I recently bought a refrigerator magnet at Whole Foods, three and a half inches square, white letters, all lowercase, on a black background. It says “never never never give up…
"It’s really a liability in contemporary American fiction that many of us are taught to avoid political or intellectual matters in our work. It’s a real weakness in the way that fiction is taught in this country."
[T]his is no Rand McNally; what makes the collection exciting is Iredell’s delicious sense of humor, his play with language and the dexterity with which he varies his voice.
“The emphasis on craft, on procedures and techniques, is like the creation of perfectly safe nuclear reactors without acknowledging the necessity of radioactive matter for the core.”
Rumpus Poetry Club Board Member Camille Dungy on why she chose Joseph Harrington’s Things Come On as the March selection of The Rumpus Poetry Book Club. Devastation. Conflation. Preoccupation. Disintegration.…