The hardest part about poetry is that so many great poems come from loss. Michael Lee’s poetry is often haunted by a great sense of loss, and his ruminations on memory, death, and recovery are often difficult to process, as they are so loaded with weight. In his first full-length collection The Only Worlds We Know, Lee memorializes those he’s lost in one of the most emotional collections in recent memory. Continue reading
new book
Poems as Prayer: A Conversation with Adrienne Novy
Adrienne Novy is one of the country’s most exciting young poets. Her debut collection Crowd Surfing With God (published by Half Mystic Press) is sure to resonant with anyone who’s ever found community in a record, moshpit, or one line from a song. We got a chance to speak with Novy about her poetry, religion, and pop punk. Continue reading
‘Tranny’ by Laura Jane Grace with Dan Ozzi
Rock biographies are very often boring. Sure, the tales of sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll are enticing, but after reading stories from Led Zeppelin, Guns N’ Roses, Kiss, and countless others, all the stories seem to blend together. The first rock biography I ever read was No One Here Gets Out Alive by Jerry Hopkins about the life of Jim Morrison. Your first foray into rock literature is always unforgettable, but following reading Slash, Stairway to Heaven, No Regrets, and many others, I realized that sex and drugs were only so interesting. The one exception to this rule had always been Marilyn Manson’s The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell, until Laura Jane Grace and Dan Ozzi published Tranny. Continue reading