
What’s New in Poetry, 3-26-15

Hi!!
So much has happened since we last spoke!!! There was Friday the 13th, Pi Day, St. Patrick’s Day, the first day of spring, and the abhorrent misappropriation of Michael Brown’s body in the form of a “reading” at Brown University. Now what? While we can’t forget and won’t forget and the discussion hasn’t ended and shouldn’t end, poetry continues. And today I present four amazing new videos to you.
These four poets are from MA, CO, NY, and OH. Kate’s first book was recently accepted & comes out later this year. Serena’s second book comes out later this year too. I just met Sarah last year and think her work is the bee’s knees. I’ve known Heather for years and think she’s transcendent.
Kate Litterer: “We should take turns walking on each other to make physical the inside walked-on we feel when women bauble into gay bars in Ohio for bachelorette parties.”
Serena Chopra: “The engine in the ten grey leaves, a dumptruck reversing the late, tipping light, the alleys hollering ‘lady.'”
Sarah Jean Grimm: “Best to become a clock. The sands of time will get up inside you each time you are picked up and turned over. You will always be itching.”
Heather Christle: The lack of a single word infinitive iin our language is what is killing me this morning. A single word for all infinitives is what god is doing tonight.”
I hope you love these readings as much as I do.
Bruce
Kate Litterer received her MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Program for Poets and Writers. Her poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from Coconut, The Destroyer, Finery, Forklift, Ohio, h_ngm_n, Ilk, inter|rupture, Jellyfish, La Vague, NonBinary Review, Phantom Limb, Route Nine Literary Journal, Sixth Finch, Spoke Too Soon, Quaint, and the anthology Please Excuse This Poem: 100 New Poems for the Next Generation. Her first book of poems, Ghosty Boo, is forthcoming from A-Minor Press in spring/summer 2015. She is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and focuses on radical, ethtical queer and feminist historiography. She lives in Western Massachusetts with her two maine coon cats. Check her out at bestevercatparty.tumblr.com.
Serena Chopra is the author of This Human (Coconut 2013). Her second full-length book will be out from Coconut in fall 2015. She is a PhD candidate in creative writing at the University of Denver, a 2011-2013 RedLine resident artist, and a company member with Evolving Doors Dance. She lives and works in Denver.
Sarah Jean Grimm holds her Master’s in English from Fordham University, where she also earned her Bachelor’s in English & Classical Languages. She works at Penguin Random House & edits the online journal Powder Keg. Some of poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Coconut, Similar:Peaks::, Barrow Street, Painted Bride Quarterly, Sixth Finch, & elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn with her orange cat.
Heather Christle is the author of Heliopause (Wesleyan University Press, 2015), What Is Amazing (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The Difficult Farm (Octopus Books, 2009), and The Trees The Trees (Octopus Books, 2011), which won the 2012 Believer Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in publications including Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry. She has taught poetry at Antioch College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Emory University, where she was the 2009-2011 Poetry Writing Fellow. A native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, she lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
- What’s New in Poetry, 5-7-15 - May 7, 2015
- What’s New in Poetry, 4-23-15 - April 23, 2015
- What’s New in Poetry, 3-26-15 - March 26, 2015