The Monongahela Book of Hours
V. Penelope Pelizzon strings her time in a mining town together with stories of an early coal baron, the workers who opposed him, and the art in the museum that bears his name, hunting “Illuminations sharp/enough to catch…/dark earth’s plunge/to underworlds where men still crouch to free/the stone whose flesh is flame.”
Seal Wife
A sea lion sheds her skin and takes a human husband, confronting in innocence the terrors of evolution. By Amy Parker.
Two Prose Pieces
In one of the two prose poems here, Rachel Zucker deals with a friend’s death, her unreliable memory and her fascination with another poet known only as “one.” In the other, Elaine Bleakney begins, “This is the beginning of talking to you: deer in the yard,” setting off a series of meditations that cover a terrible job, a traumatic labor, and culture shock.
The Showrunner
A hit show, a teenage star, the arc of fame, the walk of shame: A bitterly funny Hollywood fable by Frankie Thomas.
from The Book of the Red King
Marly Youmans‘ chronicle of a fool in search of his king is a rollicking tour through the traditions of English literature and the pleasures of the language itself. Introducing her hero she writes, “He shakes his rattle at the dark/And fills his antic hat with leaves.”
Where His Lines Run
Starting from a six-sentence obituary that ran in 1855, Adam Tavel crafts a riveting sequence of letters and monologues invoking suicide, infidelity, race, and the “bent trumpet of grief” that echoes over generations.
Claire Denis Film Scores – 1996 to 2009
Tindersticks have scored six of Claire Denis’ films, a collaboration unique on the indie side of the rock and film world. Stuart Staples talks about the origin and effect of a long partnership and explains why you won’t see the band in the credits of the Avatar sequel.
Lisa M. Robinson
On the eve of her highly anticipated show Oceana, Lisa M. Robinson talks with Darren Ching and Debra Klomp Ching about the challenges of capturing the subtle transitions of water, air and earth with her new body of photographic work.
Six Poems from Five Poets
Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet, Jimmmy Santiago Baca, Erica Dawson, Patrick Donnelly, and Thom Satterlee cover parenthood, addiction, sex, love, and more in At Length‘s first-ever poetry issue.
Holyoke Fences
“The moment still life painting shifted to accommodate pouring wine, a spun coin, candle flame, the entire snowy field at dusk. Do you have the time?” Why yes, Zach Savich, we do. Read this excerpt from his new lyric memoir, Events Film Cannot Withstand.
Famous Battles
When his wife’s old flame returns to their Georgia hometown, a veteran finds himself waging a primordial fight. History and myth, North and South, civilization and nature all clash in this gripping story by Matthew Harrison.
Bay
“Easement to/estuaries,” begins Michael D. Snediker, searching for persuasive images of relief in river clay and stoneware, bottles, stars and Cygnus, who “Found/no body//but felt—//again and/again—//the body’s warmth.”
Electric Fruit
Mary Halvorson may be the future of jazz guitar, but her future might not be in jazz. She talks about Electric Fruit–her newest trio release with Weasel Walter and Peter Evans–crossing musical boundaries, and how planets can really mess up your life.
from Ardency: A Chronicle of the Amistad Rebels
Kevin Young recreates the letters and speeches of the Amistad rebels, probing their relationship to a white culture that both enslaved and liberated them. An excerpt from Young’s brilliant new book, which was 20 years in the making.
Atomic Clock
“We fail and fail and grow desirous of believing we’re all vehicle, every wet atom of us.” Kerri Webster‘s prose poem draws on place and prayer, fit and ache, showing how the world “lends the appearance of appearing like something else.”