“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
Listen to a Recording of Ernest Hilbert Reading Poetry of the First World War at the Free Library
Ernest Hilbert reads poetry of the First World War at the Philadelphia Free Library to commemorate the centenary of the war’s end: “Channel Firing” by Thomas Hardy, “The Soldier” by Rupert Brooke,… Read More
Journalist Jenny DeHuff Spotted in Caligulan Shirt
Jenny DeHuff is a versatile journalist, able to expose citywide corruption one day (her work in the “Breakfastgate” scandal) and interview members of Slayer the next (she appears in my essay about… Read More
Ernest Hilbert and Others Read Poems of the First World War at the Free Library
Join us for a commemoration of the centennial of the armistice that ended the Great War. A selection of Philadelphia poets will present poems of the “War to End All Wars.” Click… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews a New Book About Edward Gorey for the Washington Post
Edward Gorey’s modern Gothic world is as eerie as it is instantly recognizable: Grim, house-coated patriarchs; wilting, kohl-eyed flappers; fainting hostesses and hapless tots; figures posed peculiarly in deep-shadowed drawing rooms or… Read More
“But Look! Here Come More Crowds”: The First Annual Moby-Dick Marathon Reading
This year, the library’s Manager of Public Programs, Ed Pettit, unveils his mad masterwork, a marathon reading of the entirety of Melville’s epic novel at the Independence Seaport Museum on Penn’s Landing.… Read More
“Poet in the Pit: Slayer, Heavy Metal, and the Limits of Poetry” By Ernest Hilbert
Last year I wound up with a broken rib after spending an hour in a mosh pit at a Slayer concert. It took place on asphalt, at night, in torrential rain, ideal… Read More
Launch Reading for the Best American Poetry 2018
Ernest Hilbert and other contributors will read their poetry for the Best American Poetry 2018 Launch, Thursday, September 20th, 7PM at The New School’s Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, NY 10011. This edition… Read More
Read Daniel Nester’s New Essay “All My Friends”
Daniel Nester’s new essay “All My Friends” returns us to those confusing, sometimes sad and embarrassing years of early adulthood, when we “laugh at the absurdity of the adulthoods we were about to… Read More
Brian Brodeur’s Poem “Juárez, 2008” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine
Brian Brodeur’s unsettling poem “Juárez, 2008” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine. To visit and read it, simply follow the instructions below. Step one: Download the… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Bids Farewell to Poet Donald Hall
My farewell to American poet Donald Hall appears in the Notes & Comments section at the end of the most recent issue of The New Criterion.… Read More
“Black Woman” by Erica Dawson
“When Rap Spoke Straight to God is utterly transporting. In language both elevated and slangy, saucy and tender, Dawson lovingly weaves the reader around her finger.” - Jennifer Egan… Read More
“I wound up drinking everyone’s shots”: Luke Stromberg at the West Chester Story Slam
E-Verse's poetry editor Luke Stromberg hit up the West Chester Story Slam this week and gave us this fantastic anecdote about drinking and general debauchery (and inventive excuses the next morning) at… Read More
“Song for a Dark Queen” by James Brookes
James Brookes was born in 1986 and grew up in Sussex. He received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2009, and his pamphlet The English Sweats was published by Pighog… Read More
“Buck Creek” by Joshua Eric Williams
Joshua Eric Williams is the author of the chapbook The Distant Wild (2017). His work appears in Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Sonic Boom Journal, Measure, and many other online and print poetry outlets.… Read More
“The Fire Plug” by David Livewell
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
Swear Town on Beer Lake, Bloat Island in Rum Lake, the Town of Lick Spiggot on the Shores of Whiskey Lake . . .
Check out the "Temperance Map."… Read More
“Utøya” by John Wall Barger
John Wall Barger’s poems are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Poetry Ireland Review, and The Antioch Review. His fourth poetry collection, The Mean Game, is coming out with Palimpsest Press in spring… Read More
Danny Shot on NJTV’s State of the Arts
The television program “State of the Arts New Jersey” devoted a recent segment to the Hoboken, New Jersey poet and editor Danny Shot. Lately, Danny has been roaming around the country reading… Read More
Ashley Anna McHugh’s New Poem “The Rite of Spring” appears in the latest installment of Cocytus: A Dark Web Magazine
What's lurking out there on the infamous Dark Web? A lot of unsavory activity and characters, to be sure. But poets? It's already got a reputation for hiding the worst human activity,… Read More
Alberto Manguel and the Virtual Memories Podcast
I've really come to enjoy The Virtual Memories Show, hosted by the endlessly curious (and fascinating) Gil Roth, who roams far and wide to interview bookish people, authors, critics, librarians, illustrators, comic… Read More
“The Body was Dragged Some Distance Before it was Abandoned” and Others by Ernest Hilbert in Journal of American Poetry
My poem "The Body was Dragged Some Distance Before it was Abandoned" appears in Volume 5 of the American Journal of Poetry along with my poems "Until the Sea Above Us Closed… Read More
“Inwood Inlet” by Arianna Higgins
I am not here to watch black water rise, Or reach what I can not: the inlet’s stillness Lapping shoreless wooded promontories. I do not approach stone for some new sunrise Or… Read More
“The Man In The Dead Machine” by Donald Hall
“However wrenching [Hall’s poems] may be from line to line, they tell a story that is essentially reassuring: art and love are compatible, genius is companionable, and people stand by one another… Read More
Short Film of Richard Wilbur and Robert Lowell
This is a charming little film about Richard Wilbur and Robert Lowell made sometime in the early to mid-1960’s. In black and white footage, we see Wilbur in a suit (sometimes with… Read More
Photos from the Mexico City Performance of “Nights of 1998”
As E-Verse readers will know from earlier posts (here and here), my poem “Nights of 1998,” from my book All of You on the Good Earth, was set to music by composer… Read More
Top Five Movies and TV Shows with the Wrong People Having Relationships Behind the Scenes
It's always sweet when a couple playing lovers ends up falling in love for realz. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, etc. But sometimes, two people starring in a… Read More
“A Frowsy Whore with Black Straw Sailor Hat Askew Came Glazily in the Day”: Hilbert Reads from the “Sirens” Chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses for the Rosenbach Musem & Library’s Annual Bloomsday
“A frowsy whore with black straw sailor hat askew came glazily in the day along the quay towards Mr Bloom. When first he saw that form endearing? Yes, it is. I feel… Read More
E-Verse Celebrates a New Book from Paul Siegell!
We here at E-Verse are enormous fans, fanatics, in fact, of Philadelphia poet Paul Siegell. It’s been too long since we’ve had a new book of his playful, innovative poetry to mull… Read More
Top Five Times Trump was Concerned with Pee and Bathrooms
The "Pee Tape.” We’ve all heard about it. Is it real? I’m not going to touch that question with a ten foot pole. But here are the top five other times that… Read More