Aug 21 A poet grows up in the post-Columbine world By Jennifer Hijazi Kelly Forsythe's latest collection “Perennial” imagines a different kind of narrative in the wake of the Columbine High School shooting -- a “coming-of-age” story about what it means when feeling safe has drastically changed. Continue reading
Aug 14 ‘The human capacity to carry many things at once’ By Jennifer Hijazi For poet Ada Limón, carrying both the joys and sorrows of a child-free life is a testament to the human ability to exist with many things piled on our shoulders at once. Continue reading
Aug 06 ‘False news’ charges put this Egyptian poet in prison By Jennifer Hijazi "The light doesn’t care how tall the fence is; it’s not hemmed in by steel bars or officers’ uniforms. It cannot be forgotten," Galal El-Behairy writes in a poem from Cairo's Tora Prison. Continue reading
Jul 30 To describe the trans experience, this poet created a new dialect By Jennifer Hijazi The language of Jos Charles' “feeld” is like an artifact from a different time, a kind of “lost Middle English” concieved to describe the trans experience in new ways. Continue reading
Jul 23 This new poetry anthology honors the scope of native writers By Jennifer Hijazi There is “grass and apologies, bones and joy, marching bands and genocide, skin and social work” and much more in the work of the 21 native writers featured in the collection. Continue reading
Jul 17 This acclaimed feminist poet sees practical magic in resistance By Jennifer Hijazi Rooted in protest during this time of uncertainty and anxiety, “Trickster Feminism” explores “what poetry can possibly do, especially in an urgent situation,” according to Anne Waldman. Continue reading
Jul 11 How young writers are leading a poetry comeback By Jennifer Hijazi Twenty-eight million American adults read poetry this year -- the highest percentage of poetry readership in more than 15 years. Continue reading
Jul 03 Watch 5:46 Kevin Young intertwines personal and public history in ‘Brown’ As a writer, editor and archivist, Kevin Young is a poet actively engaged with the world. In his new collection, "Brown," Young draws heavily on his boyhood in Topeka, Kansas, tying it in large and small ways to the wider… Continue watching
Jul 02 Antwon Rose’s mother wants everybody to hear this poem By Joshua Barajas “I don’t want to say it’s prophetic, but it is,” says Rose's teacher who found the poem. “If you knew this kid, he was a really nice kid. It’s such a loss."… Continue reading
Jun 25 Watch 3:14 Donald Hall, 89, saw poetry as ‘school for feeling’ Donald Hall, a former U.S. poet laureate who was widely considered one of the greatest poets of his generation, died over the weekend at the age of 89. Jeffrey Brown remembers the renowned writer with a look back at a… Continue watching