Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

It is my honor to file this final issue of my tenure as editor of this fine institution’s newsletter. I’m so grateful for all of the voices I’ve been able to share through this vehicle. And all while the wheels of capitalism have been grinding with their constant pressure to produce and make and speak and voice and respond and publish, I have taken my sweet time in getting this last issue out. Call it resistance. Call it a need for rest. This work is a marathon and it is a life, it’s always here when we are ready to pick it back up. I’m happy for that and hope you give yourselves permission to rest this fall. I hope, too, you find some light in these pages or something you wanted to say but didn’t know you could or how to. That is our work as poets, writers and educators.

I’m ever grateful to my incredible Reviews Editor, John Rufo, who helps us to see again and [a]new with each set of reviews they offer us. Check those out starting on p. 22.

Grateful for the incredible team here at The Poetry Project, the space they make for us everyday through their hard work. Thank you, Kyle, Nicole and Laura for all you do.

The poet and visual artist Xandria Phillips’s work adorns our cover. Check their new book HULL, out now from Nightboat Books. Grateful for new poems from Ron Padgett and Zaina Alsous.

And some of our favorite poets pay tribute to poets who have passed on p. 11-15.

Eline Marx shares a powerful piece about Raúl Zurita on p. 19

And finally, a most ethereal interview between Brendan Lorber and Lauren Ireland. Check that out starting on p. 29.

I’m looking forward to new iterations of this newsletter and am continually encouraged by the ways this institution willingly reinvents itself. It knows its survival and capacity to thrive depends on it. Thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this. Peace, always, from my favorite place: the archive.

mh.