ON BECOMING A POET

Marsh Hawk Press will be publishing four new titles later this spring in its Chapter One series. Here's the cover for our anthology. (To learn more about what we're doing go to: https://marshhawkpress.org/chapter-one-series/

BARBARA NOVACK ON "CHAPTER ONE"

You are invited to read Barbara Novack's contribution to Marsh Hawk Press' "Chapter One" project that presents established poets discussing their early days as writers. You can see her essay HERE.

TONY TRIGILIO ON "WRITING WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW"

You are invited to read Tony Trigilio's fascinating essay, "Writing What You Don't Know: Poetry and the Arcane." You can see the entire essay at BIG OTHER, but here's an excerpt:

As I mention earlier, the advice to “Write what you know” reaches its limit in the presence of the arcane. To be sure, writing what you know can be empowering as a validation of the truth and wisdom of your experience. But I would suggest instead that the most productive work comes from those moments when we write what we don’t know—when, to channel Spicer again, we “interfere” with the boundaries of the known and attune our ears to what is being spoken to us from the arcane “Outside.”

More specifically, these are moments in which we interfere with the part of ourselves that doesn’t want to step out of the boundaries of common sense, that fears getting lost in the dark wood of unknowing. On the surface, it might seem counter-intuitive to welcome an alien frame of reference, a strange and destabilizing angle of vision, as we sit in front of the blank screen ready to write. But if we are to discover new ways of seeing the world, as good writing can help us do, then we might need to loosen our grip on the most familiar, ordinary parts of our everyday consciousness: “You have to, as much as possible, empty yourself for this,” Spicer says. The arcane doesn’t have to reside in outer space. Instead, it can be found among us, planted firmly on planet Earth—in gossip, scandal, and soap opera kitsch, to name a few possibilities—an affirmation of the wisdom and insight we can find when we celebrate, rather than domesticate, our most eccentric curiosities.

DENISE DUHAMEL IN "CHAPTER ONE"

For Marsh Hawk Press' December "Chapter One" Project, Denise Duhamel shares a short statement on Emily Dickinson, which you can see HERE.

DONALD WELLMAN IN "CHAPTER ONE"!

 

Donald Wellman is the latest contributor to our "Chapter One" series which presents features on a poet's early days. You are invited to read his contribution HERE.

CONGRATULATIONS LORNA DEE CERVANTES!

It's not yet released but it's already receiving raves!

Congratulations

to Lorna Dee Cervantes for her forthcoming Marsh Hawk Press book, APRIL ON OLYMPIA! Here's an excerpt of Camille T. Dungy's review at Orion Magazine, which you can see in full HERE:

"One of the major voices in Chicanx literature will publish a new collection this fall. April on Olympia is a keenly observed, politically charged, uncompromising tour of the poet’s mind and our world."

MARSH HAWK PRESS PRESENTS A NEW "ARCHIVES" FEATURE ON ITS WEBSITE!

Marsh Hawk Press has decided to offer an "Archives" section on its website that provides free downloads of selected poetry selections. Inaugurating this feature is THE THORN ROSARY by Eileen R. Tabios. You can read (and teach) her first Selected Poems project through this link:

 https://marshhawkpress.org/archive/

THE THORN ROSARY presents Eileen's poems developing the prose poem form (abstract expressionism and cubism are major influences) with critical essays by poet-scholars Thomas Fink and Joi Barrios.