Chang lines up the forces against us.
Strange Merchants
“When my father encountered his strange merchant in the leather goods shop, he felt free to forge a kind of inside joke with the man. He felt free to belly laugh and drum his fingertips on the counter at the aphorism’s off-color punch line.” Anna Journey considers the closeness of strangers.
Short Takes on Long Poems, Volume 4
Reginald Gibbons, Darcie Dennigan, Carl Phillips, Jane Hirshfield, Garrett Hongo, Daisy Fried, Debra Allbery, Solmaz Sharif, Devin Johnston, Patrick Rosal, Karla Kelsey, Sebastian Agudelo David Yezzi, and Peter Cooley weigh in (briefly) on their favorite long poems.
Short Takes on Long Poems, Volume 3
V. Penelope Pelizzon, Michael Collier, Peter Streckfus, Afaa Michael Weaver, Wendy Willis, Ed Skoog, Lia Purpura, Jeff Dolven, Joshua Marie Wilkinson, Anna Maria Hong, Katie Peterson, and Catherine Theis weigh in (briefly) on their favorite long poems.
Short Takes on Long Poems, Volume 2
Marianne Boruch, John Koethe, Jon Davis, Camille Dungy, Cate Marvin, Rachel Hadas, H.L. Hix, Shane McCrae, Nicole Cooley, Gretchen E. Henderson, David Caplan, and Jake Adam York weigh in (briefly) on their favorite long poems.
Sleep Mothers
It is two it is three it is four in the morningThey are sleeping think of them sleeping.It is two it is three it is […]