I have always been fascinated by machines: cars, airplanes, trains… Every vehicle feels like it’s connecting the past where we have been with the future where we are going. Maybe that is why I’m drawn to art that deals with history and movement. When I first read Christopher Kemp’s poem “After,” I felt that same…
I have always been interested in poetry that expresses deep emotions and invokes thoughtful interpretations. Even more so, I have always had a passion for teaching and I am interested in the techniques and thoughtful lesson plans that are required to effectively pass down knowledge and inspire students. When I first saw “330 College Avenue”…
Born in 1961, Andrea Cohen grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, where she developed a love for poetry at a young age, stemming from her frequent walks with her dog through the woods where she would compose songs in her head. Currently, she teaches at Boston University and directs the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Cambridge,…
I have always been drawn to the moments where doing something normal feels electric. Taking a test and knowing you are going to do really well, standing in the rain at night, laying down and listening to music, just to name a few. In those moments I sense that poetry isn’t just something made in…
This year, I’ll finally turn an age I can’t say in Hindi. And even if I get around to finally inputting “fifteen” into Google Translate, I still won’t know how to say it: the syllables will rust and bend around my tongue like cheap metal, and I’ll roll my “r’s” in a way learned in…
Sometimes I find it intriguing how the media portrays wars. No matter how it’s supposed to be seen by the average viewer, when watching war on the news I’m horrified. I’m horrified that humans are capable of that level of violence. I bring this up because Donika Kelly’s poem “I Never Figured How to Get…
Dr. Ruben Quesada is a poet who was born in 1976 in Los Angeles, California and currently resides in Chicago, Illinois. He is an instructor at Cedar Crest College and an affiliate faculty member at Antioch University. He has written multiple books, including Brutal Companion, which won a Barrow Street Poetry Prize, 2023 Editors’ Choice,…
Michael Collier, born in Phoenix, Arizona in 1953, received his undergraduate degree at Connecticut College and earned his MFA at the University of Arizona. Currently, he lives in Cornwall, Vermont, and is an emeritus professor of English at the University of Maryland. He is the author of eight books of poems, including The Clasp and…
Anthony Madrid was born in 1985 in Bethesda, Maryland and currently lives in Chicago. He graduated as a PhD student from the University of Chicago (in the graduate program in English language and literature), with an MD from Columbia University, an M.F.A. from the University of Arizona, and a BA from Penn State. Some publications…
Sigurd Glad first interviewed A.E. Stallings back in 2017, asking her five questions that were inspired by her poem “The Barnacle.” Having recently read selections from This Afterlife, Ms. Stallings’s 2022 collection of poems, I was happy to have the chance to circle back and reconnect with one of this site’s favorite poets. A. E.…