“Persuasive” Woman Drinking Absinthe explores “Illicit Love” in New Review from Compulsive Reader
Charles Rammelkamp delivers a witty and erudite review of Katherine E. Young's opus.
In his new review of Katherine E. Young's Woman Drinking Absinthe, Charles Rammelkamp delivers a write-up worthy of its subject. With careful erudition, and no lack of wit, he mines Katherine's beautiful and heartbreaking poesy about "illicit love" for words of affirmation.
"Love, indeed, is the overarching theme of this remarkable collection," writes Charles. And he shows how this recurring theme speaks throughout the book, pointing to the "conflict between marriage and desire," in the early poems, the link between "sex and violence" in poems like "Bluebeard," and the "demimonde of women in the midst of affairs of the heart" as in "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" and many others.
In these depictions, Charles writes that, "Woman Drinking Absinthe is unflinchingly honest and lyrical."
Read the entire review here.
Week One of National Poetry Month 2019
National Poetry Month is upon us! This year ASP has decided to celebrate by featuring several poems each week curated by different members of the ASP team. Now that the first week is over, let’s take a look back at the poets and poems we have featured thus far.
Craving More Grace? Check out the Poet Laureate on the NEA’s “Art Works”
Craving more Grace Cavalieri? Of course you are! Maryland’s newest Poet Laureate is active, about, and spreading the word; that is, her words. Even though Poet Laureate is largely an honorary position (it is unpaid, and one is “honored” more with a title than a job much like a knighthood or a medal of freedom), Grace Cavalieri seems determined to become the most active and community-focused Poet Laureate in Maryland’s history. Recently she was featured on Art Works the official podcast for the National Endowment for the Arts.
Grace Cavalieri’s Interview on Midday with Tom Hall
Grace Cavalieri stopped by WYPR last week for an interview on “Midday” with Tom Hall. The Poet Laureate and author of ASP’s Other Voices, Other Lives, mused on her life and work, meditating on the loss of her late husband, and reading from her deep poetry catalog. This interview is well worth the 40 minutes it takes to impart the important wisdom of one of Maryland’s foremost sages.