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Shara McCallum's book, Madwoman, Longlisted for 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature

Six books by writers from five Caribbean countries have been announced on the longlist for the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media. The group ... [ read more ]

Smartish Pace 2017 Pushcart Prize Nominations

Editor Stephen Reichert selected the following poems from Issue 24 (April, 2017):

Safia Elhillo: “Self-Portrait With No Flag”
Nausheen Eusuf: “Allegiance”
Jennifer Koiter: “The Messy Girl Feels at Home ... [ read more ]

Eric Smith, Smartish Pace & 32 Poems reading

Eric Smith reading for Smartish Pace & 32 Poems at Topics Cafe, Chicago, March 1, 2012.

Interview with Denise Duhamel

CHIMERA: an interview with Denise Duhamel by Karla Huston (Note: this interview was conducted via email between January and May 2004.) Denise Duhamel’s poetry has been described as stunning, suggestive, and startling. Rain Taxi says, "Duhamel’s careful yet freewheeling musings employ a seamlessly shifting digital palette of techniques, devices, and tones, all in the service of a poet able to maintain distance yet remain engaged and human. She is much like this last-call century of ours, searching for the point from which to take a running leap to a new kind of poetry.” Her poems speak with a wild irreverence. Not afraid of critics and naysayers, Duhamel experiments with form and subject, creating poetry that challenges the reader’s notion of what poetry should be. She presents what poetry could be as she fully engages pop culture, the joys and horrors of it, while maintaining the ability to poke fun at our foibles—and make us think. Duhamel’s most recent books of poetry Two and Two (University of Pittsburgh Press) and Mille et Un Sentiments, a limited edition chapbook (Firewheel Editions), were both published in 2005. ... [ read more ]

Alice Notley: Culture of One

Observing thoughts, as a Buddhist might, does not make art, although it might make a better person.   The narrator of Alice Notley’s Culture of One has realized this distinction between art and life.  She challenges herself concerning the poetic process underway: “Observe your thoughts: are they a poem? No” (94).  Abandoning that reflective lyric project, in the next line via the speaker continues another tactic, a narrative one:  “A long time ago ... [ read more ]