Inspired by the lovely Mari-Elizabeth Mali, here is my list of 15 books of poems that have had some kind of impact on how I think about and interact with poetry. I narrowed it down to 15 because, to be perfectly honest, I’m very, very picky.
– Please by Jericho Brown
I mean, really, there is [...]
Archive for February, 2009
21 Feb
15 Books That Rocked Me
20 Feb
Shout Out: Diego Baez reviews Kathleen Halme & Brigitte Byrd
I’ve been loving poetry reviews lately. One of the best thing poets can do for one another is discuss each other’s work. I will try to make that a priority on this blog. Diego Baez, a fellow MFA student here at Rutgers-Newark, is rocking Poemeleon with a review of Drift & Pulse by Kathleen Halme [...]
20 Feb
Oh, Canada.
I’m in print – in Canada. Misunderstandings Magazine (what a title!) sent me two copies the other day. You will have to buy a copy (only $3, very recession friendly) to read my poem, but here’s a peak.
The End of Days Diner
The lights overlooking the ten car parking lot
don’t come on until comets
begin to tear [...]
20 Feb
Calyx Reading: This Sunday
I, for one, know what I will be doing this Sunday evening at 7 pm. I will be sitting pretty in the Bluestockings Bookstore, enjoying the CALYX reading. Featuring the lovely Mari-Elizabeth Mali (I mean, really, she’s the bee’s knees) as well as Lynn Ahrens, Kathy Horowitz, and Rhonda Zangwill. We all need a little [...]
19 Feb
Book Review: Half Lit Houses by Tina Chang
In the opening of Tina Chang’s first collection of poems, a speaker whispers “Every memory I have coveted and stolen. / Every minute I have recorded as if the night would erase it from me.” While the onus of being a memory thief certainly isn’t a unique trope in contemporary poetry, Chang earns this urgency [...]
16 Feb
AWP Highlights…
I just counted and thanks to the AWP Bookfair, I have 14 new books that I can’t wait to read. (Well, technically I read A. Van Jordan’s “Macnolia” when I was in the 10th grade, but it’s worth a second gander.) I will be doing mini-reviews of books I’m reading from now on so be [...]
16 Feb
Live from the Pittsburgh Airport…
Don’t let the picture fool you. I had a great time at AWP this year. I met so many wonderful writers and can’t wait to tell you all about it. For the moment though, I am recovering from a long, LONG day. I flew from O’hare to Pittsburgh.. and after a three hour layover and [...]
10 Feb
AWP’s Love Letter to Chi-Town
Thanks to the encouragement of Tom Hunley, I attended AWP for the first time while I was a junior at WKU. Although I will be the first to admit that it was a bit overwhelming, it also solidified my decision to apply to an MFA program. Also, I got to meet poets like Patricia Smith, [...]
10 Feb
Two Poems in The Adirondack Review
Yay.
Death in Bed by Saeed Jones
Mary Magdalene by Saeed Jones
5 Feb
Speaking of Universality – “PUSH”
If you want to know why the universality expecation is so troubling, check out this out. Lionsgate is the movie company charged with the “challenge” of marketing the Sundance Award-Winning film “PUSH”. Based on the novel by Sapphire, it “centers on an illiterate and obese African-American teenager in 1980s Harlem who is pregnant with her [...]
