David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Poetry and the Newtown Massacre
Last week I had intended to take a quick Christmastime breather from writing Poetry Wire until the beginning of next year. Then on Friday came the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.…
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David Biespiel
115 posts
David Biespiel is a poet, literary critic, memoirist, and contributing writer at American Poetry Review, New Republic, New York Times, Poetry, Politico, The Rumpus, and Slate, among other publications. He is the author of numerous books, most recently The Education of a Young Poet, which was selected a Best Books for Writers by Poets & Writers, A Long High Whistle, which received the 2016 Oregon Book Award for General Nonfiction, and The Book of Men and Women, which was chosen for Best Books of the Year by the Poetry Foundation and received the 2011 Oregon Book Award for Poetry.
Poetry Wire: Remembering Jake Adam York, 1972-2012
The Rumpus mourns the passing of Jake Adam York. We have here collected together some tributes and memories from his friends and fellow writers. We send our condolences to Jake's friends and family.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Poetry Wars
One of the more mind-blowing get-togethers to take place in the last ten years occurred in Havana, Cuba, when Fidel Castro led a unique international conference that brought together participants…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: What Is Lyric Poetry?
I know, just by titling this piece — “What Is Lyric Poetry?” — you’re thinking, no, you’re not. You’re not. You’re not going to do this. Yup. Doing it. Sort…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Bruce Lee’s Advice to Poets
Who isn’t a devotee of advice from writers about writing? One of my favorite books in this guilty-pleasure genre to come out lately is Dennis O’Driscoll’s collection of witticisms and…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Is Franz Wright the Rush Limbaugh of American Poetry?
I had intended this week to write about gratitude. To express my thanks to all the new readers of Poetry Wire and The Rumpus and to wish you all a…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Love Poems of David Petraeus
Poetry Wire has learned of the existence of secret love poems by former CIA director David Petraeus.
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: 9 Post-Election Political Poems You Must Read Before You Die
I’m writing this on Tuesday, November 6, Election Day. Full disclosure, today I will vote to reelect the president. As John F. Kennedy once said, “You can milk a cow…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Searching for Sylvia Plath
Here’s a lede that might send you to your room with the vapors: “As a rule the work of women poets is marked by intensity of feeling and fineness of…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Why I’m Quitting Ezra Pound
Ever heard that gobsmacking troubadourist Ezra Pound read his elaborate, funkified sestina, “Sestina: Altafore,” in a voice that is one part American-as-European, swilling-with-the-rolling-R’s accent and cantorian swoons and another part…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Dorothea Lasky v. Elizabeth Bishop
All of a sudden my inbox is filling up with links from friends to two essays related to poetry that have almost everything and nothing in common at once, and…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Marilyn Hacker Is No Hack
Here’s hoping more people read the concise and precise interview about translation up on Guernica between Erica Wright and Marilyn Hacker. When we talk about someone being a prolific translator,…