Bettissima: An Exhibition of the Life and Letters of Elizabeth Kray
A look at the institutions built and friendships forged by Elizabeth Kray, who shaped the landscape of American poetry from the mid–20th century to the present day.
Category: Essays
Transforming Nature with James Schuyler
By Carl Phillips
Posted Dec 3, 2018
Carl Phillips explores James Schuyler’s poem “The Bluet,” revealing “a thanksgiving of sorts, for friendship itself, for human company.”
Writing and Teaching in a Time of Crisis: Lessons from June Jordan
By Donna Masini
Posted Nov 29, 2018
Inspired by June Jordan, Donna Masini calls for the integration of writing with activism, personal life, and the “moral imagination.”
Transforming Nature with John Clare
By Carl Phillips
Posted Nov 26, 2018
Carl Phillips examines how a poem by John Clare conveys “sensitivity to wilderness and the human ability to reason about it.”
Transforming Nature with Charlotte Smith
By Carl Phillips
Posted Nov 19, 2018
Carl Phillips looks at a 1797 sonnet by Charlotte Smith that explores the desire to escape “a civilization of reason’s making.”
(Feeling) at Home in America with Sterling A. Brown
By Camille T. Dungy
Posted Nov 12, 2018
A close look at a poem by Sterling A. Brown that asks us “What happens when hope comes home?” Part 5 of 5 on the theme of home.
(Feeling) at Home in America with Craig Santos Perez
By Camille T. Dungy
Posted Nov 5, 2018
A look at the intersection of “the local and domestic” with the global in a poem by Craig Santos Perez. Part 4 of 5 on the theme of home.
…(Feeling) at Home in America with Lucille Clifton
By Camille T. Dungy
Posted Oct 30, 2018
An exploration of the ways in which a poem by Lucille Clifton “casts nets of inclusion and exclusion.” Part 3 of 5 on the theme of home.
(Feeling) at Home in America with Maggie Smith
By Camille T. Dungy
Posted Oct 22, 2018
An investigation of Maggie Smith’s “homing strategies” in her poem “Good Bones.” Part 2 of 5 on the theme of home.
(Feeling) at Home in America with Phillis Wheatley
By Camille T. Dungy
Posted Oct 16, 2018
A close look at Phillis Wheatley’s subversion of Neoclassical poetry in “On Being Brought from Africa to America.” Part 1 of 5 on the theme of home.