Rose Solari Reviews Four Poetry Collections Dealing with Grief
Solari's anticipated monthly poetry column in the Washington Independent Review of Books dropped today. She tackles four new collections by women poets dealing with grief.

This month, Rose Solari's column for the Washington Independent Review of Books looks at three shining new collections from new and established poets, as well as the best of Jane Kenyon. Each collection, in a way, deals with grief (from her review):
"Grief is a perennial subject for poets, and for good reason: In making art out of our losses, we not only memorialize our dead but can, with luck and skill, sing or speak our way into healing. Four new collections by women poets all revolve, in one way or another, around grief and its aftermath. Each offers poetry of exploration, catharsis, and even consolation."
The four collections reviewed this month are:
Allison Benis White's The Wendys (from the fantastic independent press, Four Way Books)
Jil Bialosky's Asylum: A Personal, Historic, Natural Inquiry in 103 Lyric Sections
Lesley Wheeler's The State She's In (from another wonderful small press, Tinderbox Editions)
Poet Jane Kenyon and editor Donald Hall's The Best Poems of Jane Kenyon (from Graywolf)
Check out Rose Solari's live show "Rose Reads" every Wednesday at 4pm EDT on her Facebook Page.
Reflections on my First AWP; or, Sleepless in SeaTac
ASP Intern and Washington College Senior Eylie Sasajima on Her First AWP Conference
An interview with the late, great Linda Pastan
Along the indifferent corridors / of space, angels could be hiding,” Linda Pastan wrote in her poem “Muse.” ASP honors the legacy of Linda Pastan (1932–2023), a former Poet Laureate of Maryland, who passed away last week. Pastan was the author of the 2018 poetry book A Dog Runs Through It, which won the Towson University Literary Award.
Here’s to 2022! And Here’s a Sale…
2022 was a big year for ASP and our writers. In March, we had a booth at the annual AWP Conference, and our offsite reading, featuring authors Saida Agostini, Dave Housley, Elizabeth Hazen, and Richard Peabody, along with special guests Teri Ellen Cross Davis and Leslie Pietrzyk, had a standing-room-only audience packed with literary stars.