Guests

I’m going to use this page to link to guest poets and writers. Click on the name to go to that post. You can also use the “search” feature.

Blog

Upcoming Poetry ClassMay 17, 2023 - 1:45 am
I am teaching a poetry class — a project a LONG time in the works, by the way — and deserving of some fanfare. The class begins Friday, May 26 — two classes, sort of — one on-ground, 3:30-5:00 (at my house; there are a couple seats left), and one on-line, 11:30-1:00 (plenty of room). […]
Kevin Young, BrownApril 30, 2023 - 7:10 pm
BROWN: POEMS, Kevin Young. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2018, Luis Alberto Urrea did such a fine job capturing this book in his 2018 New York Times review, that…well…why should I even try? Kevin Young’s necessary new book of witness creates a parade through time, and I love a parade. Especially one with such good […]
Linda McCarriston, Eva-MaryApril 29, 2023 - 9:08 pm
EVA-MARY, Linda McCarriston. Tri-Quarterly Books, Northwestern University, 2020 Ridge Avenue, Evanston, IL 60208, 1991, 78 pages $10.95 paper. A friend gave this book to me in 1993, the year my twins were born. I don’t know when I read it, though I know I eventually did. Since then—for most of the last thirty years—it has […]
W. S. Merwin, 1927-2019April 28, 2023 - 7:30 pm
GARDEN TIME, W. S. Merwin. Copper Canyon Press, Post Office Box 271, Port Townsend, Washington, 98368, 2016, 78 pages, $16 paper, www.coppercanyongpress.org. When I was in the MFA program at the University of Washington, I helped to bring W. S. Merwin to read as part of our Watermark Series, and I was one of a […]
Maggie Smith, GoldenrodApril 27, 2023 - 9:55 pm
GOLDENROD: POEMS, Maggie Smith. One Signal Publishers / Atria (an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.), 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, 2021, 116 pages, $20 hardcover. https://www.simonandschuster.com. I discovered Maggie Smith through her poetry, so I was surprised when a friend recommended the audio of Smith’s new memoir, You Could Make […]
Mark Strand (1934-2014), Dark Harbor: A PoemApril 26, 2023 - 5:47 pm
DARK HARBOR: A POEM, Mark Strand. Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1994, 54 pages, $11 paper. I forget who told me that I must read this book. I had, previously, read only a handful of anthologized poems by Mark Strand, and decided it was time. And then the book sat on my shelf. Until this […]
Monica Sok, A Nail the Evening Hangs OnApril 25, 2023 - 4:02 pm
A NAIL THE EVENING HANGS ON, Monica Sok. Copper Canyon Press, Post Office Box 271, Port Townsend, Washington, 2020, 64 pages, $16 paper, www.coppercanyongpress.org. You know those poems you write into your commonplace book or send to friends when they go through a hard time? The poems in A Nail the Evening Hangs On are […]
In the Hour of War: Contemporary Ukrainian PoetryApril 24, 2023 - 9:20 pm
Despite my best intentions, I am not going to get a book of poems read today. A few days, ago, however, I came across this review, at Lithub.com, of a new anthology of contemporary Ukrainian poetry, edited by Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky. The review is well worth reading, and the book? One more I […]
Luci Shaw, Eye of the BeholderApril 23, 2023 - 2:57 pm
EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: POEMS, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press, Brewster, Massachusetts, 2018, 96 pages, $19 paper, https://paracletepress.com/. When I decided to co-teach the Advent & Poetry class last December, someone told me about Luci Shaw, born 1928 and still writing, living somewhat local to me, in Bellingham, Washington. I read a few of her poems […]
Sally Albiso, Moonless GriefApril 22, 2023 - 6:21 pm
MOONLESS GRIEF, Sally Albiso. MoonPath Press, PO Box 445, Tillamook, OR 97141, 2018, 74 pages $15 paper, http://moonpathpress.com. It was my pleasure to read Sally Albiso’s Moonless Grief this morning. A lovely book that—perhaps because of Albiso’s untimely death in 2019—feels like a collection of elegies, or love songs for life. The poems flutter with […]