First, we close out National Poetry Month with Sophie Klahr breaking down literary conventions in “Slant,” and Sandra Simonds offering two powerful poems about sexuality and shame.
Meanwhile, Brandon Hicks illustrates what he has learned from famous author’s photos.
Then, in the Saturday Interview with Carol Edelman Warrior, poet and playwright Storme Webber says that “we’re all traveling on this Earth. We have moments of belonging.” Webber goes on to relate vibrant anecdotes about her grandmother, her cultural heritage as an Alaskan native, her musically inspired poetry collection, Blues Divine, and the night she was born.
And in a review of Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Jeff Nguyen discusses Ocean Vuong’s “svelte and sturdy” new collection of poetry. The metaphor of the “fire escape” raises the possibility of liberation through strength and, perhaps, vulnerability. “[Vuong’s] gift,” Nguyen writes, “is not for avocados and fresh laundry, but for shocking the most jaded of readers with devastating earnestness.”
Finally, in the Sunday Interview, Elizabeth Isadora Gold talks to Man Booker Prize-winner Anne Enright about her essay collection, Making Babies: Stumbling Into Motherhood, and the strange duality of narcissism and selflessness that comes with being a mother. They go on to discuss Enright’s introspective fiction. It can be empowering for a writer to embrace ambiguity, Enright says, when it comes to the writing process: “That’s where I like to function when I’m working, where motivation isn’t necessarily clear.”
