First, Michael Wasson’s imagistic prose poetry fills the Saturday Essay. Wasson’s dreamlike narrative describes a first day of school from his childhood. Wasson recalls the teacher taking attendance, calling out, “who’s missing?” The question launches a lyrical investigation of the author’s memory and identity.
Then, Julie Marie Wade reviews the poetry collection Ghost/Landscape, a successful collaboration between Kristina Marie Darling and John Gallaher. The book is a “resounding and self-reflective symphony” that transcends genre, thanks to its originality and spirit.
Lastly, in the Sunday Essay, Belt Magazine Editor-in-Chief and Rumpus Sunday Co-Editor Martha Bayne examines her disturbing experiences at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. “The ugliness of the world unspools,” Bayne writes. Hate, pain, anger, and confusion threaten to derail her reporting, but she refuses to look away from the RNC’s “incomprehensible” display of American dysfunction. She leaves focused on the “tiny bubbles” of safety and security we can create amidst such dysfunction, temporary though they may be.
