Boston
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Out of Order
In summertime, a small group of white, middle-aged, well-educated men were obsessed with my ass.
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Giving Voice to the Homeless Writing Community
Boston-based literary magazine The Pilgrim was founded by journalist James Parker with the aim to bring the unheard voices of the homeless community to print while encouraging, teaching, and healing through the act of writing. At the Boston Globe, Zachary Jason takes…
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Sidewalk Stanzas
Boston’s City Hall and Mass Poetry, a Massachusetts-based poetry nonprofit, has embarked on an urban art project: They’ve stenciled poems onto Boston’s sidewalks using paint that only appears in the rain. Sara Siegel, the program director at Mass Poetry, says:…
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Pale of Vermont
But to become a writer I needed at least to learn about my own superstitions. I needed space in the house to sketch with words. I needed to commit heresies. And those acts had to feel pleasurable.
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The Fight Against North Carolina’s HB2
Following in The Boss’s footsteps, many musicians are speaking out against North Carolina’s so-called “bathroom bill,” which bans trans men and women from using bathrooms of a gender other than that listed on their birth certificates. Ringo Starr, Pearl Jam, Boston,…
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Something’s Happening Out There
The big crowd stretched form the gold-domed State House to Park Street. I had the urgent feeling that we were part of something. That we counted.
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Eating in Purgatory
I always say the last time was the last time, and I always mean it, but I’m scared I’ll relapse again.
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: The Dugout
So much of politics is symbolic speech in the service of the syncopations of the lives we actually live. But the ways we gather to vote is with our bodies. It’s the dance that goes along with those rhythms.
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Primal Talk
One of the thrills of being a writer is becoming aware of the wildness that percolates inside of you. If you’ve learned to listen, you’re able to hear it.
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The Rumpus Interview with Kaitlyn Greenidge
Kaitlyn Greenidge discusses her debut novel, We Love You, Charlie Freeman, siblinghood and sisterhood, and finding a group to call “my people” in the larger literary world.
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: Defeat
It never occurred to me to try to write poems without the guidance of other poets and poems.
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Of Boston and Poetry
But any poet today who shared Longfellow’s taste would be laughed out of the room. He wanted heroism; we want the ordinary. He wanted grand dramas; we want insightful understatement. He wanted music; we want images. Over at the Ploughshares blog,…