The No-Man’s Land Between Art and Self: Seth Rogoff’s The Kirschbaum Lectures
We look for ourselves in literature—for comfort or for guidance—but the page rarely provides a clean mirror.
Reviews
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Sketch Book Reviews: Poetry Unbound
I think when things in the world seem particularly bad/sad/awful, poetry can add a little light
The Sound of Home: Sonorous Desert by Kim Haines-Eitzen
. . . if we open our ears . . . we might even find ourselves feeling truly home
Waking Up at the Wake: Desire, Death, and Disruption in A Shiver in the Leaves
When I consider a shiver in the leaves, my mind fares in two directions: One is back to my first-time experience with psilocybin, shocked at how the fig leaves hung as if shivering . . . and the other is back through American history . . .
Critical Attachment to Geniuses: Ada Calhoun’s Also A Poet
. . . how to simultaneously develop a deep curiosity about cultural icons and maintain a critical distance from them . . .
The Myriad Conflagrations of our Times: Chloe N. Clark’s Patterns of Orbit
In this collection, the reader can slipstream from space shuttle to submarine, from Grimm to Goldilocks to Charybdis, because a cautionary tale that’s never heeded is never out of date . . .
Travels in Paradise: Pico Iyer’s The Half Known Life
To try and gain a level of peace amidst the disappointment and chaos of the world is perhaps the only real paradise.
Language as Possibility: Renee Gladman’s Plans for Sentences
. . . think of Gladman’s work as engaging the imagination the way an architect approaches three-dimensional space with a two-dimensional blueprint.
Learning from Grief: Claudia Putnam’s Double Negative
Among the meanings of Claudia Putnam’s cryptic title is a mathematical one, based on the lower left quadrant of graphs; it is a meaning that she chooses, explicates, and explores…
Insatiable Hunger: Wanting, edited by Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters
If I could not morph into a rescue dog doted on by childless lesbians, at least I could luxuriate in this anthology.
A Worn Violence: On Gabrielle Bates’ Judas Goat
[T]here is a speaker who will simply persevere, who will, like “the heart trying to leave the chest,” keep going, and by keeping going, will tend always, though it’s sometimes hard, toward human connection. Toward love.