The Next Letter in the Mail: Melissa Febos
The next Letter in the Mail, going out this coming Wednesday, is from Melissa Febos. Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart (St. Martin’s Press/2010), which chronicles the four…
Blogs
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: What Alexandra Petri Should Have Said in the Washington Post.
Kelly Clarkson’s Inaugural Song Means the Death of Country Music Inaugural country singer Kelly Clarkson said that her story is America’s story. If that’s the case, America should be slightly…
Homebodies by Sarah Jane Sloat
If you open your hands to hold Homebodies, a chapbook of poems by Sarah J. Sloat, you find much about the book itself that makes the act feel personal, private.…
David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: A Poet and a President
A funny thing happened on the way to President Obama’s second inauguration Monday. The president’s speech and Richard Blanco’s poem got reversed. Broadly speaking, one’s expectations of political rhetoric is…
Loud Dreaming in a Quiet Room by Betsy Wheeler
Betsy Wheeler’s Loud Dreaming in a Quiet Room has sort of undone me for the month and a half I’ve spent with it, reading it or letting it hang over…
Confessions of a Good Girl
In my thirties, I have had two abortions, six years apart. I tell no one. I perpetuate the shame of every woman who has ever chosen to terminate an unwelcome pregnancy—with my silence.
Nick Cave Monday #19: “Straight To You”
Leave it to Nick to create a love song amidst the horrors of judgment day. When God strikes vengeance on us for our sins at Armageddon, Nick isn’t looking for…
Lit-Link Round-up
The National Book Critics Circle Award finalists. And 2013’s Creative Capital grant winners. Greg Olear of The Weeklings interviews the great Francine Prose. Wow, between this and my Atwood interview,…
Links I Like
I have a cold, which means I’m slightly delirious and watching a lot of videos online. In other words: Welcome to Links I Like, Video Edition. Let’s start Saturday with…
My Scarlet Ways by Tanya Larkin
In age of poetry saturated with the irony and airy nonsense of the last phalanx of the grandchildren of the New York School, it is wonderfully refreshing to read Tanya…
On Being Optimistic
At my last doctor’s visit, I said, When I am in so much physical pain, I tend to get low. I get very depressed. She said, I’m sure not as…