New Review of Still Life with Poem!
In October 2016, as I was just beginning to settle into my new life in Texas, Still Life with Poem: Contemporary Natures Mortes in Verse, was released. This is the second anthology that I have co-edited with the wonderful poet (and my dear friend) Lindsay Lusby. As with our previous collaboration, The Book of Scented Things: 100 Contemporary Poems about Perfume, this anthology was inspired by an unusual writing prompt:
Poetry. Art. With a tradition that can be traced to Pompeii, the genre of the still life or nature morte has most often been used since the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as a vehicle for symbolism and metaphor, objects serving as stand-ins for philosophical ideas, religious principles, or moralizing messages. In Still Life with Poem, poets were asked to create (or to imagine) their own still lifes and to write poems in response to these thoughtful arrangements of things. And although still life paintings are often viewed as unmoving, quiet works of art, this anthology presents a collection of energetic, urgent voices; these poems speak to current events, the making of art, the domestic, the past, the body, faith, the environment, and the losses we all face.
Almost all of the poems in the anthology were written specifically for Still Life with Poem. Contributors include: James Arthur, Beth Bachmann, Mary Jo Bang, Rick Barot, Dan Beachy-Quick, Sandra Beasley, Nicky Beer, Robin Behn, Margo Berdeshevsky, Tara Betts, Kim Bridgford, Traci Brimhall, Charlie Clark, Jennifer Clarvoe, Alfred Corn, Barbara Crooker, Heidi Czerwiec, Kate Daniels, Chad Davidson, Katy Didden, Rebecca Morgan Frank, Gregory Fraser, Juliana Gray, Arielle Greenberg, Marilyn Hacker, Rachel Hadas, James Allen Hall, Leslie Harrison, Sean Hill, H. L. Hix, Richie Hofmann, Carrie Jerrell, Vandana Khanna, Keetje Kuipers, Dorothea Lasky, Shara Lessley, Dana Levin, Aaron Raz Link, dawn lonsinger, Amit Majmudar, Dora Malech, Leslie McGrath, Erika Meitner, Philip Metres, Tyler Mills, Ander Monson, Kamilah Aisha Moon, Amy Newman, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Idra Novey, Lisa Olstein, Katie Peterson, Kiki Petrosino, Emilia Phillips, Patrick Phillips, John Poch, Christina Pugh, Melissa Range, Hilda Raz, Paisley Rekdal, Metta Sáma, Jason Schneiderman, Grace Schulman, Don Share, Aaron Smith, Bruce Snider, Lisa Russ Spaar, Nomi Stone, Yerra Sugarman, Jennifer K. Sweeney, Matthew Thorburn, Adam Vines, Sidney Wade, Sasha West, Caki Wilkinson, Laura Madeline Wiseman, Terri Witek, and David Yezzi.
And now, The Los Angeles Review has published a terrific review of Still Life with Poem. Here’s a little excerpt from the review:
Still Life with Poem straddles genres, themes, and art forms in its eclectic explorations of the ordinary. If stillness is a challenge for the contemporary reader, co-editors Dubrow and Lusby admirably demonstrate that this is a risk worth taking.
You can read the whole review here.