Poems – Stephen Burt

University of Chicago

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2016 05:25:17 +0000

I’ll be at the University of Chicago for two events Tuesday Jan. 19 and Wednesday Jan. 20 2016: on Tuesday I’ll be reading poetry and talking about my (very nonscholarly) versions of Callimachus at 7pm, and on Wednesday I’ll be giving a critical talk in the History and Forms of Lyric series, at 4:30pm. The talk is called “How to Make an Anthology, or the Literary History of the Present.” If you live in Chicago perhaps I will see you there.

All-Season Stephanie

admin — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 03:59:45 +0000

My new chapbook All-Season Stephanie is now out and ready for you to order from the good folks at Rain Taxi, who published it! As the title implies, they are poems that show you (or show me) what my life could have been like if I had grown up as, and been seen as, a girl. Eowyn Evans did the art (Rain Taxi’s Kelly Everding deserves many thanks for the design). You can read a representative poem from the chapbook, “Esprit Stephanie,” at The Awl.

“My 1985” in the New Yorker

admin — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 18:44:31 +0000

I’ve got a poem called “My 1985” in the March 23, 2015 New Yorker. You can hear me read it aloud too. You can read about some of the things and characters named in that poem here, and here and here; you can also (though I’m not sure that I’d recommend it) hear the original artists’ version of a song that the poem names.

Philly Trans Health Conference

admin — Thu, 05 Jun 2014 04:08:21 +0000

Next weekend (June 13-14) I’ll be in Philadelphia for the annual Trans Health Conference, where I’ll be proud to do two different things on Saturday.

I will be reading my own poetry (poems about gender; some brand-new ones, too) along with the novelist Rachel Gold, who will be reading from her cool trans-themed YA novels (either the one that’s out now or the one coming soon.

Later that same day we will be talking about trans* and gender-variant characters– and whole invented societies– in science fiction and fantasy. (If you have suggestions about sf, it’s not too late to send them in; special gift coming your way if you can find the author recently known as Raphael Carter.) See a few of you there?

Cooper goes to New Hampshire & I go to a museum

admin — Tue, 27 May 2014 04:22:42 +0000

…in two new poems now in the London Review of Books (subscriber or institutional login required, sorry).

Butterfly With Parachute at the Poetry Foundation

admin — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:57:38 +0000

The Poetry Foundation shared Butterfly With Parachute, a poem from Belmont. Here’s the artwork that inspired the poem, from one of the groundbreaking artists who live with me.

Also at the Poetry Foundation: In Memory of the Rock Band Breaking Circus, Bad Newz, and The People on the Bus, plus a lot of prose.

A Nickel on Top of a Penny and Black Raspberry Canes (VQR)

admin — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 16:59:19 +0000

The Virginia Quarterly Review kindly published A Nickel on Top of a Penny and Black Raspberry Canes in the Winter 2014 issue.

Beautiful photo by Susy Morris on Flickr, used under Creative Commons.

At the Providence Zoo and Indian Stream Republic (Poets.org)

admin — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 16:16:45 +0000

Pittsburgh, NH

Two poems that appeared at Poets.org recently and not-so recently, both inspired by time spent with Jessie’s family in New England locales: At the Providence Zoo and Indian Stream Republic.

Interview with Monica Youn at Boston Review

admin — Sun, 05 Jan 2014 03:02:35 +0000

I’ve been a fan of Monica Youn and of Monica Youn’s poetry since 1994; it’s a pleasure like none other to say that she asked some great questions, and I tried to answer them, in a recent online segment for Boston Review. The piece comes with “Three Stephanies,” that is, three new poems.

Bad Newz at the Poetry Foundation

admin — Sat, 12 Oct 2013 20:50:01 +0000

You can read “Bad Newz” at the Poetry Foundation website. Check out the inspirational photo as well, and learn about the photographer at alecsoth.com.