1. Early December; snow accumulating on the nose of the jet outside the window. Newark Airport. Too agitated to read, too distracted to eat the muffin I’m about to toss in the trash, I wander about the terminal, looking for something to distract me from the list of cancelled flights on the loudspeaker. And then […]
Prose
Stephen Dunn: Imagining New Jersey
New Jersey, of course, has a great tradition of poets, from Philip Freneau, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg up to notable contemporaries like C.K. Williams (born in Newark), Robert Pinsky (from Long Branch), and Gerald Stern and Alicia Ostriker who make their homes in Lamberstville and Princeton respectively. My apologies to other fine […]
Matthew Longabucco: In the PBQ Archives
The question of the archive is not a question of the past. It is not the question of a concept dealing with the past that might already be at our disposal. An archivable concept of the archive. It is a question of the future, the question of the future itself, the question of a response, […]
Ryan Sloan: M and the Artful Lie
I do not have a sister. Her name is Mariana. In truth, I can’t remember her name, but I’ve given her this one, and it sounds like a name she would want. Mariana is thirty-three years old. She lives on the Upper West Side in Manhattan . She’s a successful architect. Her mother was Portuguese. […]
PBQ Interviews: Singer, Songwriter Josh Ritter
AM: How long have you been writing poems? JR: I always thought that I could write, but until I got started playing the guitar, I didn’t feel like I had a focus in writing. I didn’t feel especially attached to anything. Writing songs is more like doing a crossword than anything – you’re giving yourself […]
Poet Maudit: Conversation with Chris Whitley at Caffé Vivaldi, NYC: July 20, 2004
Texas-born, Dresden-based singer-songwriter Chris Whitley is oddly hot. A doe-eyed late Chet Baker in a wife beater, Whitley’s music is a seductive amalgam of atmospheric alternative rock, funk, and blues. With a devoted fan base and the occasional deal with Columbia, or Messenger records, or Dave Matthews’ imprint, ATO Records, Whitley works the border, the […]