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Book Forum and The Poetry Foundation are talking about why people praise “bad poetry.” Plunkett argues that “most of published criticism is positive even though so much of published poetry is bad.” I am wondering whether this is true and if so, whether it is a problem. The world of poetry is cold and lonely. …

As I get started writing about art in Seattle, I’ve dragged J along to a number of events, some more successful than the others, and I’m meditating on what is succeeding or not in this particular area. The best art in Seattle seems to be “happening”: that is, the work involves an event, interaction, or …

I’m still trying to get a handle on Jeffery Yang’s work. Vanishing-Line, new from Graywolf, took me by surprise after I finished Aquarium. The narrator’s vision in Aquarium had a fairly steady focal range and a consistent format; you looked sequentially at an alphabetized list of creatures through a set of binoculars or microscope set …

I’m starting to blog here at Crosscut. This piece is about a great Seattle arts organization. J and I have been thinking a lot about the hyper local movement because of our salon (next one, November 12!). Locality is old news in the realm of food – everyone (hip) goes to the farmers market and …

J and I recently enjoyed these two shows in Seattle: Funhouse, a show at Western Bridge Gallery, and MadHouses (exhibit now closed) in a row of former Capitol Hill residences sponsored by MadArt and 4Culture. Together, these two exhibits point to the strengths and limits of “public” art and gallery-constrained art. Funhouse wants to be …

This article about Lucretius tempts me to trust it because it recovers such a lovely text, but Greenblatt makes too many over generalizations and errors to be believed. He claims we live in a “skeptical and secular culture,” reinforcing the secularization myth: the story that liberal atheism will, or has, inevitably subsumed simplistic, religious cult …

I enjoyed Carl Phillip’s new book as I discuss here on the KR. Right now, I’m wending my way through Emily Wilson’s Micrographia. Her syntax rivals Hopkins at times (but without the rhyme), and the imagery is like medieval miniature, a marvel of density, precision and patience. Zach Savich’s recent book is on my table …

Somehow Octavia’ Butler’s Fledgling came out the same year as Meyer’s first Twlight book, but to less acclaim. Butler’s book is so much more subtle than Meyer’s also compelling book. Butler adds dimensions of race, American history and first person narration that create depth from a quite similar plot line. Why then is Meyer’s book …

A few of my longer, more carefully edited thoughts here in a review of Carl Philip’s new book, A Dream in Horses.

Reading Frankenstein after a few contemporary novels is odd because this book comprises letters and extended first person monologues. Not pages and pages of snappy dialogue that could be film script! (For example, I just finished The Eyre Affair which reads like a movie script; apparently the author wrote them for the industry before turning …