Blogs
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“Robinson Alone” by Kathleen Rooney
First things first: you don’t have to be a fan of Weldon Kees to enjoy this book. Shameful confession: until I read the note that precedes the table of contents, I’d never even heard of Weldon Kees or his Robinson…
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The Next Letter in the Mail: Roxane Gay
The next Letter In The Mail, going out this Friday, is from Rumpus essays editor Roxane Gay!
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“Transmittency”: A Rumpus Original Poem by Rachel Loden
Transmittency I stand by what I said. I stand by it or next to it. I peer over the gazebo at what I said, the way it flowers in the darkness, mysteriously,
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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. Neither piece is new, of course. Flanagan has been dead…
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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…
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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 a body missing some essential organ. Of course, this remains…
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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 whose implications say a lot about how the art of…
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“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.
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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.
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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, Marilyn Hacker — who is a fantastic poet, let’s not…
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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 over, hoping I was wrong
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“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 contains, besides a zombie love poem, a series of poems…