Riantly - Poetry Readings

Poetry as a Form of Resistance: Xi Chuan's Don't Deprive Me of My Complexity

You can purchase "Bloom," by Xi Chuan tr. by Lucas Klein here. Chuan is a pivotal figure in Chinese poetic and literary community. Outspoken regarding political needs and with both a reverence and disgust for literature,

Ecopoetics in Action: Ariana Benson's Love Poem in a Black Field

You can purchase "Black Pastoral," by Ariana Benson here. One of those older contemporary books at this point. In that odd three years old period where some will have forgotten about it in the quieting of its hype, and o

Forms and Features of Poetry: Jess Yuan's Craft Talk on Pain

You may purchase "Slow Render," by Jess Yuan here. A book that I think gladly speaks in conversation with other works operating around the metaphysical concept of the photograph like Barthes, Sontag; Yuan’s “Slow Render,

Greek and Bulgarian Poetry: Iana Boukova's Unwelt

Poetry Read Aloud: Gwen Nell Westerman's Billboard Warning

You can purchase "Songs Blood Deep," by Gwen Nell Westerman here. I loved Gwen Nell Westerman’s work, and thought the steadfast observational powers on display were the work of a poet truly interested in engaging with wh

A Poetry of Everyday Life: Rick Barot's Moving the Bones

You can purchase Rick Barot's book "Moving the Bones," here. I love this line from Mikal Wix on Barot’s work: “But Barot’s candid poems from Moving the Bones create an intangible space where words can exalt feelings of l

The Elements of Poetry: A Lyric Essay-Poem

You can find a copy of Commons by Myung Mi Kim here. Part of the necessity of translated literature, translated poetry, is the decentralization of “English,” as an omnipresence and easily-definable language. “English,” i

Poetry Reading: "Brute?" and "Strike [air]" by Hala Alyan

You can purchase The Moon That Turns You Back by Hala Alyan from Ecco Books here. Alyan’s work is a foray of contemporariness and of navigating. Many of the poems offer more formal explorations of what needs be conveyed

Poem Reading: "the meaning of winter changes" by Serhiy Zhadan

You can purchase How Fire Descends by Serhiy Zhadan tr. by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps here. These poems within How Fire Descends are at once spiritual, pleading, stark, and hopeful. They speak of literature and the s

Poem Reading: "11.6.12" by Friederike Mayröcker

You can purchase études by Friederike Mayröcker tr. by Donna Stonecipher here. I love an author who doesn’t care much for genre definitions. Everything I’ve read from Friederike Mayröcker seems to exude exactly this co

Poem Reading: "Escapade (33)" by Marie-Noëlle Agniau translated by Jesse Hover Amar

If you wish to purchase The Escapades you may find it here. Agniau’s work here is such a treasure of connectivity. The pages tell something of a story together, and yet poem-by-poem I feel something more like the shiftin

Poem Reading: "On the Margin" by Mostafa Nissabouri

You may purchase For an Ineffable Metrics of the Desert here. Translated by Guy Bennett, Pierre Joris, Addie Leak, and Teresa Villa-Ignacio and published by Otis Books - Seismicity Editions. Mostafa Nissabouri seems to b

Poem Reading: "2:1" by Asiya Wadud

From the work Crosslight for Youngbird from Nightboat Books Asiya Wadud’s work is at once mystifying and thrilling. I could very well believe performative recitations of her lyric in the forms of borderline surreal mutte

Poem Reading: "The Capacity for Happiness Despite Visual Evidence is Great" by Nathalie Khankan

An in accompaniment, here is Hilary Plum’s review in the Cleveland Review of Books (I admit, a favorite of mine): Seeking fertility treatment, the self is in a state of profound need and transformative possibility, of de

Poem Reading: "Autobiography Via Revision" by Marianne Chan

And as an accompaniment, this interview from Barely South Review between Jerome Newsome and the author Marianne Chan: Poetry has a lot of forms. Sonnets. Haikus. Odes. How do you incorporate or use form in your poems? Ye

Poem Reading: "The Words I Return To" by Magda Isanos

And I loved this accompaniment by critic Leo Zausen on Magda Isanos’ Homecoming: Life for Isanos is less a vessel but a burden, a preordained fallout at the incursion of the species. Isanos’ romanticism sediments a dwind

Poem Reading: "Cryptic News from Darmogandul" by Afrizal Malna

And alongside this wonderful book and poem are these lines from a 2024 interview with author Afrizal Malna from Asymptote Journal: These events gave rise to an obsession, or an agitation: “Can language shake? Can meaning

Poem Reading: "Dithyrams" by Elsa Cross

I think of this interview by translator, Anamaría Crowe Serrano, in Numero Cinco, speaking on Cross’s poetics: What struck me about Elsa during our conversation in London was that her poetry reflected her personality: ge

Poem Reading: "Red Rose and a Beggar" by H.D.

In my experience and relation with H.D. - one either encounters her work in an academic setting, or rarely at all. What a shame! Perhaps in another time, one that I was less coherent for, H.D. was subject of more public

Poem Reading: "Late Gathering" by Chika Sagawa

I remember the experience of reading this book. It was Springtime in Seattle, maybe three years ago. I would read it exclusively on walks outside, roaming around the residential streets and lavishing in the late afternoo