Abbie Kiefer   ESSAYS AND REVIEWS

The Generous Act of Publishing Drafts: Letting Poems Exist as Iterations

"Isn’t that the task of every writer? To be not afraid? Not afraid to make work and not afraid to let strangers read it and judge it and not afraid to acknowledge the work’s failings and to try to fix those failings, even if the piece was previously declared finished."

CLEAVER >>

Churning Up Mystery 

A conversation about poetry that's rooted in domestic spaces and how we can find both mystery and meaning in the quotidian.

THE COMMON >>

Eight Poetry Collections with a Compelling Sense of Place

Recommending books that explore the complexities of connection between a place and its people.

ELECTRIC LIT >>

Review of Joan Kwon Glass’s Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms

"As much consideration as this book gives to the weight of absence, it is also concerned with how that weight might be carried and endured. We can name the nuances of our grief—let it have a specific shape. We can say true things, Glass shows us, even when they are ugly."

DIODE >>

Review of Meghan Sterling’s View from a Borrowed Field

"The speaker understands her limited agency. She could come to ruin. She will steward the land for a finite time. But neither the possibility of the first nor the inevitably of the second discourages her from working to soften the land. To plant all the good things she’s able."

CIDER PRESS REVIEW >>