On the last day of the longest January I’ve ever lived through I woke up early just to have the house to myself for longer than usual. The only tiny luxuries that I actively can control the outcome of in this new place are my fat, grey cat named Gus, who I rescued...

(A couple of years ago, an ambitious and talented student writer burst into my office one afternoon in exasperation and despair, plopped down on my couch, and asked me if I ever felt like I might never write again. Not anything—not another poem, email, list, or post....

BMP Celebrates National Poetry Month 2017 The theme of teaching and learning poetry, and our emphasis on student poets, speaks directly to the action of poetry in our country and global community. Never has the education of our students been so threatened, and never...

What I teach my students about poetry is that everything—every word, every sound, every line—is the result of a decision the poet has made. A poem is a collection of decisions. I introduce them to techniques, elements, and forms; I have them read successfully...

With all the controversy surrounding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, you might say that this is Vietnam all over again. But it isn’t. The Vietnam War, like all of America’s earlier wars, was fought with an army of conscripts from almost every community in the...

In thinking about poetry and teaching, I immediately thought of my teacher and mentor, Bruce Bennett. I met Bruce the first semester of college, when I had mistakenly been allowed to register for his 300-level Modern & Contemporary Poetry class. That first day,...

It is spring of 2017 CE, and, when I am not devastated by the national and international news, I am snared by questions. I used to be a poet. I still am, but it’s different than it used to be. In the book of shadows and recipes I keep, I find this brief entry: “Poetry...

When my application materials for Wisconsin Poet Laureate were assembled, I was asked what my “project” might be. Many of the past poet laureates put forth a project: Kimberly Blaeser’s Recitation Project, for example. Bruce Dethlefsen reached out to libraries to help...

In my poetry travels, I often quote Audre Lorde’s claim, “Poetry is not a luxury.” If not a luxury, it follows then that poetry is a necessity. But how and in what ways is that true? When I teach, I speak about the “supra-literary” intentions of poetry—poets creating...

We are delighted to present this week’s selections from the Brain Mill Press 2017 Poetry Month Contest. We received many outstanding entries, from which this piece by Topaz Winters stood out. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. When My First Boyfriend Learned I...

I was lucky enough to become a Stegner fellow in fiction a number of years ago, and then became a lecturer in Continuing Studies at Stanford. It was a dream job (it was in fact a surreal dream job—this hillbilly girl getting to be in charge of a classroom at Stanford?...

We are delighted to present this week’s selections from the Brain Mill Press 2017 Poetry Month Contest. We received many outstanding entries, from which this piece by Sully Pujol stood out. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did. Admission Sully Pujol Because I was...

We are delighted to present the winner of April’s Brain Mill Press Student Poetry Contest for 2017: “self-portrait as joan of arc” by Sabine Holzman. We received submissions from student poets of a very high caliber, from which poetry month coordinator C. Kubasta...