A Forest of Names (December) by Ian Boyden

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden’s manuscript “A Forest of Names.” Over the course of a year, Boyden translated the 5,196 names of schoolchildren crushed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He then began a collection of poems, each written on the day of each […]

A Forest of Names (November) by Ian Boyden

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden’s manuscript “A Forest of Names.” Over the course of a year, Boyden translated the 5,196 names of schoolchildren crushed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He then began a collection of poems, each written on the day of each […]

Review of Kindest Regards: New and Selected Poems by Ted Kooser

Copper Canyon Press, 2018 by James Crews   Reading Ted Kooser’s work, I often think of what Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggeman wrote in his book, Sabbath as Resistance: “Worship that does not lead to neighborly compassion cannot be faithful worship.” This same sense of “neighborliness” has been apparent in the poetry of Kooser, who […]

A Forest of Names (October) by Ian Boyden

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden’s manuscript “A Forest of Names.” Over the course of a year, Boyden translated the 5,196 names of schoolchildren crushed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He then began a collection of poems, each written on the day of each […]

Two Poems by Heather Cahoon

Heather Cahoon received her MFA in Poetry from the University of Montana where she was the Richard Hugo Memorial Scholar. She won the 2005 Merriam Frontier Award for publication of her chapbook, Elk Thirst, and was awarded a Montana Arts Council Artist Innovation Award in 2015 to support the completion of her book-length manuscript entitled, Horselfy Dress. Her writing […]

Unexpected Effects: Learning from Clay Artist Paul Soldner

By Heather Swan In a corner of a darkened courtyard, I knelt next to a brick wall which separated me from an inferno on the other side. Bright orange flame shot out between the bricks, making a lattice of dangerous light. The bare skin of my arms felt as though it might singe as I […]

A Forest of Names (June) by Ian Boyden

[Throughout 2018, we have committed to publishing a selection of poems from each month of Ian Boyden’s manuscript “A Forest of Names.” Over the course of a year, Boyden translated the 5,196 names of schoolchildren crushed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. He then began a collection of poems, each written on the day of each […]

Fragile as an Urn: An Interview with Ian Boyden

  By David Axelrod [The interest readers expressed in A Forest of Names, after a selection of the manuscript appeared in the print edition of basalt: a journal of fine & literary arts, led to our decision to invite Ian to publish a monthly selection on our website. As Ian Boyden has worked with us here […]

A Review of The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement by Diane Lockward

Wind Books, 2016 by Tami Haaland In her well-known poem, “Come into Animal Presence,” Denise Levertov invites readers to feel the “joy” and privilege of “animal presence.” I wonder if Diane Lockward had Levertov in mind as she developed The Uneaten Carrots of Atonement, where both domesticated and wild animals play a significant role. According […]

The Soulful Traveler

[The following is Scott Edward Anderson’s Introduction to Sensational Nightingales: The Collected Poems of Walter Pavlich, just published by Lynx House Press. –Editor] “Writing is a way of saying you and the world have a chance,” poet Richard Hugo wrote. Hugo’s student, Walter Pavlich, once said in an interview, “I’ve always tried to define – […]