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For Mosab Abu Toha, whose entire life and body of work, including his new collection, Forest of Noise, have been shaped by war, poetry is a way for all of us to document, to try to understand, and to act in times of suffering.
“Take pleasure in publishing work you love,” says Ander Monson, founder of New Michigan Press. Steered by this guidance and a taste for the off-kilter, the press has produced chapbooks and the magazine Diagram for over twenty years.
The author of the debut poetry collection Good Dress highlights a thoughtful selection of literary journals that helped shepherd her poems into the world, including Underbelly and Hopkins Review.
The first lines of a dozen noteworthy books, including Between the Night and Its Music: New and Selected Poems by A. B. Spellman and The Charterhouse of Padma by Padma Viswanathan.
Excerpts from debut books by Suzette Mullen, Dorsía Smith Silva, Uchenna Awoke, Deborah Jackson Taffa, and Parul Kapur.
The Aminah Robinson Writer/Scholar/Researcher Residency, sponsored by the Columbus Museum of Art, offers a three-month residency from May through July to a poet, fiction writer, or nonfiction writer at the Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson home and studio in the Shepard neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio. The resident is provided with a $15,000 stipend and lodging in Robinson’s former bungalow-style home, which includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms, an art studio, a writing room, and other living spaces. The resident also has access to Robinson’s art, archive, and library.
Aminah Robinson Writer/Scholar/Researcher Residency, 480 E. Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43215. (614) 221-6801. Deidre Hamlar, Director.
“One by one, like leaves from a tree, / All my faiths have forsaken me; / But the stars above my head / Burn in white and delicate red, / And beneath my feet the earth / Brings the sturdy grass to birth,” begins Sara Teasdale’s 1915 poem “Leaves.” Write a poem that uses rhythm and meter to evoke the feeling of the autumn season and describes the sights and sounds of the natural environment drying and withering, beginning the descent to decomposition. You might use this as an opportunity to ruminate on the larger themes of slowing down, and cycles of renewal and decay. Pay particular attention to consonance, short and long vowel sounds, and the length of your words and lines to create the desired tone of your poem.
In a recent piece published on Literary Hub highlighting responses from writers and editors on their appreciation for The Chicago Manual of Style, book editor Barbara Clark muses on the poetry found within the guidebook. “When I looked up something in the manual, I saw poems in their purest form. Open to a page at random, and find a poem there,” says Clark. “Fused participles! Who can imagine such a thing?” Taking inspiration from grammar-related terms and phrases, compose a poem that plays with an open interpretation of the words involved, bringing these concepts beyond language usage and into a more personal or philosophical context. Can you locate a sort of soul or lyrical beauty within organization and categorization?
