Sometimes the muse makes a big ask. Revisit the death of a brother, for example, and explore how that painful memory gathers momentum as one’s own son comes of age. Muses, Erin Malone knows, are expert button pushers. A Coniston Prize... Read More

We can never be quite sure what powers a poet draws upon, where exactly she gets her mojo. Chelan Harkin discovered it the hard way: at the bottom-most point of mental and emotional suffering she was mystically blessed with creative... Read More

Between. Not here, not there. Not this, or that. Somewhere but not someplace. Not easy to put your, wrap your, place your—but confidence, and masterful touch with language, is what makes Esteban Rodríguez a credible, incredible even,... Read More

Care, from carry: as happens mysteriously in utero; from what was once her single-selfed existence, the poet assumes the burdens of maternity—a carrier‘s nine-month care package that stretches into motherhood and beyond. In "Each... Read More

A relationship advice podcaster advocating “just break up,” Sierra DeMulder champions the value of those things that exist only briefly: love, life—“every poem is about death / when you are reading to the dying”—music,... Read More

Edginess, unsettlement, a sense of foreboding: what weather can come to bear and a skillful poet with some thoughts on mortality to share. Jeannine Hall Gailey’s ability to turn it up—or down, thankfully—is what makes reading her... Read More

Black women poets matter in ways that poets of other races and ethnicities can’t: “Black girl must write poetry so other black girls can relate.” That Black girl poetry readers matter … do you understand? This debut collection... Read More

Sound. Alise Alousi sounds her words to arrive as cadence, as music, as magic. Sounds easy, until you realize how large her collection of eye teeth would be if she traded her secret with other poets. A Kresge Literary Arts Fellow and the... Read More