Samizdat Blog

Poussin's paintings, Shakespeare's epitaph, Thom Gunn's existentialism, and many other things animate the elegantly written ...

I've always romanticized the Grand Old Literary Newsprint Journals—the  New York Review of Books,  the London Review of Books  and, ...

Rejoice! David Caplan has edited a collection of essays called On Rhyme , with contributions from a host of interesting people. Here...

How to write in the time of Trump and Putin? In words and images, John Matthias, Jean Dibble, and Robert Archambeau give you an...

Here’s a poem called “Shawl Dance.” It’s by Eric Elshtain, from his 2015 book This Thin Memory A-Ha. The sky of it causes harmony in ...

The good people at the Huffington Post have interviewed me about what’s going on in the poetry world. Here’s a snippet: I’ve always t...

Not long ago, as I was shuffling my way through the local used bookshop, I saw a pristine copy of the November 1968 issue of Evergreen ...

Happy to say that "His Swords and Armor: Remembering Michael Donaghy" is available in its entirety at Poetry Daily.  The piece...

Remember how the anti-Trump demonstrations were so vast they sent our president running to his phone to squeak out some angry tweets? I...

You want to know about rhyme, you ask Anthony Madrid.  Trust me on this.  Here's the beginning of his new essay, "A Gallery ...

These are dreadful times, for which we need a poetry of dread.  Ernest Hilbert's got us covered, in his new book Caligulan.   I wrot...

Left to right: Michael Donaghy, Richard Pettengill, Robert Archambeau, at Donaghy's last American reading, 2004 Talk to anyone abou...