What I’m Reading: Photographer Janna Ireland

29 Nov 201830 Nov 2018

If you’re lucky enough to recognize it, there’s a particular excitement when you encounter an artist’s work as it’s entering a new phase. There’s of course the first order payoff,…

Elizabeth Harrower’s Third Act

11 May 201516 Sep 2017

This essay originally appeared in issue 93 (Summer 2014) of Brick Magazine.  Writing, romantic notions hold, is a way of a life, an identity, a state of being. There is a…

Reconsidering Charles Wright

7 May 201314 May 2017

- Photo via nytimes.com When asked about his childhood in a 1964 interview, the writer James Baldwin noted the importance of libraries in his development. “I finally read my way…

Q&A – Douglas Stuart

20 Apr 2022

It seems so long ago, but in the spring of 2020, I read Douglas Stuart’s debut novel, Shuggie Bain. My immediate impression was that I’d stumbled upon one of the…

On Marianne Moore and Grace Schulman at the poetry foundation

11 Nov 201911 Nov 2019

My essay, "Apprenticed to a Master," is up at The Poetry Foundation. It looks at Marianne Moore, Grace Schulman and their particular bond, including Moore's deft and invaluable mentorship of…

“The Forgotten Minimalist”: On Robert Duran at Art & Object

26 Feb 201926 Feb 2019

New York's Karma Gallery has an exhibition of Robert Duran's early paintings (1968-1970) on from now until March 31. The work on offer ranges from smaller watercolors (19x24") to monumental…

“I Lost My Way” by Leonard Cohen

29 Jan 201929 Jan 2019

I lost my way, I forgot to call on your name. The raw heart beat against the world, and the tears were for my lost victory. But you are here.…

On Dreamverse by Jindřich Štyrský [Twisted Spoon Press]

21 Jan 201921 Jan 2019

There are certain books you know almost at once you will keep, always. Some years you might not encounter a single one. Others you’ll find half a dozen. These aren’t…

What I’m Reading: Artist Grey James

11 Dec 201811 Dec 2018

Grey James is making art that feels vital and forthright and timely, and he’s doing it out of muted colors, heavy shadow and ambiguity. This sounds, I admit, a little…

What I’m Reading: Artist Hugh Merrill

13 Nov 201821 Jan 2019

Let me put down a marker to start with: Hugh Merrill is a master print maker. His technique and his devotion to the form are, it seems to me, unimpeachable.…

What I’m Reading: Artist Rebecca George

1 Nov 20181 Nov 2018

Amid her move away from Abstract Expressionism to figurative art, the painter Rosemarie Beck reminded herself – and any young painters she might one day address - to aim for,…

“Promenade” by Eugenio Montale

15 Oct 201815 Oct 2018

Promenade The wind picks up, the dark is torn to shreds, the shadow that you send out on the fragile balustrade is curling. Too late, if you want to be…