Literature in Translation |
“In the World of Ink,” “See You on the Blank Page,” “Meeting During Lockdown” & “Please”
“I got used to being silent, to digging holes / inside where I bury / frivolous thoughts, unvoiced / impressions after a dumb movie, / untold stories, unimplemented / conversations, unforgettable views. // Wherever I dig, however, / I get to you.”
Interview |
A Conversation with Erin Belieu: on Project Books, Intellect & Emotion, Early Influences, & Shaping One’s Books
“I’m not anti-cerebral. I’m anti-only-cerebral. And I’m not here to be some poetry mall cop terrorizing people on my Segway — poets should do what pleases them and disregard any opinion that doesn’t help them make their work.”
Fiction |
“Lindy in the Park”
“I arrived at Holly’s apartment at the end of June, one week after graduation. Holly hadn’t been able to attend, she couldn’t take time from work, but she watched a recording of me crossing the stage. She saw me tossing my cap.”
Poetry |
“Morbid Curiosity”
“In myth, death comes by boat. / Or midway upon the journey of our life. / I think about it, the closest I’ve come to death …”
Literature in Translation |
“Stop Dying”
“There are just one body soap and one shampoo. They smell like herbs. ‘They’re made by a local girl named Aina. She also makes balms for muscle pain and lacerations,’ she tells me. I just look at her. ‘It could be good for your scar.'”
Poetry |
“To Virginia, Lucia & Sylvia”
“There is no doubt. Had I lived / when any of you lived, / I would have been committed // to an asylum.”
Poetry |
from What Is It, from the Black notebook, 3/24/25-5/1/25
“feel free to tell a story or / two about them // feel free to see / that you also / are becoming / an anecdote or two”
Interview |
“He Is a True Original”: on Translating Machado de Assis’s Memorial de Ayres — & an excerpt from the novel
“We simply split the book in two, each taking a half. We then produce near-final drafts of our respective sections and share them, each editing the other’s work. Then there’s a final readthrough to iron out any remaining problems or inconsistencies.”
Lyric Prose |
“Snow Globe with Hitler Youth Director,” “Snow Globe with Death Castle” & “Snow Globe with Children of the Rubble”
“After a long day, the staff needed to unwind. Alcohol was abundant. Paul R., responsible for moving the bodies to the incinerator, missed the celebration for the ten-thousandth victim and only received a bottle of beer …”
Poetry |
“Like Us”
“Tendril moves / inexactly toward light / as if it sees the streaky sky / through bracken / from its dead-end cranny”
Poetry |
“The dead tree and my brother fall”
” … into the poem like the branches / holding this fort, first his, // then mine, what he built and / abandoned like our family …”
Literature in Translation |
from The Rope in Bloom, cantos & prose poems by Radu Vancu
“The ordeal comes in the morning, when adorable little routines cease being routine — every little thing, however little, carries barbaric resonance.”
Fiction |
“Reasoning”
“Once he felt old enough, he offered, ‘Why worry if it doesn’t improve or solve whatever you’re worried about?’ “’You just wait,’ she said. Now she lay on her deathbed, and he worried he couldn’t reach her — dementia.”
Poetry |
“The Midnight Zone”
“It’s snowing at the bottom of the sea — / dead skin, dead plants, sand, soot, dust, and shit / falling from the light into Earth’s deepest hole.”
Poetry |
“Always Abundant”
“Once, in the other life, I had no name, / and only the insides of the insides / of things glowed. Now I feel cobblestones // of Marrakech rush up again through my feet …”