Zirconium Ash by Jimmy Vega
The innovative voice of this first book doesn’t settle for a display of prowess, but embodies a young poet’s attempt to discover, in the words of Ezra Pound circa 1912, “a language to think in.”
Suzanne Jill Levine’s Unfaithful: A Translator’s Memoir
Levine is careful to emphasize that the best translations serve a dual function, as a critical interpretation of the text in question, and as a work of art in a new form that reproduces or reinvents the original.
Martha Ronk's Clay: Bodies + Matter (Omnidawn Publishing, 2025)
I ought to stop here as I don’t intend a reading or critique of this book, but rather an emphatic notice of its publication.
ON THE AVENUE: VINCENT KATZ’ DAFFODIL
The notion of the poet-translator is noteworthy in the context of Vincent Katz’ new book of poems, Daffodil, which has just appeared from Knopf.
OFF-SCREEN: A Double Feature of Poets and Movies
On the whole, the best work in this anthology ends up contradicting the title: poetry does not go to the movies. Instead, it uses movies as poets have used their fantasies about a beloved person to write love poems.
Here and There: Two New Books by Richard Milazzo & Kyle Harvey
The two new books of poetry I’d like to talk about are Richard Milazzo’s More Fugitive than Light (Tsukuda Island Press, 2025) and Kyle Harvey’s There Without Being There (BlazeVOX, 2025), both noteworthy examples of independent publishing.