When I wrote this poem, I was considering the layers of narrative, particularly the horrors depicted in Hollywood’s sexualized thrillers for entertainment versus the actual horrors my grandparents experienced when they were orphaned during the Armenian Genocide. I wanted to explore the irony of myself as a child fleeing the grief and trauma of the adult world upstairs only to be haunted by the images appearing on a screen.
Jen Siraganian on "The Night of Her Funeral" |
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Howard Nemerov's Letters Donated to Washington University
"WashU Libraries has received a remarkable gift of 513 letters by the late U.S. poet laureate Howard Nemerov from a surprising source—the family of Nemerov’s lover. From 1972 to 1990—a year before Nemerov died of cancer in St. Louis—Nemerov wrote frequent letters to Joan Coale of Philadelphia about his work, family and life on the Washington University in St. Louis campus, where he served as the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of English and distinguished poet in residence. The correspondence overlaps with a fertile period of Nemerov’s career."
viaWASHINGTON UNIVERSITY |
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What Sparks Poetry: Matthew Cooperman on Reading Prose
"How will we spend our days? How will we attend to our rapidly accelerating planet? One habit of response is to read bracing prose, and for me, it’s often “the consolations of philosophy,” to quote an excellent recent example by Alain de Botton. From the Affective Turn to the Queering of Nature, Object Oriented Ontology to Anthropocene Studies, there’s an incredible florescence of philosophical writing going on internationally, as if climate change has triggered all our cells to wake up." |
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