I find the idea that we write alone laughable, even egotistical. Poetry is a palimpsest that has been endlessly rewritten—it’s a social space we share with others.
—
Jen Bervin
A Dedication for H. J. B. by Amelia Blossomhouse
- Roni Horn by Mimi Thompson
- Isabel Toledo by Elizabeth Cannon
- Craig Lucas by Billy Hopkins
- Guy Gallo by Betsy Sussler
- Gary Indiana by Max Blagg
- John Ford Noonan by Stuart Spencer
- David Kapp by Georgia Marsh
- Mary Ellen Mark by Allen Frame
- Richard Edson by Lynn Geller
- Roland Legiardi-Laura by Bob Holman
- Bobbie Ann Mason by Craig Gholson
- Patrick McGrath by Bradford Morrow
Interviews
- Kunyenyeza Ezikhotheni (Voices In The Wilderness) by Duma Ndloru
- Three Poems by Frank M. Chipasula
- Between Planes by Jon Robin Baitz
- Two Poems by Keith Adams
- A Dedication for H. J. B. by Amelia Blossomhouse
- Another Winter by Klaus Kertess
- Sidewinder by Liza Béar
- Her Story With Mine by David Means
- Three Poems by Rashidah Ismaili
- Four Poems by Waithira Mbuthia (Karanja)
First Proof
as purple shades
usher in the night
i lock myself
in our room
darkly hemmed in by
memories
we almost shared
in the pressing darkness
i reach out
to pull the purple nightshade
as a comforter to surround me
no longer taunted
i submit.
Amelia Blossomhouse is a South African in exile and an internationally published author. She currently does dramatic readings of her poetry to live percussion. Our Sun Will Also Rise, a collection of poetry, is just out on Three Continents Press.
Related
The Zambian novelist on using tropes to upend them, the power of mistakes, writing female desire, and more.
The Freshwater author on the ogbanje, Igbo, rejecting gender binaries, and using private journals as creative archives.
“My imagination was shaped in a period of extreme rigidity in the social and political system. The apartheid system was about putting physical space between people. So an encounter with the other, with the neighbor or the stranger, has always seemed central to me.”
Originally published in
BOMB 28,
Summer 1989
Featuring interviews with Patrick McGrath, Craig Lucas, Mary Ellen Mark, Isabel Toledo, Guy Gallo, Gary Indiana, David Kapp, Bobbie Ann Mason, Roland Legiardi-Laura, John Ford Noonan, Roni Horn, and Richard Edson.
