Category: Literature

Guest post by Janine Barchas This year, which marks the centennial of the start of the Great War, also marks the two hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mansfield Park, first advertised on May 9, 1814. This accident of history, which has my 2014 calendar oddly alternating between somber openings of WWI exhibits and upbeat celebrations…

Guest post by Stephen H. Grant The Bard Will was born on the same day he died—and no one knows for sure on what day he was born. No birth certificate has been found for William Shakespeare. The closest thing is a baptism certificate dated April 26, 1564, in the parish register at Stratford-upon-Avon. Shakespeare’s…

Guest post by Daniel Anderson “Easter Sundays” is a poem that begins with a meditation about a quiet and evanescent domestic perfection, then attempts to apprehend a couple of questions regarding what it means to feel at home in this world, and just how illusive that feeling often is. The topical conversations that the poem…

Guest post by Daniel Anderson “Easter Sundays” is a poem that begins with a meditation about a quiet and evanescent domestic perfection, then attempts to apprehend a couple of questions regarding what it means to feel at home in this world, and just how illusive that feeling often is. The topical conversations that the poem…

Guest post by Peter Filkins Randall Jarrell said that writing poetry was like walking across a field at night while hoping to be struck by lightning. While the fickle and unpredictable nature of genuine inspiration can be much like that, there are also poems that you know are sort of there and waiting to be…

In honor of April, National Poetry Month, poems and poets will take center stage. We spoke to X. J. Kennedy about poetry and its place in his life. When you first decided to be a poet which poets and writers did you enjoy reading? I’m not sure at what moment I ever decided to be a poet, if…

 Guest Post by Holly Dugan Early spring is, famously, cruel. The bite of winter is still sharp, even “whan that Aprille with his shoures soote / the droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote” (“when that April with his sweet showers pierce the drought of March”). Chaucer's famous opening lines of the Canterbury Tales…

 Guest Post by Holly Dugan Early spring is, famously, cruel. The bite of winter is still sharp, even “whan that Aprille with his shoures soote / the droghte of Marche hath perced to the roote” (“when that April with his sweet showers pierce the drought of March”). Chaucer's famous opening lines of the Canterbury Tales…

In 1874, Emily Dickinson wrote the poem: Dear March - Come in - How Glad I am - I hoped for you before - Put down your Hat - You must have walked - How out of Breath you are - Dear March, how are you, and the Rest - Did you leave Nature well…

March roars in with a variety of events suitable for lionizing, and JHU Press authors, editors, and staff will keep busy all month. Stephen H. Grant loved the idea that the official publication date for Collecting Shakespeare would be the Ides of March, and several events around that date welcome his book. At Hunter College,…