In the Presence of Absence
Love, like meaning, is out on the open road, but like poetry, it is difficult. It requires talent, endurance, and skillful formulation, because of its many stations. It is… More
A Farewell to Guest Poetry Editor Ben Mirov
This month, the PEN Poetry Series bids a fond and heavy-hearted farewell to Ben Mirov, one of the founding guest editors of our poetry series, along with Ana Božičević &… More
Poems from Light, Grass, and Letter in April
To go into the mountain and it is you / To go farther in and it is not certain / To go still farther in / and there is… More
The Big Smoke: Five Poems
That horse back-kicked so hard / my leg bone broke, split skin // like a lazy plum. I layed back / in that stall bleeding & hollering // in… More
Life Is Messy, Writing Is Messy: An Interview with Danielle Evans
I sometimes wonder what critics would say if they couldn’t mention race until the second paragraph. It’s a shame, because the book is really about so many other things.… More
Alibis: Essays on Elsewhere
I did not even know whether the perfume was my reason for being in there or whether it had become an excuse, the mask behind the mask, because if… More
Leaving the Atocha Station
Insofar as I was interested in the arts, I was interested in the disconnect between my experience of actual artworks and the claims made on their behalf; the closest… More
A Tuareg Leaves Timbuktu
The first thing you must do / when word of the rebel army’s advance / reaches your mud-brick home / is surrender your hope / to see the Great… More
A Singular Woman
To describe Dunham as a white woman from Kansas is about as illuminating as describing her son as a politician who likes golf. Intentionally or not, the label obscures… More
“My Grave” and “Ripeness”
Every day I watch my grave in the yard / included in the price of the house, / with a board over the hole, / with a tombstone of… More
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