Features & Reviews
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A Poetics of Water: Maya Salameh’s “Mermaid Theory”
It is this “shock,” this consistent disintegration, and the techniques necessary to stall it, that Maya Salameh so tenderly and precisely metabolizes on the page. Water is our earliest teacher, and Salameh shapes language like it. Salameh’s lyric feels familiar:…
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In “The Undead,” a filmmaker gets caught in the Kremlin’s dark games
Russia is a country full of criminals, yes—but also home to creative spirits who are drawn to the stage, page, or canvas to tell a story
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Ecopoetry as a Method of Inquiry: A Conversation with MaKshya Tolbert
“Ecopoetry’s role keeps changing for me, is as much in flux as I am. I wonder if one role of ecopoetry can be to mark that flux, to find a language that honors the transience and ongoingness of the environment,…
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Writing A Series of Trojan Horses into a Novel: An Interview with A. Natasha Joukovsky
“ I envisioned this novel as a series of Trojan Horses on the topic of identity: a feminine novel inside a masculine one, but then a human one inside that. I wanted the novel to work on all three levels:…
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Noticing is the Ultimate Act of Love: A Conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“Some might think poets go out “looking for metaphors,” like the world is a giant writer’s prop closet. I don’t start with metaphor. I start with observation, an image. I’m not asking, “wWhat does this bird stand for?” I’m asking,…
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A Shopkeeper’s Sanctuary is the Page: A Conversation with Jeannine A. Cook
“The books are for who they’re for. I’m not trying to make you understand. I’m not an evangelist. I’m not trying to convert. I knew who Harriet’s was for. I knew who Ida’s was for. They’re for those who walk…
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The Crumbling of a Porous Life: A Conversation With Naeem Murr
“For a character to really come to life on the page they have to retain a kind of mystery for you as a writer. Of course, there are some characters who are much more flat, who are comic, or just…
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Seeking a Way In: :Woman House: Essays and Assemblages” by Lauren W. Westerfield
..the way virginity becomes larger than itself, something that marks the women who bear it as a kind of prey.
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Soulmate as Solidarity: A Conversation with Kelsey L. Smoot
“Blackness and queerness and masculinity are cultural artifacts that we teach each other and that evolve over time. They’re incredibly hard to pin down. Poetry allows you to blow language open and think in terms that are so much less…
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“a desire, a desire”: Appetite & Obsession in Summer Farah’s “The Hungering Years”
This repetition evokes an incantation, signaling the recursive and often reverent nature of the speaker’s desire. For Farah’s speaker—and for many living in diaspora—longing is an ongoing ritual, an inheritance. Ending the poem with a comma, Farah leaves the reader…
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With Both Anxiety & Self-Importance: The Lasting Resonance of “One, None, and a Hundred Grand”
Contemporary readers can relate to Vitangelo, as social media seems designed to focus on what others think of us.
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The First Book: Carrie R. Moore
“I’m writing for readers who love emotional resonance. I’m not writing to teach anyone anything about race or history; instead, my book is for readers who want to see Black people living their lives. My ideal readers can also make…