Black Earth Institue: Social Distancing
Date: June 4, 2020
In dreams I walk through crowds, brushing arms, knocking elbows. Skin to skin: hands are bare. Crocuses congregate in beds, along sidewalks. Unlatching city gates,
Date: June 4, 2020
In dreams I walk through crowds, brushing arms, knocking elbows. Skin to skin: hands are bare. Crocuses congregate in beds, along sidewalks. Unlatching city gates,
Date: June 4, 2020
A flare of russet,green fronds, surpriseof flush againstthe bare grey cypressin winter woods. Cardinal wild pine,quill-leaf airplantor dog-drink-water.Spikes of bright bloom–exotic plumage.
Date: June 4, 2020
“Be stubborn and ultimately believe in your writing,” advises first-time novelist Mia Heavener ’00, “especially if you are having crappy writing days.” On April 13, Heavener visited Wyn Kelley’s literature […]
Date: June 4, 2020
Tess Taylor’s new poetry collection Rift Zone is published this month. She shares five books about writing place in a time of crisis.
Date: June 4, 2020
Poet Tess Taylor questioned what it means to be creative, when every day feels like a radical reinvention of life. “These days, helping myself and my family steer a way around sadness, […]
Date: June 4, 2020
LINCOLN, Neb. — My mother was born into a flu-stricken household at the height of the pandemic of 1918. Within minutes she was swaddled in a homemade quilt and placed […]
Date: June 4, 2020
1985 Long and black, the streaksof gray, aflutter in the lightwind as she prepares to tell her story at the Federal Building:reaching into a tattered sackshe pulls out a doll […]
Date: June 4, 2020
The Skin of Meaning He was late to the party and without directions,though his invitation was secure, and his instinctskeenly honed to an acceptable edge, and as we arewaiting to […]
Date: June 4, 2020
Ascension Didi Jackson The blue jays lay claimto the raspberry busharriving in groups of four or five:one holds a rubied berry in its beakand feeds it up in the white […]
Date: June 4, 2020
after Käthe Kollwitz I heard they no longer sew eyelids of the dead shut.At the morgue, I busied myself countingthe lacerations on my husband’s neck and wrists.I wore sunglasses and […]
Date: August 15, 2023
CURSEBREAKERS by Madeleine Nakamura is a novel as electric as the lightning-bolt magic its protagonist wields, filled with curses, destruction, and piercing heartache. Sometimes vicious and violent; all times spectacular […]
Date: August 15, 2023
“A remarkable work that is both a poignant story of queer coming-of-age and a breathtaking history of modern Russia.”
Date: August 10, 2023
“Poems like these are as two-sided as Vuong’s title instrument: a zither plucked and plucked, played upon and snatched away. For every touch of warmth and musicality, she admits something […]
Date: August 8, 2023
“Nakamura’s treatment is nuanced and thoughtful, avoiding a veritable minefield of harmful stereotypes to deliver genuine characters with heart…A tightly plotted conspiracy novel that blends seamlessly with its superbly developed […]
Date: July 27, 2023
“…the intimate representation of bipolar disease and addiction, the normalization of queer characters, and the nuanced depiction of aromantic male-female friendship make this an exciting read.” The full review will […]
Date: July 27, 2023
You Were Watching from the Sand The debut short story collection by Haitian-born, South Florida-raised, Harvard graduate Juliana Lamy, vividly portrays adolescent life and dreams in Miami’s Haitian community. Gritty, […]
Date: July 13, 2023
Synopsis: On the eve of Earth’s collapse, young Marisol Blaise is taken to live on an underwater ‘mersation’ known as Aqueous with parents not her own. There, she must compete […]
Date: July 12, 2023
Translator Bell offers a long-overdue introduction of German poet Sessner to English-speaking readers…Over the course of this collection, Sessner’s inclination toward enjambment and sparse use of stanzas encourage readers to […]
Date: July 10, 2023
This debut collection by Fairbanks poet and musician Warren presents the reality of living as a nonbinary person, with poems responding to childhood confusions, to societal pressures and cruelties, and […]
Date: July 6, 2023
Reality shifts and reforms in disquieting and disorientating ways in MacLeish Sq., the latest novel by Dennis Must, as the unlikely hero recognizes that he has reached the final phase of […]