Website Feature

Online Exclusive: Rebecca Starks

This month we're featuring Rebecca Starks' "Gray Matter," published in Issue #5, The Political Issue.

Online Exclusive: Mary Jo Salter

From our fifth issue, "The Political Issue,"  we're featuring Mary Jo Salter's "Song of the Children."

Online Exclusive: Supritha Rajan

Supritha Rajan of Rochester, New York, is the recipient of our 2007 Theodore Roethke Prize for her poem, "The Orphan of Time," published in the Spring-Summer 2007 issue.

Online Exclusive: John Koethe

John Koethe of Milwaukie, Wisconsin is the recipient of the 2007 Theodore Roethke Prize for his poems, "On Happiness" & "Persistent Feellings," published in the Spring-Summer 2007 issue.

When asked about the two poems he says, "I usually work on poetry and philosophy at different times of the year. A while ago I was asked to serve as a commentator on Susan Wolf's Tanner Lectures at Princeton the following year, on what makes life meaningful. I was in poetry mode at the time, but since I couldn't help thinking a bit about what I might say, I just decided to incorporate some of those thoughts into a poem, which became 'On Happiness.' I don't really think of it as a philosophical poem, though a number of philosophers (as well as poets) put in appearances. 

Online Exclusive: Stanley Plumly

We begin 2008 by featuring Stanley Plumly's essay "Something of the Sort: Full-bodied, paper-original, non-expedient correspondence," which appears in Issue 4 of Poetry Northwest. Please consider subscribing today.

Something of the Sort
Full-bodied, paper-original, non-expedient correspondence

The difference between Keats and a longshoreman is a matter of a drop of
blood in their brains, or of the shape of their skulls or something of the sort.
—Wallace Stevens
     Journal Entry, February 5, 1906

               1

     In the not-too-distant future those to whom it matters may look back at some point in the 1990s, when the networking of the Internet really started to take off, and wonder if at that moment the actual writing of thorough and styled and even personal letters, as a medium of one reflective silence speaking to another reflective silence (roughly Rilke’s definition of poetry), ended.

Online Exclusive: Gibson Fay-LeBlanc

Gibson Fay-LeBlanc's "On Leaving Home" appears in Issue 4 of Poetry Northwest. The poem focuses on departures and those who are left behind. According to Le-Blanc, " I left Chicago at 18 and somehow knew that I would never be back for any length of time. I wanted to capture something—who knows what—about that experience.

Online Exclusive: Eva Heisler

For November we feature Eva Heisler's "Lover's Manual," which appears in issue 4 of Poetry Northwest. The  poem is part of a longer series of prose poems entitled "Reading Emily Dickinson in Icelandic." According to Heisler, "'Lover's Manual' originated as journal entries written during the first three years of a nine-year period in Iceland.  This was a period in which the romance and astonishments of a foreign land were challenged by the difficulties of earning a living as a foreigner.  I was constantly faced with just how deeply language shapes perception and, as I struggled to learn Icelandic, the blind spots proliferated. 

Online Exclusive: Christina Pugh

Christina Pugh's "Sebald's Dream Props" appears in the Issue #4 of Poetry Northwest. When asked to discuss her poem, Pugh writes, "'Sebald’s Dream Props' is part of a manuscript entitled Restoration, which operates according to a particular form of dream logic that does not depend on collage, non-sequitur, or overt surrealism.

Online Exclusive: Henry Hughes

We continue our series focusing on Northwest poets with Henry Hughes. A native of Long Island, Hughes has made Oregon his home since 2002. His first collection of poems, Men Holding Eggs, received the 2004 Oregon Book Award; his poetry and essays have appeared in Harvard Review, Northwest Review, and Seattle Review. This month we feature two new poems—“At the Edge of the Known World,” and “Boccacio”— exclusive to Poetry Northwest Online.

Online Exclusive: Summer Reading Lists

For the months of July & August we embrace the spirit of summer vacation and feature the reading lists of our staff. Enjoy!

William Bernhard
I am spending a good chunk of the summer in Europe.

The Odyssey  by Homer (translated by Robert Fagles)
Fragments by Heraclitus (translated by Brooks Haxton)