News & Notes

A Poem for World Infertility Awareness Month

Infertility is a struggle many face in silence, without the support of their community. Kelly Grace Thomas’s poem “To the Woman Sitting Next to Me in the Infertility Clinic” captures that sense of isolation as well as the impulse to reach out to one another. Though the poem won’t appear in the magazine until later this year, we are sharing it online now to coincide with World Infertility Awareness Month.

Making Do

Poetry in Our June Issue

Life inevitably brings annoyances and inconveniences our way, and we all have our own methods of getting through them. In her poem “Because I became allergic to chocolate when I was seventeen,” Shuly Cawood writes about how she coped with what I consider a truly tragic allergy. Alison Luterman, who’s stuck at home while her friends text her from their vacations, escapes by taking walks around her neighborhood, as she recounts in “City Chickens.

Home Is the Place

From the Archive

In her essay “The Good End of Pleasant Street,” which appears in our June issue, Heather Lanier and her family move into an apartment that’s part dream, part unfortunate reality. Their new place is in a beautiful Vermont town and has affordable rent. However, it’s also got lead paint, loud neighbors, and proximity to the town’s heroin crisis. All of this leaves the author continually wondering whether she’s living at what local residents call the “good end” or the “bad end” of Pleasant Street.

The Ties That Bind

Poetry in Our May Issue

Our relationships with family members are often crucial to who we are, for better or worse, and the poems in our May issue explore two sides of that dynamic. In “Boxer’s Fracture,” by Jackleen Holton, a mother’s death brings up strong emotions from the speaker’s painful childhood. In Meghan Daniels’s “Separation” the stresses and challenges of parenting, while exhausting, also form a solid center in the speaker’s life during an uncertain time.

Contenders

From the Archive

In our April interview [“Lesson Plan”] Pranav Jani, an English professor at The Ohio State University, discusses the current state of activism on college campuses. With the Trump administration bullying schools into cracking down on political speech, are our institutions of higher learning still a free marketplace of ideas?

Staying Active

From the Archive

In our April interview [“Lesson Plan”] Pranav Jani, an English professor at The Ohio State University, discusses the current state of activism on college campuses. With the Trump administration bullying schools into cracking down on political speech, are our institutions of higher learning still a free marketplace of ideas?

A Study In Contrasts

Poetry in Our March Issue

The poems in this month’s issue are a study in contrasts. Kenneth Hart’s “Indecision” is a metaphorical reflection on what is “probably the least attractive quality in a man,” as the author says. “Los Vecinos” tells the story of Alison Luterman’s immigrant neighbor, a wise and generous woman, against the backdrop of nearby ICE patrols. What the poems do have in common is that they’re both absorbing and skillful pieces of writing.

Bonds of Love

Poetry in Our February Issue

February often brings relationships to mind, and the poems in this month’s issue offer views of three different kinds of love. Joseph Bathanti’s “Lasciare Stare” is a beautifully written memory of a tender interaction between the author’s parents. In “Love Language,” a striking poem by Madelyn Chen, the speaker cares for an unnamed man by bringing him flowers. Bob Hicok’s “The Eulogy I Didn’t Give (V)” describes the impossible task of eulogizing a relationship that has no end, even after death.

Turn on the News

Selections from the Archive

In this month’s interview Columbia University journalism professor Sheila Coronel talks about the challenges the news media face today: consolidation of ownership, competition with online influencers, and accusations from the White House that they are an “enemy of the people.” The Sun’s founder, Sy Safransky, left the newspaper business in the 1960s in pursuit of what he called the “real truth,” which he felt was bigger than the day’s news, and the magazine he started has largely reflected that view. But that hasn’t stopped our authors over the years from reflecting on the role of journalism or the importance of a free press.

Outpouring

Read this web-only poem about the protests in response to ICE

In the aftermath of a second killing by federal agents in Minneapolis, Alison Luterman wrote “Outpouring,” a poem about the massive protests in response to ICE’s presence in the city. It’s a reflection of the enormity of emotion that these terrible events have brought forth—outrage and fear, yes, but most of all love for our neighbors.