Listen to Christopher LaRosa’s Musical Setting of Ernest Hilbert’s Poem “Kite”
In 2016, Sara Wilkins commissioned composer Christopher LaRosa to write a piece for cello and voice. He selected Ernest Hilbert’s poem “Kite” for the text. The piece has been performed several times,… Read More
“What are Your Thoughts on Comedians Using the N-word?” by Marvin Thompson
Marvin Thompson was born in London to Jamaican parents and now teaches English in mountainous south Wales. He has an MA in Creative Writing and was one of three poets selected by… Read More
“Achilles Recounts the Sacrifice of Iphigenia” by Louisa Schnaithmann
Louisa Schnaithmann is a poet living in the greater Philadelphia area. Her work has been published in Menacing Hedge, Projector Magazine, Rogue Agent, and Voicemail Poems. Her poem “On the Problem of… Read More
“Fixing Broken Things” by Lynn Levin
Lynn Levin's most recent poetry collection, The Minor Virtues, is listed as one of Spring 2020’s best books by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her previous collections include Miss Plastique, Fair Creatures of… Read More
“Eloquence” by James Arthur
"An entrenched strangeness exists in Arthur's work, derived not from linguistic hijinks but from common observations ... his tone is casual and confident, the effect slightly off-frame or out of focus, yet… Read More
“No One Wants to Have Sex with Skeletor” by Quincy R. Lehr
Quincy R. Lehr’s most recent book is The Dark Lord of the Tiki Bar (2015). He lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches history, edits The Raintown Review, and subsists on a… Read More
“Myxomatosis” by Philip Larkin
In 1953 myxomatosis, a viral disease of rabbits, broke out in Britain for the first time. It rapidly killed tens of millions of the animals from Kent to the Shetlands. Many farmers… Read More
E-Verse Equinox Reading Series Relaunch Success!
Thanks to everyone who came out to Fergie's Pub to make the debut of E-Verse Equinox Reading Series 2.0 such a powerful success. We had a full room, around 30 people, which… Read More
“O Where Are You Going?” by W.H. Auden
"Words so excite me that a pornographic story, for example, excites me sexually more than a living person can do." - W. H. Auden… Read More
Librarians at War: Ernest Hilbert Reviews Kathy Peiss’s The Information Hunters in the Wall Street Journal
During World War II, librarians and archivists were eagerly recruited not only to gather intelligence from enemy media but also to collect and catalogue manuals and documents while embedded with units on… Read More
“Frankenstein’s Monster” by James Arthur
James Arthur was born in Connecticut and grew up in Canada. He is the author of the poetry collection The Suicide's Son (Véhicule Press 2019) and Charms Against Lightning (Copper Canyon Press… Read More
“Song of the Imaginary Friend” by George David Clark
George David Clark’s Reveille (Arkansas) received the 2015 Miller Williams Prize and his recent poems can be found in AGNI, The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ecotone, The Southern Review, and elsewhere.… Read More
ANNOUNCING THE TRIUMPHANT RETURN OF THE E-VERSE EQUINOX READING SERIES!
E-Verse Equinox Reading Series is back! I kicked off the first E-Verse Equinox (what I’ll refer to as 1.0) series back in 2011, upstairs at Fergie’s Books, when Larry’s store was still… Read More
“What Was” by Tamara Oakman
Tamara Oakman, a neo-confessional writer and also English, writing, ESL and humanities professor, has had work appear in such magazines as Many Mountains Moving, Philadelphia Stories and Best of Anthology, Mad Poets… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reads at Otto’s Shrunken Head in New York City
Hey, New York, I'll be reading this Sunday for the Carmine Street Metrics series at Otto's Shrunken Head. The event is free and open to the public. Philadelphia poet Luke Stromberg will… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews Kathleen Jamie in The Washington Post
I had the pleasure of reviewing Kathleen Jamie's latest colleciton of essays, Surfacing, for The Washington Post newspaper. … Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews The Missing Pages: The Modern Life of a Medieval Manuscript from Genocide to Justice by Hegnar Zitlaian Watenpaugh
Illuminated manuscripts, copied by hand and painstakingly adorned with vibrant colors and gold leaf, predate by centuries Gutenberg’s bible, printed around 1450 using moveable metal type. While such manuscripts are acquired by… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reads with John Wall Barger at Shakespeare & Co.
Come out to hear Ernest Hilbert and John Wall Barger read from their latest books at Shakespeare & Co. near Rittenhouse Square. The event is free and open to the public. Stop… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Profiles Collector and Poet Dana Gioia for Fine Books & Collections Magazine
Many thanks to editor Rebecca Rego Barry at Fine Books & Collections magazine for running my six-page profile of poet and collector Dana Gioia in the new issue. Bob Dylan wound up… Read More
“New Year Poem” by Philip Larkin
"A poetry from which even people who distrust poetry, most people, can take comfort and delight." - X.J. Kennedy … Read More
“Broad and Washington” by Ernest Hilbert
The BU Literary Society was founded as BU Students for Literary Awareness in the fall of 1997, under the leadership of Jennifer Herron. The group's original members meant to publish a magazine… Read More
“Desk Clerk” by R.S. Gwynn
R.S. (Sam) Gwynn did his undergraduate work at Davidson College. He earned an M.A. and an M.F.A. from the University of Arkansas and taught at Lamar University, where he was University Professor… Read More
“A Christmas Sonnet (For One In Doubt)” by Edwin Arlington Robinson
From the publisher: Edwin Arlington Robinson's finely crafted, formal rhythms mirror the tension the poet sees between life's immutable circumstances and humanity's often tragic attempts to exert control. At once dramatic and… Read More
“The Christmas Tree” by C. Day Lewis
C. Day Lewis , born in Ireland in 1904, was Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in May 1972. He published many volumes of poetry, as well as essays, critical studies,… Read More
“Office Party” by Phyllis McGinley
Phyllis McGinley was famous for her light verse and celebration of Suburban, middle class America. She published several books of poetry, including On the Contrary (1934), One More Manhattan (1937), Husbands Are… Read More
“Christmas Eve: A Gloss” by David Livwell
David Livewell grew up in Philadelphia and won the 2012 T.S. Eliot Award for Poetry for Shackamaxon (Truman State University Press). He is now at work on a second collection.… Read More
“Christmas in Black Rock” by Robert Lowell
“I do think free will is sewn into everything we do; you can't cross a street, light a cigarette, drop saccharine in your coffee without really doing it. Yet the possible alternatives… Read More
“Raking” by David Yezzi
David Yezzi’s latest books of poetry are Birds of the Air and Black Sea (both in the Carnegie Mellon Poets Series). His verse play Schnauzer, produced by The Baltimore Poets Theater in… Read More
“Sentenced to Life” by Clive James
The Austrailian poet, critic, and broadcaster Clive James died on Sunday after a long battle with leukaemia. Diagnosed with the terminal illness in 2010, he wrote some of his most acclaimed… Read More
“One Day is there of the Series” by Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson, one of the greatest and most distinctive America poets, was born in Amherst, Massachusetts and spent most of her life living there in isolation in her family home. Though… Read More
“Definition of ‘Fool'” by Marly Youmans
Marly Youmans is the author of fifteen books, including this year’s The Book of the Red King— a poetry collection from Phoenicia Publishing, in which “Definition of Fool” appears— and the forthcoming… Read More