books

A Newly Translated Novel Captures the Tragedy of Greek Communism

Tadhg Larabee Jacobin
Written in 1972, during Greece’s military junta, leftist Marios Chakkas’s recently translated novel The Commune is a mournful testament from a world where the stakes of politics were communism or fascism, democracy or dictatorship.

Let Them Not Say

Jane Hirshfield Poem-a-Day
The poet Jane Hirshfield offers a grieved portrayal of contemporary impotence and apathy.

poetry

What Is Left

Bunkong Tuon Copper Nickel
A survivor of the American war in Cambodia, the poet Bunkong Tuon lives with ancestral ghosts and gratitude for what is left.

poetry

Yellow Stars

Elizabeth Zelvin
“I will not be invisible,” writes NY poet Elizabeth Zelvin of her Jewish female identity, “I will not be herded/…I do not accept your yellow stars.”

poetry

Heavy Work

Lita Kurth
Poetry for Labor Day: The working-class persists, survives, says California poet Lita Kurth; but it sure isn’t easy.

poetry

What’s in a Name?

Carol Kanter
Who is Jack Smith? asks the poet Carol Kanter. Cross your fingers. Is he the hero who shows that someone with a fancier name is not above the law? Look it up.

books

Poetry, Biography, and the Unknowable

Hollis Robbins Los Angeles Review of Books
These books offer two approaches to the life and work of Wheatley, who is a cornerstone figure of the U.S. and African American literary traditions.

poetry

Chinese Exclusion Act

Gerald Sloan
Arkansas poet Gerald Sloan reminds us that the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 was no “act” but often lost to history and found again.

poetry

Poisoned Water

Philip C. Kolin
Mississippi poet Philip C. Kolin reminds us of the next imminent global disaster—bad water—and in some places it’s already here.

poetry

Clemency

Peter Neil Carroll Cultural Daily
There’s more than a little irony in Peter Carroll’s poem about a woman who has been imprisoned for over 20 years being “free to start over.”
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