LET THE DEAD IN Receives Glowing Review in Lightwood Press #10
"Agostini’s socially and spiritually aware poetry collection 'Let the Dead In' focuses on the duality between love and hate along with the way that these concepts integrate and clash"
Poet Robyn Hager reviews Saida Agostini's daring first collection let the dead in in the 10th edition of Lightwood. In her review, Hager praises Agostini's social and spiritual awareness as she contends with the violence and oppression facing black people in the United States. Below, read a small excerpt. Read the entire review in Lightwood's new issue here. Order let the dead in here.
Agostini successfully juxtaposes stark images from her life with deeply entrancing metaphors, and most poignantly in her poem "what love is" she compares the images of turmoil she witnesses between her parents with a dead buck on the side of the road whose
flesh ripped/exposing a dark black machine/so soft, stinking and fragile that years/later you’ll remember the risk of loving/something that wild
The author’s ability to display these powerful, and sometimes gruesome, epithets about life shines through in the entirety of her collection.
Anne Lamott and Jasmin Darznik Share their thoughts on Navigating the Divide
What do bestselling authors Anne Lamott and Jasmin Darznik think of Linda Watanabe McFerrin’s “Navigating the Divide”?
The Contemporary Poets and Musicians on Reuben Jackson’s Mind
On Tuesday we ran an article featuring two glowing blurbs for Reuben Jackson’s latest poetry collection Scattered Clouds. They came from two young stalwarts of the American poetry community: National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and Maryland’s own Abdul Ali, author of Trouble Sleeping. In honor of Reuben’s devoted following from within the young-blooded poetry vanguard, and for the sake of utilizing his deep insider knowledge of jazz and its many contemporary standouts (Reuben was curator of the Ellington Collection at the Smithsonian for twenty years), we asked Reuben to recommend and comment on three contemporary poets and three contemporary jazz musicians he admires.
Terrance Hayes and Abdul Ali Share their Thoughts on “Scattered Clouds”
What do National Book Award winner, Terrance Hayes, and Poet, Abdul Ali, have to say about Reuben Jackson’s new poetry collection, “Scattered Clouds?”