Lit-Link Round-up
This week I’ve been reading a lot about illness. I read this stunning essay by Barry Silesky, poet and longtime editor of ACM, in the Missouri Review, in tandem with Bob Flanagan’s The Pain Journal.…
Blogs
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The Whole World, Opened Up
I don’t really want to know what a man looks like when his face has been cannibalized. I don’t really want to know about this dog-breastfeeding woman. I don’t want to be in the position of being able to judge or ridicule the ugliness and the strangeness of this world.
Selected Translations by W. S. Merwin
The translation of poetry requires justification. Not necessarily for conceptual reasons, but because the experience of reading translated poetry however transcendent and beautiful always feels lacking, incomplete, like living in…
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…
“How to Survive a Hotel Fire” by Veronica Wong
The princess is not a poet, but we never forget that she is written by one, a very good one indeed.
FUNNY WOMEN #88: Retrospective Open Letters to the Ones Who Got Away
To the men who got away: Hey, let's talk about it now that I have a fresh perspective.
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,…
Nick Cave Monday #5: “Bring It On”
In 2003, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds released “Nocturama.” I love almost every record The Bad Seeds have released, but with “Nocturama,” I was disappointed. I listened over and…
“Roleplay” by Juliana Gray
In Juliana Gray’s Roleplay, though the book has its share of formal verse – triolets, sonnets, etc – don’t be surprised if you run into a zombie or two. Roleplay…
Self-Made Man #17: Real Men
If masculinity could be defined by a quick Google search or a drive down a billboard-studded highway, then a “real man” is a paradox, captured crudely at the uneasy intersections…
The Last Poem I Loved: “Oh Karma, Dharma, pudding and pie” by Philip Appleman
Of all of the people I know who own a smartphone (a majority, anymore), most of them get up in the morning and immediately reach for said smartphone from their…
A Brief History of The Rumpus Poetry Book Club
Back in July of 2010, The Rumpus started a poetry version of its book club. Board member Camille Dungy selected Shane Book’s Ceiling of Sticks to start us off and…
