Selected Poems from The Undertaker’s Daughter
Terrified at a reading to read / poems about my fears & shames, // a voice in me said: Just / open your mouth. Now // I read about… More
Selected Poems of Hester Knibbe
There you sit / in the same skirt in which, waters ago, / you boarded the ship, but the dance / has drained from your feet. More
War on a Lunchbreak
Not that I ever lay hiding // dying in a ditch, but if I had, I think that I’d / know much about dry grass, the incredible value of… More
Move the Back of Your Heart Towards the Front of Your Heart
Let me show you pictures of the man / I was when I was // Other than the man / I am right now More
Literary Awards 2012: Excerpts from the Winning Authors
For more than 50 years, PEN American Center has honored some of the most outstanding voices in literature with its literary awards program. We're proud to present excerpts from… More
Excerpts from Dagmara Kraus’s gloomerang
guns in under-burn, time watched her slash sleek dreams / time leeched her guns · under dreams was knit: slash, burn. More
A Few Ideas from My Black Box
A Few Ideas from My Black BoxOrange crush. No, blue field.Wait, green ember. Maybe red beam.In-any-case yellow. Possibly,Netherworld gray. Quivering purple?Skylark white. Taking out the trashbeneath a shuddering sadness… More
Last of the Late Great Gorilla-Suit Actors
All the blondes / are thrown over his shoulders, the blondes he never even / liked, the bunches of blondes he mistook for bananas. More
Copenhagen Airport
Once a week, the PEN Poetry Series publishes work by emerging and established writers from coast to coast. This installment, selected by Ben Mirov, features poetry by Jason Bredle,… More