Features | Blackbird v18n2

FEATURES

Levis Remembered
In Blackbird’s Levis Remembered reading loop you’ll find a conversation with the winner of the 2019 Levis Reading Prize, Jenny Xie, poems from her prize-winning Eye Level, and a review of her book by Emilia Phillips. Levis is represented by his poem “Fish;” Gregory Donovan’s essay, “Caught: The Fish in Bishop, Dubie, and Larry Levis;” Christopher Buckley’s remembrance of Levis and their shared teacher Philip Levine, and images of Levis by Richmond street artist Larry Lorca.

100 Refutations & A Conversation with Lina María Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas
Katherine Mooney Brooks talks with Lina María Ferreira Cabeza-Vanegas about 100 Refutations—serially published in The Brooklyn Rail—a literary response to President Trump’s dismissal of foreign nations as “shithole countries.” In an act of devotion, celebration, and protest, Ferreira reacts by curating, translating, and preserving the work of writers—one daily for 100 days—“from one of the countries recently denigrated by the president of the U.S.”

A Conversation with Jessie van Eerden
Brandie Gray talks with Jessie van Eerden about her essay collection, The Long Weeping, as well as new essays and fiction in the works. They discuss West Virginia, narrative voice, regional identity, the ethics and opportunities of portraiture in literary nonfiction, and specifically, the challenge of writing the “other." Van Eerden’s essay “Meet You at the Dollar General Across from the Family Dollar” appears under Nonfiction in this issue of Blackbird.

A Reading by Ada Limón
On February 14, 2019, Ada Limón read from her most recent collection The Carrying: Poems, a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Books Critics Circle Award. She read at James Branch Cabell Library as a part of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Visiting Writers Series. The author of four books of poetry, Limón teaches creative writing at Queens University of Charlotte and the 24Pearlstreet Online Program for the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

A Reading by Charles Wright
On February 15, 2019, at the University of William & Mary, Charles Wright, introduced by Henry Hart, read from his previously published collections, including Caribou, Scar Tissue, Buffalo Yoga, Appalachia, Chickamauga, and The Southern Cross, among others. Toward the end of the reading, Wright remarks on his continuous return to “landscape, language, and the idea of God” in his work. He served as the United States Poet Laureate from 2014–2015.

We hope to bring you new content over the course of an issue. If you would like to be notified by email when new features are published, please click the Subscribe button to your left.

Subscription to our email notification is free, and your email address will never be sold or shared.