As we wrap up the first part of our March theme, we’d like to offer you the following list of resources, which we hope will inspire you to delve deeper into the world of ekphrastic poetry.
Asian American Art: Gallery Exhibits
The Art of Gaman – Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946
Smithsonian American [...]
Archive of posts filed under the Editors' Picks category.
Editors’ Picks: Ekphrastic Poetry Resources
Editors’ Picks: Fiona Sze-Lorrain Interviewed by Retort
We were recently given a heads’ up about this fascinating interview in Retort Magazine that Singaporean poet Desmond Kon conducted with Fiona Sze-Lorrain (whose book, Water the Moon, we reviewed earlier this year). [Thanks, D.K., for the link!]
Here’s an excerpt (Sze-Lorrain on place and geography in her work):
Places permeate my writing since you may say [...]
Editors’ Picks: “My Issei Parents… Now I Hear Them”
I was browsing the American Literary History Journal the other day and came across Corinne E. Blackmer’s “Writing Poetry like a ‘Woman’.” In it, I found this observation on the subject of writing by incarcerated Japanese American women during World War II:
The experience of these [internment] camps radically affected the writing of issei and nisei women [...]
Editors’ Picks: Reflections on (Re)Fashioning Japonisme
Recently I’ve become interested in nineteenth century japonisme, a strain of ”Japan-fever” that Akane Kawakami, author of Travellers’ Visions: French Literary Encounters With Japan, 1887-2004, describes as a “passing Parisian fad [which] became an important part of the creative imagination of major artists, composers and writers of the period.” One of these writers, French naval officer Pierre Loti, became widely popular for [...]
Editors’ Picks: Opportunities for Writing in Community
Here at LR, we value community as a space for growth and artistic exploration. The mentorship that we receive when we work with older writers, and the camaraderie we experience when working with our peers can both be particularly important in encouraging us to push forward with our strengths and in challenging us to reach [...]
Editor’s Picks: A Voice Crying “STOP” (June Jordan’s “In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.”)
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought I would briefly discuss June Jordan’s unusual tribute poem, “In Memoriam: Martin Luther King, Jr.”
“In Memoriam . . .” is not a typical memorial poem. It begins with a rush of chaotic terror:
“honey people murder mercy U.S.A.
the milkland turn to monsters teach
to kill to violate [...]
Editors’ Picks: Teachers & Writers Collaborative Book Sale!
The Teachers & Writers Collaborative is having a book sale! If you teach English, writing composition, creative writing, anything… these handbooks are a tremendous resource.
The T&W titles on my shelf are: Poetry Everywhere and The List Poem, though I can vouch for numerous others (Listener in the Snow, Handbook of Poetic Forms, etc. ) as well. I’ve found these [...]
Editors’ Picks: Downtown Chicago Poetry Tour Review
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I went into Chicago with a few friends, and decided to use the opportunity to try out the downtown portion of the Poetry Foundation’s Chicago Poetry Tour. My companions very graciously agreed to take the tour with me—no small feat, considering that it’s a 45-minute walking tour, and a few of them [...]
Editors’ Picks: Haibun at Hugo House
This Wednesday, I was lucky to attend Rebecca Brown’s haibun class at the Richard Hugo House in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood Haibun is an ancient Japanese poetic form that juxtaposes prose narrative and short haiku. Brown’s interest in the form stems from what she calls “the wonderfully uncategorizeable texts” of contemporary American poets who have taken [...]
