Author Archive
Dear Dr. Poetry
Sacrilegion L. Lamar Wilson Carolina Wren Press, February 2013 $17.95 79 pages Dear Dr. Poetry, I don’t expect you to understand me, because no one does. My sorrow is darker than a thousand layers of guyliner. I just wanted you, as the foremost expert on poetry, to confirm my
Madness, Rack, and Honey
Madness, Rack, And Honey: Collected Lectures Mary Ruefle Wave Books, August 2012 327 pages $25.00 Dear Dr. Poetry, I’ve been hiding my poetry for 3 years now, and I’m dying to finally tell my family I’m a poet. But there’s always been a lot of stigma about poetry ever
Dear Dr. Poetry
The Revolution Happened And You Didn’t Call Me Maged Zaher TinFish Press, September 2012 67 pages $15.00 Dear Dr. Poetry, I’ve been occupying Wall Street continuously since September 2011. Since we lost Zuccotti Park, I’ve been sneaking into Goldman Sachs’ offices at night to sleep standing up behind a
Dear Dr. Poetry
An Individual History Michael Collier W. W. Norton & Co., July 2012 80 pages $25.95 Dear Dr. Poetry, My father died when I was very young and I don’t remember him much. My mom told me that he died doing what he loved—rescuing children from burning buildings. But I
Dear Dr. Poetry
Darkroom Jazzy Danziger University of Wisconsin Press, March 2012 72 pages $16.95 Dear Dr. Poetry, I’m a mime currently looking to transition into set design, but I keep losing jobs because my sketches are just blank pages. I have no idea how to translate emotion into visual effects or
Dear Dr. Poetry…
The Louisiana Purchase by Jim Goar Rose Metal Press, Nov. 2011 80 pages $15.95 Dear Dr. Poetry, I’ve been a middle school art teacher for twenty years, but thanks to budget cuts, I’ve recently had to begin teaching history, too. I’ve done my best to engage the students, assigning
Dear Dr. Poetry
Happy Life by David Budbill Copper Canyon Press, August 2011 122 pages $16.00 [Editor’s note: “Dear Dr. Poetry,” a new column by Shannon Wagner, will appear regularly on this blog.] Dear Dr. Poetry When I sold my VW van to buy my first suit for a job at
End of American Magic
End of American Magic by Christopher Locke Salmon Poetry / Dufour Editions, Sept. 2011 76 pages $21.95 Arthur Miller may have pronounced the American Dream dead in Death of a Salesman, but Christopher Locke’s new book of poetry, End of American Magic, implies such a pessimistic assessment isn’t wholly accurate. Like
Rust Fish
Rust Fish Maya Jewell Zeller Lost Horse Press, April 2011 77 pages $15.00 Maya Jewell Zeller’s bio tells us that she was “Born at home in the upstairs apartment of her parents’ gas station on the Oregon coast,” and this half-sentence provides exactly enough information to authenticate the stories
The Stroke of A Pen
The Stroke of a Pen: Essays on Poetry and Other Provocations Samuel Hazo University of Notre Dame Press, May 2011 136 pages $20.00 In the semi-rural pocket of Pennsylvania where I grew up, poets are a rarity. Last year, as I prepared to uproot my life and move to