Kenyon Review
-
What You Can Read at the Guantánamo Bay Detainee Library
Prisoners held at Guantánamo Bay have access to 18,000 books in 18 different languages, including Arabic translations of King Lear, Anna Karenina, and Stephen King thrillers. But books deemed critical of the US government, including Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s…
-
Teaching Through Discomfort
Elicit feedback. Let them know it is OK to not like certain poems, and explore moments of disappointment and discomfort. Have them address the authors directly. Encourage them to see the authors as peers. For the Kenyon Review blog, Dora…
-
The Kings, Queens, and Pawns of Poetry
For the Kenyon Review blog, Amit Majmudar compares creating poetic style to playing a game of chess and looks at how poets reach that elusive checkmate.
-
Edward Lear’s Ludicrously Whirligig Life
In honor of Edward Lear’s birthday, the Kenyon Review blog takes a look at his early, nonsensical life.
-
Bad Stories Told Well
At the Kenyon Review blog, Amit Majmudar explores how a bad story in the hands of someone like Shakespeare can turn into literary genius.
-
A New Favorite Heroine
To do things and not die: is this not all our quest, distilled? At the Kenyon Review, Meg Shevenock breaks down just what makes Bianca from Roberto Bolaño’s A Little Lumpen Novelita so heroic.
-
Poetry Without Music
For the Kenyon Review blog, Cody Walker discusses Ezra Pound and what happens when you separate poetry from music.
-
It’s War and Peace, Charlie Brown
For the Kenyon Review blog, Meg Shevenock writes about how Charlie Brown made her scared of Tolstoy’s classic and how she worked to overcome her fear.
-
Emily Dickinson’s Self-Portrait
I had no portrait, now, but am small, like the wren; and my hair is bold, like the chestnut bur; and my eyes, like the sherry in the glass, that the guest leaves. For the Kenyon Review blog, Meg Shevenock…
-
A Dog Named Human
For me, the perfect metaphor for rethinking our relationship to other species comes in the form of a dog named “Human,”owned and “curated” by French artist Pierre Huyghe, in his retrospective currently on view at LACMA. Ironically enough, such a…
-
The Sentimental Thinker
“If your teachers suggest that your poems are sentimental,” she writes, “that is only the half of it. Your poems probably need to be even more sentimental. Don’t be less of a flower, but could you be more of a…
-
The Martyr Story
What does Beloved have in common with The Hunger Games? How is the biopic Milk like Gone with the Wind? According to Amit Majmudar, they’re all variants of “the martyr story.” For the Kenyon Review blog, Majmudar explains our continued fascination…