Tag Archives: Poetry
5 books to read for National Poetry Month
April marks National Poetry Month, a time to celebrate poets and their craft. Browse some of our highlights below for poetry readers and writers, plus guides to use in the classroom. Through in-depth close readings of elegies by Black women, trans* women, and non-binary writers, Radical Elegies: White Violence, Patriarchy, and Necropoetics by Eleanor Perry… Read More »
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson
One of the main challenges when approaching Dickinson is navigating the gigantic body of criticism which is out there. My own work on Dickinson has taken me through the different stages where this is crucial – from being a student and postgraduate researcher, to an author and University lecturer. When thinking about writing about or… Read More »
Poetry as a Tool for Organizing Communities (On Lewis MacAdams’s Birthday)
Guest post by Nate Mickelson Born October 12, 1944, the poet and activist Lewis MacAdams passed away in Los Angeles in April 2020 after a long illness. He was a champion of everyday people and an advocate for forging connections between the built and natural environments of the city. MacAdams served for thirty years as the director of Friends of the Los Angeles River (FoLAR), a community organization he… Read More »
Who Gets to Call Themselves a Poet?
Guest post by Amorak Huey and W. Todd Kaneko, co-authors of Poetry: A Writer’s Guide and Anthology The flippant answer to this question is also the real answer: anyone. Everyone. You. Poet is not some mystical status to which one can ascend only after years of study or initiation into some secret club. It doesn’t… Read More »
Happy birthday, H.D.!
H.D. was born on September 10, 1886. To honor the 132nd anniversary of her birth, Matte Robinson explores the mysteries of her poetry. Back in the mid-aughts, my future wife and I drove the 555 miles to the Beinecke library at Yale. I was working on my dissertation and my supervisor’s scholarly edition of H.D.’s… Read More »
Literary Studies Fall 2018 Book Preview
Q&A with Rachel Trousdale
Rachel Trousdale answered a few questions for us about the new edited collection Humor in Modern American Poetry. How would you describe your book in one sentence? A wide-ranging collection of essays on the role of humor in modern American poetry, examining texts from light verse to the Cantos. What drew to you writing about… Read More »
On Writing a Guide to Poetry (Part II)
Guest Post by Mark Yakich on the 1st edition of Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide What is one to think of the following picture? Is it a bit shocking? A bit adorable? Is it shockingly adorable? Whatever it is, it is the image I had initially envisioned for my book’s cover. As someone who’s been interested… Read More »
On Writing a Guide to Poetry (Part I)
Guest Post by Mark Yakich on the 1st edition of Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide I’d wanted to call my book Poetry: A Guide for the Perplexed—not only because Bloomsbury has a series called “Guides for the Perplexed,” riffing off Maimonides’ 12th-century The Guide for the Perplexed, but because so many poems leave so many readers… Read More »