Best American Poetry- On Kenneth Koch, "Dr. Fun" [by Melanie Rehak]"May I tell you how much I love your poems?" Frank O'Hara crowed in the first stanza of a tribute to his friend Kenneth Koch in 1953. "It's as if a great pipeline had been illicitly tapped/along which all personal characteristics/are making a hasty departure. Tuba? Gin?/...O Kenneth Koch!" Koch's memories of his writing met […]
- Said Disraeli to Gladstone. . .At a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease." Disraeli replied, "That all depends, Sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress." Related StoriesPerils of the Poetry Reading [by Katha Pollitt]
- Flying Into the Unpredictable: Publishing During a Pandemic [by J. Chester Johnson](ed note: We checked in with J. Chester Johnson to find out how he's fared over the course of the last 18 plus months with the publication of his timely Damaged Heritage. Here's his update. sdl) My latest nonfiction book, Damaged Heritage: The Elaine Race Massacre and A Story of Reconciliation (publisher: Pegasus; distributed by Simon & Schuste […]
- Greg McBride: Pick of the Week [ed. Terence Winch]__________________________________________________________ Sizes My sister found our father’s ring, turquoise faded, sullied silver-plate. It stopped my breath. Thirty years ago I took it from his cold hand. A big man, he never took it off, not when he dug or swung or swam, or smeared on huckleberry jam, or held a cribbage peg […]
- On Kenneth Koch, "Dr. Fun" [by Melanie Rehak]
- World Literature Today
- Lost and Found in Translation: Storytelling and the Untranslatable, by Michał RusinekEssay Photo by Eileen Pan / Unsplash “Instead of a totalizing interpretation,” writes the author, translators should seek a dialogical one. “We have to leave space,” he writes, “for a story, an anecdote, a metaphorical footnote.” We all spend a lot of time at airports. After having some coffee and browsing in shops that used to be duty-free, I always like to […]
- Two Poems from Dear Specimen, by W. J. HerbertPoetry Illustration © Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History Foundation Fragile Eagle The La Brea Tar Pits’ Page Museum displays fossils of extinct & extant species. Eyes, glistening hollows. Blackened claws. Breast bone sunk between scrawny haunches as if you’re squatting by a campfire, though your tailbone’s a comb for a countess, tines shining w […]
- River, by Du YaPoetry Photo by Wayne S. Grazio / Flickr In spring of the year I turned twenty I looked for a river river calm and wide that I believed to be my past incarnation. Since childhood, I’ve seen it many times in the blink of an eye, in dreams but I could only glimpse it in flashes before it faded back into nothing. River flowing alone across the earth – what moon […]
- The World (Is a Book) According to Peter LaSalle, by Ellie SimonBook Reviews Photo by andy lapham / Flickr Whether he is recounting his nighttime drive with a late colleague and poet around the beltway of the pulsing and vibrant São Paulo—a city so full of people and culture that it seems to have its own gravitational pull—in the form of a mournful elegy, characterized by piercing prose and sorrowful nostalgia about thei […]
- Lost and Found in Translation: Storytelling and the Untranslatable, by Michał Rusinek
Monthly Archives: July 2015
The Vermont Adventure – last day
Pictured above are the quaint pine forest behind my residence hall, College Hall in the rain, and the organ in the chapel, where many of our lectures and readings take place. It is also where the graduation ceremony took place … Continue reading
The Vermont Adventure – day ten
No picture tonight. This was our last long day of lectures, workshops, and readings. Most of the students are discussing their study plans for the next six months, reflecting on their experiences during the residency, and sharing their joy about … Continue reading
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The Vermont Adventure – day nine
Pictured above is Noble Hall, where we have readings, gatherings, and some faculty meetings. It is also the faculty residence hall. The weather was beautiful again today, and it helped rejuvenate many of us after a high-energy party last night. … Continue reading
The Vermont Adventure – day eight
Pictured above is the room where I and ten other students workshop our pieces with William Alexander and Sharon Darrow. Yes, it is powerful. This was without reservation the most beautiful day in Montpelier so far; it was cool with … Continue reading
The Vermont Adventure – day seven
We all experience changes in ourselves, but it is rare when we can pinpoint the moment the changes occur. The experience so far at this college has been transformational, and the other students agree. You do not leave the residencies … Continue reading
