Beyond all this fiddle, what’s useful

November 11, 2014

At the end of this month, on November 30th, I’m doing a reading here in Chicago. There’s more information on Facebook. I’d love to see you in this mysterious...

A theory of muchness

September 27, 2014

Here’s my latest review for the Volta, of a new poetry collection called Interrobang. In it I keep returning to “muchness.” Google reveals that I...

Baba Yaga and sky every day

August 19, 2014

First: my third review for the Volta, of Aram Saroyan's Complete Minimal Poems, is online. This is some of the most fun critical writing I've done this year:...

Poems by heart, and an exciting reading

July 15, 2014

I am so excited to tell y'all that I'm a semifinalist for the Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award. If you're in Chicago, please come out to the Chopin Theater at...

What is it about April?

April 23, 2014

I remember the tones of my father's voice reciting scraps of "The Waste Land" more immediately than anything else about that poem, like a melody stuck in my...

Poets with boring jobs

March 13, 2014

Because looking for a new job has occupied me lately, I want to talk about poets with boring jobs. In this category I count anyone who's written poems but...

Instax Winter

February 13, 2014

I put together a poem with some photographs in a short chapbook called Instax Winter. I'll mail you a copy for $2.50, or you can see a PDF of it here. I...

Troll poetry

January 14, 2014

(This is the latest in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them.) The commonest insult to lob at a poem is "This isn't a poem at all!" I've...

A house full of empty fruit bowls

December 11, 2013

(This is the third in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them.) "Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living," says...

Some arrows; future perfect.

November 14, 2013

(This is the second in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them. You probably subscribed to these letters when I sold you a chapbook of...

Poems, puzzles, and grapefruit.

October 9, 2013

(This is the first in a series of letters about poems and what I love in them. You probably subscribed to these letters when I sold you a chapbook of...