June 28, 2020 Chang’s latest collection, Obit (Copper Canyon Press, 2020), has received a number of very positive reviews. You can find one such review by going to Carol Muske-Dukes’ article in the Los Angeles Review of Books, available on-line. Or you can just read what I have to say in just three words: BuyContinue reading “Victoria Chang”
Author Archives: Katherine Hastings
Judy Halebsky
June 10, 2020 “In Halebsky’s third poetry collection Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged), published in2020 by University of Arkansas Press, the Tang Dynasty poets Li Bai and Du Fu encounter everydaylife in Oakland, California. In his introduction to this collection, Billy Collins writes, ‘Halebsky’sstylistic range is on full display when she switches from pureContinue reading “Judy Halebsky”
Eliot Schain
May 26, 2020 . In Eliot Schain’s latest collection, The Distant Sound (Sixteen Rivers Press 2020), we enter a type of concert where the poet conducts his many memories. From a truck stop men’s room to the Chez Paree, from Gallery 41 of the Uffizi Museum to a Mexican town, each memory brings a newContinue reading “Eliot Schain”
Maureen O’Connor
May 14, 2020 “I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too?” This quote by Emily Dickinson topped the short bio Maureen O’Connor provided me for this posting. Why is she “nobody?” Well, she just isn’t. There are so many good poets in the world whose work rarely or never sees the light of day.Continue reading “Maureen O’Connor”
Kathleen Winter
April 30, 2020 I’ve always enjoyed the poetry of Kathleen Winter, author of three collections. You can get a taste of her tremendous wit and daring just by looking at the book titles: Nostalgia for the Criminal Past (Elixir Press, 2012); I will not kick my friends (Elixir Press, 2018) and, most recently Transformer (TheContinue reading “Kathleen Winter”
Joseph Zaccardi
April 16, 2020 I’m pleased to introduce a few poems by Joseph Zaccardi today. The author of five collections of poetry, including his recently published The Weight of Bodily Touches (Kelsay Books), Zaccardi served as Marin County, CA’s poet laureate from 2013 to 2015. During his tenure he edited and published the anthology Changing HarmContinue reading “Joseph Zaccardi”
Thomas Centolella
April 6, 2020 One of the many poets I had the privilege of hearing read at the WordTemple Poetry Series was San Francisco poet Thomas Centolella. I remember sitting in the front row thinking “He’s one of the magicians.” What did I mean by that? He wasn’t pulling a rabbit out of a hat orContinue reading “Thomas Centolella”
Olga Karman
March 27, 2020 Olga Karman was born in Havana, Cuba and lived there until she was twenty years and two months old. Her teenage years coincided with Fidel Castro’s armed struggle and eventual rise to power. “How exciting it was listening to Radio Rebelde every night over our short wave radio. I was in theContinue reading “Olga Karman”
Ulalume Gonzàlez de Leòn in Translation
March 19, 2020 “Without translation, I would be limited to the borders of my own country. The translator is my most important ally. He introduces me to the world.” — Italo Calvino The translation of poetry from one language to another is a daunting, some would say impossible, task. Some words in one language mayContinue reading “Ulalume Gonzàlez de Leòn in Translation”
Patrick Cahill
March 11, 2020 Continuing with our mission of highlighting a few poets who have new books that were presented to a diminished audience at AWP this year due to the Coronavirus, we move on to San Francisco poet Patrick Cahill. To have Cahill’s poems available to us in his new collection The Machinery of SleepContinue reading “Patrick Cahill”