First, National Poetry Month at The Rumpus continues with Carrie Murphy’s “Beauty Work” and two poems from Amaud Johnson.
Next, a harrowing tale of addiction and related heart disease from Paul Vega in the Saturday Essay. Vega’s innovative form helps to create an understated tone in his description of his rehabilitation, and offers an opportunity for honesty that is long-overdue. Despite trauma and challenges, this honesty enables him to find a hopeful ending.
Meanwhile, the passage of time is a major theme in Paul Richardson’s collection During. Jeff Lennon’s review mulls over the “messiness” and the “darkness” that distinguishes these poems, and a sense of “powerlessness” that Richardson laments. However, the poet’s “broad mind” conveys a “brilliance” and a bravery that demand our attention.
Finally, the “intoxicating” Idra Novey is the subject of this week’s Sunday Interview. Swati Khurana talks to Novey about her translation of Clarice Lispecter’s book, The Passion According to G.H., and Novey’s debut novel, Ways to Disappear. Novey describes her writing process:
Ideas happen mid-sentence for me. It is usually while playing with the cadence of a line that I realize what I really meant to say. I have a gut sense of where things are going, but the revelations, the pleasures that keep me writing tend to happen when playing around with the music of a sentence.
