Philip Levine's writing was influenced greatly by his childhood in Detroit, where he began working in the auto factories at the age of fourteen. The people and industry of the Motor City would remain a concern of his...
Peter E. Murphy was born in Wales and grew up in New York City. A former high school teacher of English and creative writing, he is the founder of Murphy Writing of Stockton College, which organizes retreats and programs...
Born in England to a family of artistic Italian immigrants, Christina Rossetti is considered one of the finest of the Victorian poets. Here's a love poem for Valentine's Day weekend. Although Rossetti received three...
Recently, two of our boys had a family
history project at school. They were supposed to interview a relative about their heritage: what countries their ancestors came from, what
cultural remnants were familiar to them,...
Lucie Brock-Broido's 2013 collection, Stay, Illusion: Poems, was a finalist for the National Book Award. In an interview, she said of poetry: "It’s not a thing that blooms; it’s a thing that wounds," and her poems keep you...
"As soon as we express something, we devalue it strangely. We believe ourselves to have dived down into the depths of the abyss, and when we once again reach the surface, the drops of water on our pale fingertips no longer resemble the ocean from which they came...Nevertheless, the treasure shimmers in the darkness unchanged." ---Franz Kafka
