Article

On Rachel DeWoskin

Rachel DeWoskin’s poems have astonishing dash and verve: they are fun to read, and they cut deep; they know when to stop and how to surprise. Her years in China give her material but she writes about it with a smart, revealing precision that is the opposite of mere touristic exoticism. I think she will…

On Darrell Burton

Darrell Burton passed away tragically in December of 2002, just days after completing his poetry manuscript Weather Within. An accidental fire claimed his life in his Bloomington, Indiana apartment; he was 41. Before coming to Indiana University, Darrell lived a full life: navy shipman, chef, college scholarship basketball player, and successful fashion model with features…

On Michael Morse

I am eager to nominate Michael Morse. I find a keen and seamless craftsmanship in Morse’s poems, which are beautifully understated and distinctly well made. They are quiet, but they have dark undertows, and I find some of them a little heartbreaking. There is real quality and depth in the poetry of this gifted and…

On Nicole Walker

It is with genuinely boundless enthusiasm that I recommend Nicole Walker. As her dissertation director, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Walker in numerous venues over the past few years. She has ever proven to be a passionate and original reader of the canons of poetry, one whose energies extend beyond the…

Tierney’s Gourmet

Recommendation: I am delighted to nominate Brittani Sonnenberg, a senior at Harvard, and a member of my Creative Writing class last fall. Brit is a joy in every way: smart, unpretentious, perceptive, and adventurous. As a member of an improv comedy group, she is used to taking risks; you can see in her work, I…

On Jeffrey Pethybridge

I’ve known Jeff since 1996 when, as my undergraduate student at Old Dominion University, he first attended one of several classes we would have together. The high level of his energy, his seriousness, his palpable joy in reading and shaping poetry was immediately apparent, and it was soon thereafter that he became more a collaborator…

On Brittani Sonnenberg

I am delighted to nominate Brittani Sonnenberg, a senior at Harvard, and a member of my Creative Writing class last fall. Brit is a joy in every way: smart, unpretentious, perceptive, and adventurous. As a member of an improv comedy group, she is used to taking risks; you can see in her work, I think,…

On Tanya Larkin

One of the things I admire about Tanya Larkin’s work is how perfectly accessible it is, while at the same time lush with invention, music, obliquity, and all the other thrills we’ve come to recognize as visionary writing. The occasion in her poems is often an exact place which has the odd property of being…

The Pantyhose Man

Recommendation: Ms. Soppe’s work is nuanced and vivid, distinguished by a strong voice, a bold, experimental style, and wonderfully long sentences. In "The Pantyhose Man," the narrator is the collective spirit of the women who answer phones at a large Midwestern hotel. What begins as a comic account of how these women contend with obscene…