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Ashes Ashes All Fall Down [by Angela Ball]
John Ashbery has a double life: as “John,” the person; and “Ashbery” the poet. His poetry, too, has such a life. In J.D. McClatchy’s formulation, derived from “Trefoil,” a poem that describes “trees /…
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Giving Up Solemnity For Lent — on Kenneth Koch [by Angela Ball]
Possibility is the enemy of the solemn. Solemnity is a drying agent, a fixative. It says that we should not only own the tradition we inherit, but wash and wax it and shampoo its…
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Late News from Poland (on O’Hara, Koch, and the NY School) [by Angela Ball]
I had imagined discussing the big four New York School poets in an orderly fashion, one by one. But since their work percolates from shared springs, it seems to me better to talk back…
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Tonight at KGB: 2nd Annual Post-AWP Semi-Open Mic Contest
It's time for KGB MONDAY NIGHT POETRY's 2nd ANNUAL POST-AWP SEMI-OPEN MIC CONTEST. Judging will be conducted democratically, by paper ballot, and the highest score will win a featured reading with a pairing of their choosing…
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A New York State of Mind [by Angela Ball]
I write from Mississippi on a rainy Monday, and from the middle of a class on The New York School of Poets and the New York School diaspora. The class has graduate fiction writers…
