Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: April 2018

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David Bottoms’s poems are like dark rooms: we enter and exit through the same door, but we’re a little different on the way out.
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On Poetry

On Poetry and Archiving

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How does a poet become an archivist? I think I suspected the answer before I asked: you approach objects with care.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: March 2018

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We often say that poetry transforms, but Fady Joudah’s verse also transports.
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On Poetry

Fifteen Poets on Revision

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Some poets suffer through revision. Other poets find life in revision. All poets do it. Here are 15 poets on the worthy work of revision.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: February 2018

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What Sleigh helps us see in these poems is something deeper than journalism can offer: a heart and mind torn by inhabiting a world but not fully grasping its pain.
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On Poetry

A Stay Against Confusion: On Why I Started Writing Poetry Again

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While I’m skeptical that poetry will save us, I’ve felt compelled to write poetry again in the past year as a stay against the daily conflagration of argument and noise.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: January 2018

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Melancholic without ever become maudlin, Schultz’s new book is a snapshot of our malaise “one luminous, lost imagination at a time.”
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Year in Reading

A Year in Reading: Nick Ripatrazone

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If I’m sentimental about books, forgive me. We need them.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: December 2017

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Reviews

We Love to Be Lied To: On ‘Bunk’ by Kevin Young

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Stories write our history. Stories write our culture. Once sewn into that history and culture, the hoax and the lie are almost impossible to separate from the truth.
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Reviews

Windfalls: New Letters from Ernest Hemingway

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The business of being a writer is a business, and Hemingway’s letters demonstrate that even the most celebrated writers encounter countless setbacks. Writing is a struggle. Publishing is a struggle.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: November 2017

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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: October 2017

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Poetry is malleable and moving; a form that will never tire of importance.
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Book Previews

Must-Read Poetry: September 2017

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Isn’t that one of the purest goals of poetry—to justify our breaths? To recognize that we matter?
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Reviews

We Are Not Alone: ‘Close Encounters’ Turns 40

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A new biography reveals how J. Allen Hynek’s life and legend exemplify a lost era. UFO sightings still make the news, but Hynek was something different: a public intellectual who told us to watch the skies.
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On Poetry

Better Experienced than Explained: On ‘Why Poetry’ by Matthew Zapruder

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Poetry is not the only genre that requires resident apologists, but poetry's form and function inherently require defense. Simply put, prose is our default mode. Poetry is a process of selection, of white space and rhythm. If prose is prayer, poetry is hymn.
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Annals of Japery

Trapped in Purgatory with Stephen Dedalus and Anse Bundren

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Get over yourself, Anse—and quit jabbering about your new teeth.
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Book Previews On Poetry

Must-Read Poetry: August 2017

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This is a book to share, a poetic window into someone “standing in line / behind you / the girl you’re pretending not to notice.”
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