Editorial

These are the essays where we argue for something. Not neutral explainers but positions — about what makes a first line or an ending work, about the value of difficulty, about why poets should read the living as well as the dead. They reflect the editorial sensibility of the press, and they are meant to be argued with as much as agreed with.

3 articles

Editorial What Makes a Great First Line A close reading of ten great opening lines — Whitman to Vuong — and what a first line actually has to do. Read → Editorial What Makes a Great Ending in Poetry You can survive a shaky opening and a soft middle. You cannot survive a bad ending. On the bow, the leap, and how to land. Read → Editorial Why Poets Should Read Their Contemporaries Most poets read the dead and ignore the living. Why that is a mistake — and what the living give you that the canon cannot. Read →

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