Readers:
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Now, then.
Welcome to Issue # 24 of Plume.
Well: Happy Birthday. To us. With this issue, we turn two: terrible? Sometimes I think so. Mostly not. And when I do – fleeting: the work, the kindness of our contributors, the loyalty of our readers, those many poets who submit their poems. Much for which to be grateful.
And to mark this anniversary, a – God forbid – special issue: reprising that initial foray as far as possible, with most of the poets from that effort here again: received these last few weeks new work by Amy Gerstler, Christopher Kennedy, Denise Duhamel, Kimberly Johnson, Mark Jarman, Nin Andrews, Rae Armantrout, Stuart Dybek, and Terese Svoboda. Ricardo Pau-Llosa, John Skoyles, and Juan Felipe Herrera round out the roster nicely, I think, along with “Featured Selection” poet Rachel Hadas. As most things Plume-ish, the idea of this anniversary issue occurred to me, oh, a few weeks ago – and I am thus even more appreciative of these wonderful – and busy – poets’ quick responses. Unfortunately, this small window of opportunity, as it were, has resulted in the absence of a poem from Charles Bernstein, who was otherwise engaged and could not send a poem in time to be included — formally — in the “anniversary” issue. However, I have received a poem from Charles this morning — a beauty, believe me — and will run it in July. Charles, as his email just a few minutes ago states, is with us “in spirit.”
Also, you’ll see below a list of all the contributors – poets, translators, visual artists – who have appeared or in our pages over these two years — or soon will. Frightening, really, in its quality: one wonders when our luck will run out. (Many thanks, by the way, to Bryan Duffy for putting this together. And to Jason Cook for herding the tech parts.)
But: enough. We are special. Aren’t we all?
And so to business/news.
Our renovations are almost complete: just a few recent issues to be archived.
Happily, our book recommender-in-chief , David Cudar, returns, with a new list to pique your interest. Please subscribe to our Newsletter to see what David has for you this month. Look for the occasional long-form review from him in upcoming issues. Many thanks, again, to Ron Slate for allowing me to slip into his site and make some recommendations of my own in David’s absence.
I am very pleased, indeed, to report that the “Featured Selection” noted above continues to receive positive comments: it’s become a favorite part of our little journal for many, as many have informed me. Mark Irwin’s translation of Alain Borer was marvelous, and very well-received. Exciting new entries are on the horizon, to follow those in the queue, including a multimedia presentation from Hank Lazar, presently giving a keynote talk for an international poetics conference in Wuhan, China. His work will include both visual art and a jazz improv of one of the pieces. Also, Christopher Kennedy has a series of poems written from the POV of Gregor Samsa. Again, I urge you to email me if you have a project in mind that might be a good fit for this section of Plume: plumepoetry@gmail.com
Our cover art this month, “Thetis,” comes from Robaldo Enrique Rodriguez (b. Holguín, Cuba, 1964), a graduate of the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. He left Cuba for Spain in 1991, where he had a distinguished career. He presently lives in Miami. More at: robaldorodriguez.com. This piece, by the way, is the work around which Ricardo Pau-Llosa’s poem “orbits,” to use his term.
A couple of stray bits:
You can now follow us on Twitter: @plumepoetry.
New work received these last few weeks comes from, aside from those who kindly sent in new poems for this issue, Lee Upton, JT Barbarese, Charles Bernstein, Ana Minga (translated by Alexis Levitan), Nicole Cooley, William Olsen Sigman Byrd, Paula Bohince, and Carol Frost.
And here’s the list of poets, translators, and visual artists who have graced our pages, both electronic and paper, since issue Plume Issue # 1, and those who soon will join them.
| Addonizio, Kim Agodon, Kelli Russell Allen, Dick Alexander, Meena Alexander, Pamela Alexie, Sherman Anderson, Nathalie Andrews, Nin Angel, Ralph Armantrout, Rae Armitage, Simon Arnold, Elizabeth Arvio, Sarah Atkinson, Jennifer Aygi, Gennady Babcock, Julie Baggott, Julianna Baker, David Balakian, Peter Ball, Angela Barbarese, J.T. Barker, Brian Barnes, Annette Bass, Ellen Beeder, Amy Behn, Robin Bernard, April Bernstein, Charles Bertolino, James Black, Sophie Cabot Bliunus-Dunn, Sally Bogan, Don Bohince, Paula Bolt, Thomas Booker, Stephen Todd Bonnefoy, Yves Borer, Alain Boruch, Marianne Bosch, Daniel Bourne, Daniel Broek, Michael Buckley, Christopher Bursky, Rick Byrd, Sigman Cairns, Scott Calaferte, Louis Calbert, Cathleen Campo, Rafael Cassian, Nina Causey, Carrie Char, Rene Charlesworth, Sarah Chernoff, Maxine Chirinos, Eduardo Christopher, Nicholas Chuan, Xi Cigale, Alex Clark, Patricia Claus, Hugo Codrescu, Andrei Cohen, Andrea Collier, Michael Collins, Billy Collins, Martha Colmer, David Cook, Rebecca Cooley, Nicole Cooley, Peter Crawford, Tom Cruz, Cynthia Culhane, Brian D’Aguiar, Fred Du Bouchet, Andre Di Piero, W.S. Daniels, Jim Davis, Christina Davis, Lydia Dawes, Kwame Debelja, Aleš Dennis, Carl Derry, Alice Dimkovska Lidija Dobyns, Stephen Dolven, Jeff Donnelly, Patrick Dubie, Norman Dubrow, Jehanne Duhamel, Denise Dunn, Stephen Dybek, Stuart Eady, Cornelius Emerson, Claudia Equi, Elaine Estes, Angie Etter, Carrie Finch, Annie Fischerova, Sylva Flenniken, Kathleen Ford, Katie Freeman, Molly Lou Friebert, Stuart Fried, Daisy Frost, Carol Gallagher, Tess Galassi, Jonathan Galvin, Brendan Galvin, Martin George, Alice Rose Gerstler, Amy Gibbons, Reginald Goldberg, Beckian Fritz Goodyear, Dana Greenbaum, Jessica Gorman, Al Griswold, Eliza Graham, Jorie Groom, Kelle Grotz, Jennifer Hacker, Marilyn Hadas, Rachel Hahn, Kimiko Hambly, Barbara Harrison, Jeffrey Harrison, Leslie Hecht, Jennifer Michael Hejinian, Lyn Henry, Brian Herrera, Juan Felipe Hicok, Bob Hillman, Brenda Hirshfield, Jane Hoagland, Tony Hoover, Paul Howe, Fanny Howell, Christopher Huddle, David Hudgins, Andrew Hummer, T.R. Hunt, Laird Irwin, Mark Jarman, Mark Johnson, Kimberly Johnston, Devin Jollimore, Troy Jordan, Judy Kallet, Marilyn Kapovich, Katia Kasischke, Laura Kendall, Stuart Kennedy, Christopher |
Kenney, Richard Khoury-Ghata, Vénus Kinsella, John Kirby, David Klein, Lucas Knox, Jennifer L. Krisak, Len Krolow, Karl Kronen, Steven Lamon, Laurie Larkin, Joan Larsen, Lance Lasky, Dorothea Laux, Dorianne Lazer, Hank Lea, Sydney Lee, Karen An-hwei Levin, Phillis Levitan, Alexis Liardet, Tim Lifshin, Lyn Liu, Timothy Logan, William Longenbach, James Lux, Thomas Mackey, Mary Malroux, Claire Manning, Maurice Martin, Diane Mathis, Cleopatra Matsuda, Lawrence Maulpoix, Jean-Michel Maxwell, Glyn Maynard, Christopher McCombs, Davis McDuff, David McGrath, Campbell McLane, Maureen McPherson, Sandra Meinke, Peter Meitner, Erika Mendes, Guy Miller, Wayne Minga, Ana Mlinko, Ange Moldaw, Carol Motion, Andrew Muhlin, Jay Muldoon, Paul Muratori, Fred Muske-Dukes, Carol Nooteboom, Cees Novey, Idra Nurkse, D. Nutter, Geoffrey Olds, Sharon Olsen, William Orlowsky, Dzvinia Ossip, Kathleen Ostriker, Alicia Padel, Ruth Pankey, Eric Papadopoulos, Melina Parini, Jay Pastan, Linda Pau-Llosa, Ricardo Peacock, Molly Perros, Georges Phillips, Carl Piercy, Marge Pinsky, Robert Polonskaya, Anzhelina Powell, D.A. Prufer, Kevin Pugh, Christina Purpura, Lia Raab, Lawrence Racz, G.J. Raeber, Kuno Revell, Donald Rios, Alberto Rivard, David Rocha, Flávia Rodriquez, Robaldo Enrique Rogers, Hoyt Rosser, J. Allyn Rossini, Clare Sadoff, Ira Sala, Jerome Šalamun, Tomaž Salter, Mary Jo Sarishvili, Maya Schulman, Grace Schwartz, Lloyd Seaton, Maureen Serpas, Martha Seshadri, Vijay Shapiro, Alan Shapiro, David Sharp, Meighan Sheehan, Julie Shumate, David Simmons, Laurie Skinner, Jeffrey Skloot, Floyd Skoyles, John Slate, Ron Sleigh, Tom Smith, Bruce Smith, Charlie Smith, Michael Smith, Ron Smith, R.T. Snidjers, A.L. Spaar, Lisa Russ Spires, Elizabeth Springer, Jane Stanton, Maura Starzinger, Page Stine, Alison Svoboda, Terese Swensen, Cole Sze, Arthur Szybist, Mary Tafdrup, Pia Taren, Michael Thomas Taylor, John Tobin, Daniel Trakl, Georg Trowbridge, William Twichell, Chase Ulanov, Alexander Upton, Lee Valentine, Jean Vogelsang, Arthur Vreuls, Diane Wachtel, Andrew Wagoner, David Wakoski, Diane Waldrep, G.C. Waldrop, Bernard Waldrop, Rosmarie Warren, Rosanna Weigl, Bruce Wunderlich, Mark Young, C. Dale Young, David Yu, Hsia Zapruder, Matthew Zeqo, Moikom |
Much gratitude, as always, and I do hope you enjoy the issue!
Daniel Lawless
Editor, Plume



