anybody by Ari Banias W.W. Norton. 112 pages, $25.95 Primer by Aaron Smith University of Pittsburgh Press 104 pages, $15.95 EVERY SO OFTEN, a poet appears who seems to have sprung fully armed from the head of Zeus. Two such poets are Ari Banias with his first book of poetry, […]
Article Categories Archives: Poetry
The Birth of Fantasy
FOR THOSE OF US who grew up reading Samuel Delany’s science fiction novels or who benefited from his exceptionally detailed books on the craft of writing, there are so many mouthwatering bits in this volume, his first twelve years of journals, that it’s hard to know where to jump in.
The Mind of the Millennial (Poet)
Bernstein’s poetry derives from a culture of ceaseless contact, but tenuous closeness. It is filled with psychoanalytic lingo and sexual explicitness.
In the Manner of Amy Lowell
THIS three-part literary portrait of the renowned poet Amy Lowell in light of her lesbian relationship with Ada Russell, her lifetime companion, lover, supporter, and muse—whom Lowell lovingly called “the lady of the moon”—breathes new life into Amy Lowell’s stature and significance.
Life and Times with Poet Donald Britton
IN THE EARLY 1980s, I was diving into bed with young New York poets, one after another. For me, an émigré from a wide place in the road in north Louisiana, the idea of a handsome writer in the sack made for a highly arousing destination, calling to mind George Peppard’s Paul Varjak in […]
In Search of the Spirit of Mu Xin
In the spring of last year, the Asia Society in New York hosted the premiere of a film about Mu Xin’s life, made by documentary filmmakers Francisco Bello and Tim Sternberg and titled Dreaming Against the World. Joanne Wang was associate producer for the film, and at her invitation I attended the New York premiere. […]
Finding Love in Old Persia
While A Poet of the Invisible World is not a nonfiction biography of Rumi, and anyone expecting that will be disappointed, it seems a safe bet that Michael Golding drew on the poet’s life as inspiration for this novel.
The Radicalization of Langston Hughes
Selected Letters has assembled a finely textured account of this beloved, productive writer who stayed connected with everyone but kept his own counsel and, in the face of daunting obstacles, endured.
Poet of Desire
RUPERT BROOKE is one of those figures who continually haunt the periphery of literature, a figure of myth and uncertainty. Chief among his attributes is that he is forever linked with the generation of English poets who perished in World War I.
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