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cover of Time Enough for Drums by Ann Rinaldi

Patriotism Swells in the Heart of the American Bear: Some Books for the 4th

Before we move on to things literary, I think we should begin this Independence Day week with Fozzie Bear singing “America the Beautiful,” which my mother incorrectly identified as our national anthem during her citizenship exam (she still passed). Actually, I kind of wish it was our national anthem—I prefer its focus on the extraordinary…

portrait of the writer Mary Biddinger

Interview with Mary Biddinger, Series Editor for the Akron Series in Poetry

In truth, I had never put much thought into the Akron Series in Poetry in the past, partially due to my own ignorance, and partially due to aesthetics.  However, lately, I’ve been more interested in the Series, edited by Mary Biddinger relatively recently beginning in 2008.  I love what Mary says about her aesthetic tastes: “I…

Megan Mayhew Bergman sits at a microphone in a bookstore

From Bennington to Book Tour: A Life-of-Letters Q&A

Last weekend I had the privilege to travel up to Bennington College, where I spoke on a Life of Letters panel with friend (and fellow Ploughshares contributor/guest blogger) Megan Mayhew Bergman. Megan and I are both alums of Bennington’s low-residency MFA program; I graduated in 2009, Megan in 2010. We sat down in the Symposium…

Bangladeshi women working

Hearing Voices: Women Versing Life presents Tarfia Faizullah and the Unpublished Manuscript

The work of getting a manuscript published, that rejection and frustration, begins to feel at times like self abuse. Writing is a lonely adventure, but most of us feel driven to it; quitting is inconceivable. Submitting work, though, is more like managing a business, and most poets I know are not business managers, so it’s…

side by side series of the cover of Anatomy Courses

Anatomy Courses, and an Interview with Blake Butler

Anatomy Courses Blake Butler and Sean Kilpatrick Lazy Fascist Press, January 2012 132 pages $10.95 Anatomy Courses by Blake Butler and Sean Kilpatrick is twisted in the best possible sense: linguistically. Butler and Kilpatrick’s work of fiction consists of 62 short sections, mostly one or two pages long, that interlock and move toward a visceral,…

portrait of the poet Jack Agüeros

Martín Espada on Colonialism and the Poetry of Rebellion in Puerto Rico

When I entered Poets House on May 31st for Martín Espada’s Home Page talk on Puerto Rican poetry, I carried with me a long-standing memory from Ernesto Quinoñez’s Bodega Dreams. Early in the novel from 2000, the narrator recalls his junior high school in Spanish Harlem: The whole time I was at Julia de Burgos,…