The literary journal at The College of Saint Rose
“I hope I don’t seem too sympathetic” about flashers, Fountaine writes to me. “Because I do not, under any circumstances, think anyone should show their dick to anybody else, unprompted. I didn’t even remember that the town I grew up in had a flasher if its own until halfway through writing the book. For being… Continue reading “A lot of corny shit is true”: An Interview with Jaime Fountaine
In What We Do: Essays for Poets (Chax Press 2016) Michael Gottlieb addresses poetry, poetry-making, and what it means to live among a community of poets. It's a sequel of sorts to Memoir and Essay, Gottlieb’s 2011 account of his early days as a member of the Language poets, which remains a must-read for those considering a… Continue reading ‘It was by living out the theory that we enraged so many others’: An Interview with Michael Gottlieb
Poet and lyric essayist Kathryn Nuernberger won the 2015 James Laughlin award, joining the company of poets like fellow BOA Editions pressmates, Li-Young Lee, Jillian Weise, and the late Brigit Pegeen Kelly. Having been familiar with her 2010 Antivenom Poetry Award–winning Rag & Bone, The End of Pink fascinated me with its deftness of… Continue reading ‘The first aeronauts were women shamelessly fornicating their way through the clouds’: An Interview with Kathryn Nuernberger
Nonfiction writer Sarah Sweeney was new to me, but as soon as I read an essay’s opening line of “I never planned to throw my tampon on a stranger’s car,” I knew that her writing was something that I would enjoy immensely. Her most recent collection, Tell Me If You’re Lying, adds up to a… Continue reading ‘Mythmaking, second-hand information, and outright lies’: An Interview with Sarah Sweeney
I find what wants to come through when I practice paying attention: leaning into discomfort, softening into vulnerability, listening to the conversations of strangers, taking in the natural world.
Poetry can inspire us, confuse us, and excite neurons in the human brain to produces new thoughts and ideas. Joshua Corey’s newest collection of poems, The Barons, does all of these things and more, addressing the turmoil in America since 9/11: war, fear, and political upheaval both in the United States and abroad. Dark, complex,… Continue reading “Hope and Anchor”: An Interview with Joshua Corey
To some, prose poetry may seem foreign and hard to pin down. The form walks the murky waters between reading surrealist poetry. To make matters more confusing, there is no consensus on exactly what defines the form. But Brian Clements’ new collection helps to clarify matters. A Book of Common Rituals relates readers to day-to-day activities… Continue reading “To blossom or diverge or dissipate or redirect”: An Interview with Brian Clements
Emmanuel Bove’s harrowing 1932 novella, A Raskolnikoff, was released to the American public late this year. With Mitchell Abidor’s stunning translation—for which he has won the 2014 Hemingway Translation Grant— comes a new hope for one of literature’s forgotten sons. Abidor is the right translator for the job. A contributing writer at Jewish Currents and… Continue reading “What I am is a militant translator”: An Interview with Mitchell Abidor
Lavinia Greenlaw is a celebrated and highly accomplished author, winner of numerous awards in poetry, most recently the Whitbread Poetry Award and the T.S. Eliot Prize, her books include the poetry collection Minsk, The Casual Perfect, and the memoir The Importance of Music to Girls. Her newest, A Double Sorrow, revisits Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde and… Continue reading “I don’t believe in rules or steps”: An Interview with Lavinia Greenlaw
As far as I can tell, Rick Bursky has done just about everything. No, really. This is a man who has almost as many scuba dives to his name as he does published poems (that would be 190 scuba dives versus 231 published poems, at last count). In case you’re feeling unaccomplished by comparison, don’t… Continue reading “I’m not a big believer in talent”: An Interview with Rick Bursky
