Ed Simon: Introducing The Pittsburgh Review of Books
A call for submissions
Fleur Adcock: Happy Ending
After they had not made love
she pulled the sheet up over her eyes
until he was buttoning his shirt:
not shyness for their bodies – those
they had willingly displayed – but a frail
endeavor to apologise.
Nan Levinson: Seven-and-a-Half Propositions for Journalism in the Age of Trump
The Good and the Bad in Media Coverage Now
Laurence Musgrove: America Windows
A dreamer awakens, holds up
her pen like Liberty, writes
in moonlight page after page,
sails on a ship, bird in a tree,
songs to a yellow sun shining.
Adam Patric Miller: A Teacher’s Mini-Observation
The American system of education is a wreck. Wealthy schools have a criminally unfair advantage, students are conditioned to adopt a transaction mindset where they only know to peck, peck, peck for the grade. It’s not their fault. We test, test, test.
Christine Rhein: Uncharted Waters
Heavy and high buckles the sea.
We complain / we blame.
This is no time for poetry.
Jessica Kutz: The Gender Gap on Climate
A new report shows a growing gender gap among people who vote with environmental issues in mind.
Rick Campbell: Two Poems
the first bird sings that it’s time
to walk the beach, where gulls don’t sing
and herons stand silent, waiting
for a pilchard to offer itself to God.
Kevin Dann: Why Seashells Resemble Spiraling Galaxies and the Human Heart
From dissecting hearts to designing ornithopters, James Bell Pettigrew saw spirals as the blueprint of nature—but his grand vision was lost to history.
Jan Beatty: My Father’s Houses
My father stands lean and young
in the formica kitchen, drinking a shot of Imperial.
He shoots his head back/swallows it all/
slams down the shot glass/turns around and says:
That’s good stuff.
Mike Vargo: Living in the Republic of Unreality
The practice of living in unreality consists of three sub-practices: Denying real reality. Bingeing on pseudo-reality. And adopting a myth.
Laure-Anne Bosselaar: Nostalgia
Nostalgias we share with friends
around a good table, nodding yes, yes, to our
glad sadnesses as we bring back a taste, a kiss,
that one song we will never forget.
Video: Mississippi John Hurt | Spike Driver’s Blues
Mississippi John Hurt used a syncopated finger picking style of guitar playing that he taught himself. According to the music critic Robert Christgau, “No one else has talked the blues with such delicacy or restraint.”
Jianqing Zheng: Site Visit
The Valley Store in Avalon, Mississippi, long abandoned, still holds its worn-out sign above the locked double doors. Many years ago, John Hurt lived nearby.
