“The brilliance of her engagement with this simple structure is an honesty as to composition’s value, or at least, the ways we ordinarily conceive of its value.”
An Act of Love from the Dream to Hamilton: Diana Hamilton’s “The Awful Truth” Read More »
In this obituary your wife, now widow,
posts, I find a photo of you running a hand
along Gokstadt’s blackened bow,
mizzen snapped, the nail bolts sanded
down by time.
“Gokstadt/Ganymede,” by Paisley Rekdal Read More »
Improbable combinations of species have a history in many cultures as mythical hybrids—sometimes as gods, but just as often as monsters. Long past believing in griffins, the public still reacts strongly to “unnatural” combinations; the current GMO contention is a prime example.
Animate Matters — Sci-Fi, Empedocles, and GMOs Read More »
A body is neutral, objective, a fact—no more meant to be interpreted than a rock or a car. Different bodies shouldn’t mean different things, and yet. Other people have different interpretations of my husband’s body: its intent, threat, capabilities, worth.
The Body Is a Shield or a Sword Read More »
In Los Angeles I grew up watching The Three Stooges,
The Little Rascals, Speed Racer, and the Godzilla movies,
those my mother called “Los Monstros,” and though I didn’t
yet speak English, I understood why such a creature would,
upon being woken up from its centuries-long slumber, rise
and destroy Tokyo’s buildings, cars, people–
“La Isla de Los Monstros,” by Virgil Suárez Read More »
“I think that most realism tries to show us something astonishing in the familiar and mundane. The fantastic, on the other hand, tries to show us something familiar and mundane in the astonishing.”
Something Familiar in the Astonishing: An Interview with Michael Andreasen Read More »
The elements that dance in my head are always both visual and narrative. Whether they are expressed in painting or writing, the essence of what I am trying to convey is one in the same for me.
On “Impressions of Paris”: An Interview with Cat Seto Read More »
Compression can be a radical point of view, a necessity of wandering and solitude. On the other hand, it risks reaching no one. Xie maneuvers her language with a fine-tooth comb, often beginning where many poets in our cluttered, digital age, conclude: deep inside a fully-fleshed thought or image.
Cracking the Lens: A Review of Jenny Xie’s “Eye Level” Read More »
At President Marion Leroy Burton’s invitation, Robert Frost arrived in the fall of 1921 to serve a one-year stint as the first Creative Fellow at Michigan. The two men were kindred spirits: Both forty-six, each had already achieved much, but had much higher ambitions—Burton to build Michigan into a great national university, Frost to become America’s greatest poet if not also a national institution. And each believed the other would help realize these ambitions.
“Frost and Burton at Michigan, 1921-26, Then and Now,” by Paul R. Dimond Read More »
Hearty congratulations to Hananah Zaheer, Bruce Bond, and Michael Lavers, the winners of MQR’s 2017 literary prizes.
MQR Announces 2017 Literary Prizes Read More »
