Hazen Discusses the Comforts of Poetry in Uncertain Times
In a guest post on The Bookworm, Elizabeth Hazen, author of "Girls Like Us," discusses the power of reading and writing poetry in uncertain times.
In a guest post for the small book review blog, The Bookworm, Elizabeth Hazen discusses the role poetry occupies in her life during uncertain times as with the 2016 inauguration and #MeToo movement, and now the COVID 19 epidemic. She also explains her relationship to her new collection Girls Like Us.
While in her first collection, Chaos Theories, she used "a filter through which to explore my subjects allow[ing her] the distance to be objective," in Girls Like Us Hazen "[didn't' allow [herself] quite as much distance from the subject," adding that:
"After the public discourse about sexual assault and misogyny blew up with Trump’s inauguration and with the onset of #MeToo, many old hurts resurfaced for me, as they did for so many women I know. I had to write through all of this and realized that many poems I had been working on were really about what it is to be a woman in world that expects us to be so many contradictory things. The process of writing these poems, though painful at times, was incredibly empowering, and it is my hope that readers will share in that sense of empowerment."
Read the full blog post HERE
And don't forget, EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. in the ASP catalog is half-price through the month of may!
Saida Agostini Publishes Poem in Perugia
Saida Agostini’s “An Incomplete Legend on Love” first appears in her debut poetry collection let the dead in. Perugia Press, who is doing a feature on exceptional, emerging BIWOC poets and artists, have republished “An Incomplete Legend on Love” on their website, featuring a bio of Agostini and information on let the dead in.
“for duke ellington” Republished in HillRag
Reuben Jackson’s classic poem from his second collection scattered clouds is republished by Karen Lyon of HillRag.
A Ukrainian Poem of War Translated by Katherine E. Young
Ukraine’s Iya Kiva (b. 1984) is no stranger to war. In 2014, the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine saw a Russian-backed incumbent ousted from Ukraine’s presidency; soon after, Russia forcibly annexed Crimea.