Emanuel’s Elegies: “Something about art/ And its opportunities” by Deborah Bogen
Emanuel’s Elegies: “Something about art/ And its opportunities” Lynn Emanuel is the author of three books of poems, none of which can be described simply as “a collection of poems.” They are poems making an argument, a triptych with a project. What that project is has been the subject of inquiry, essay and interview, a discussion complicated not only by
The Poetic “Engine” in Flannery O’Connor’s Fiction by Chard deNiord
After reading and teaching Flannery O'Connor’s stories for decades, along with having grown up myself in the South in a town not that dissimilar from O’Connor’s hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia, I developed a deep appreciation for both the creative and theological genius in O’Connor’s fiction, particularly her incisive use of irony and paradox in rural, unsophisticated settings.Cassandra Atherton, “The Life and Times of Big Mr. Prose Poem”: While the Undertaker Sleeps: Collected and New Prose Poems by Peter Johnson
Self-confessed “wise guy of the prose poem” and also its unofficial laureate, Peter Johnson is one of America’s foremost practitioners and critics of prose poetry.Two Essays on Charles Simic by Donovan McAbee and Chard deNiord
Two Essays on Charles Simic by Donovan McAbee and Chard deNiord Charles Simic: An Appreciation from Donovan McAbee “This is not poetry…. It’s just words cut up into lines!” that was his assessment, anyway, though I disagreed vigorously and with some volume. The closest I’ve come to a screaming match in public, in the last few years at
The Road Goes On Forever and The Party Never Ends by David Kirby
As both an eminent, award-winning American poet and music critic, David Kirby has published more than two dozen volumes of poetry, criticism, essays, children’s literature, pedagogy, and biography, including the definitive biography of Little Richard titled Little Richard The Birth of Rock and Roll. A frequent contributor to such newspapers as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times
Doug Bytes: An unconventional essay by Doug Anderson
Doug Anderson’s essay for this month’s issue of Plume consists of twenty four paragraphs that appeared first as posts on Facebook over the past several years. They include a wide variety of incisive reflections on topics that I have dubbed Doug Bytes for their engaging takes on everything from writers block, old age, doctors who don’t listen, the first Women’s
