How Poems Think How Poems Think
The power of lyric poetry lies in negation, not self-assertion.
Jun 6, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
Letters From the May 23-30, 2016, Issue Letters From the May 23-30, 2016, Issue
Childbearing vs. child-rearing… Lost in translation?…
May 5, 2016 / Our Readers, Madeline Ostrander, and Cynthia Haven
The Need of the Forgotten The Need of the Forgotten
The novelist and poet Carmen Boullosa talks about her obsession with lost stories and found textual objects, and how rereading gives books new faces.
Apr 8, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Aaron Bady
Less Is Moore Less Is Moore
Observations is one of the great verbal works of art of the 20th century, in part because of Marianne Moore’s infectious devotion to everything small.
Mar 31, 2016 / Books & the Arts / James Longenbach
Joseph Brodsky, Darker and Brighter Joseph Brodsky, Darker and Brighter
A spellbinding new biography rescues the poet from sentimentality and kitsch.
Mar 24, 2016 / Books & the Arts / Cynthia Haven
Letters From the December 14, 2015, Issue Letters From the December 14, 2015, Issue
Sanders, Denmark, and Debs… tourists at the end of life… all that jive… food for the mind… one side of the story…
Nov 25, 2015 / Our Readers
A Poet Who Believed in Nothing As in Love A Poet Who Believed in Nothing As in Love
After first writing poetry to impress and entertain his wealthy parents’ guests, cosmopolitan James Merrill went cosmic.
Nov 17, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
October 30, 1885: Ezra Pound Is Born October 30, 1885: Ezra Pound Is Born
“There is no reason why poetry should not be so perplexingly simple as Mr. Pound’s, and be about nothing at all.”
Oct 30, 2015 / Richard Kreitner
Modernist Poetry in a Crowdsourcing Age Modernist Poetry in a Crowdsourcing Age
Jorie Graham resists classic pleasures like closure, a concept anathema to the poet and her country.
Oct 29, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Ange Mlinko
October 24, 1923: Denise Levertov Is Born October 24, 1923: Denise Levertov Is Born
Denise Levertov, born on this day in 1923, was The Nation’s poetry editor in the 1960s. Her first poem in our pages was “The Sage,” published in the issue of November 1, 1958. The…
Oct 24, 2015 / Richard Kreitner