Pleasure or Business?

Posted on April 17, 2019 by

And I answer, “No. I’m in Poland for the poetry.”
But over beers in a basement filled with blue
shadows caught on the crumbling brick baleen
of the wall, strangers keep claiming, “I’m related to you.” […]

You can read the full sonnet, “Pleasure or Business?”—which relates my first time traveling to Poland and coming into contact my Jewish name in a whole different way—in the latest issue of Zyzzyva. I’m thrilled to have a poem appear in this venerable Bay Area journal. Growing up, it meant so much to me to know that it was being produced right where I lived; reading it inspired me in countless ways. And this issue continues to fulfill that role, with a wonderful essay by Paisley Rekdal and compelling poems by Rusty Morrison, Dean Rader, Alexandra Teague, and others.

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Contemporary Polish Poets: Portraits and Places

Posted on April 1, 2019 by

The High Window has just published an excellent portfolio of contemporary Polish poetry called “Portraits and Places,” which includes my translations of work by Krystyna Dąbrowska and Tomasz Różycki. Here’s the fabulous full lineup:

Justyna Bargielska • Wojciech Bonowicz • Krystyna Dąbrowska • Jacek Dehnel • Jacek Gutorow • Łukasz Jarosz •  Marzanna Bogumiła Kielar • Julian Kornhauser • Ewa Lipska•   Artur Nowaczewski  • Tomasz Różycki

 

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“Immigrant Alembic” in North American Review

Posted on March 16, 2019 by

Vintage chemistry, double distillation equipment

It seems only fitting that my poem about the “American norm” would be published by the North American Review, the oldest literary magazine in the United States. Along with my sonnet “Immigrant Alembic,” which thinks about American identity as a process of distillation in an alembic, you can also read great work by Marsha de la O, Allison Adair, Lauren Camp and others.

 

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“Phantom” in Guernica

Posted on March 13, 2019 by

Many thanks to the editors at Guernica for publishing my translation of Tomasz Różycki’s poem “Phantom” from his most recent collection, Letter by Letter. Now to translate the other 98 poems!

Screenshot 2019-03-13 14.24.28 

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A Poem and an Interview

Posted on January 23, 2019 by

I’m so happy to have my poem “Sublet, Pay-Later System,” which touches on issue of housing and identity theft, in the latest issue of Subtropics. Thank you to Ange Mlinko for publishing it and to Stephanie Maniaci for the wonderful conversation that we had about the poem… and about many other things, besides!

subtropicsfl_win18_covers_page_1

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“For the self / needs to be taken to the core now / and then…”

Posted on January 10, 2019 by

…needs the world to be a little dirty
and dark, below the surface, steeped
in cheap vodka, breath reeking, voice
slurring names over a broken intercom
that garbles human speech, reducing to hum
places you could go but don’t.

You can read the rest of my ode to the underground, “Subway Theory,” in the latest issue of Crazyhorse, along with my poem “Memory My Leaf.” Thanks so much to editor Emily Rosko—whose own poetry I admire so much—for including my work in the issue.

crazyhorse_94-frontcover

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New Poem in Poetry Magazine

Posted on January 9, 2019 by

I’m absolutely thrilled to have my poem “The Invention of the Interstate System” in the January issue of Poetry magazine. It’s a dream come true! And check out their new design, including a fold-out page featuring the work of none other than Jorie Graham, along with full-color reproductions of several pages from Frank O’Hara’s notebooks and poems by James Tate, Khaled Mattawa, Carl Phillips, Reginald Gibbons, Ken Chen, Claudine Toutoungi, and others. I’m particularly smitten with Willie Perdomo’s poem “That’s My Heart Right There.”

poetry magazine

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Two Sonnets in Memorious

Posted on December 28, 2018 by

One last publication to usher in the new year! The latest issue of the wonderful online journal Memorious includes two sonnets that I wrote about different experiences of miscarriage. After I went through one myself, I was stunned by how many women came forward to tell me their stories. There’s so much silence and shame around what I learned is a very common aspect of women’s lives. And the brevity of the form, what Rossetti famously called “a moment’s monument,” felt right for the fleeting yet profound way the experience marks us. In the issue you’ll also find stellar work by Jericho Brown, Gail Mazur, and Sean Singer, among others.

Memorious

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Web Exclusive: Poetry by Krystyna Dąbrowska in The Brooklyn Rail

Posted on December 18, 2018 by

The Brooklyn Rail recently published an ample selection of translations from my most recent project, the Selected Poems of Krystyna Dąbrowska, for which I’m eternally grateful to editors Jennifer Zoble and Donald Breckenridge. I love that they’ve envisioned InTranslation, the web exclusive feature of the magazine, as “a venue for outstanding work in translation and a resource for translators, authors, editors, and publishers seeking to collaborate.” In a publishing world where only three percent of books brought out each year is work in translation, such a resource is incredibly vital to connect those of us working to transcend our xenophobic moment.

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“Memory Loss” in Gulf Coast

Posted on December 17, 2018 by

So happy to have a new poem in Gulf Coast! And how fitting that a poem about memory loss brings me back to my alma mater. 

Gulf Coast 31.1 

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