Arc 87 Fall 2018  A Celebration of Poetry from the U.S.A.

For our special 2018 Annual Themed Issue, Arc decided to look south to the United States of America… and found lots of great poetry!

In 2018, the news cycle keeps us informed and dismayed by the comments and proposals coming from the 45th President of the United States. In particular, the editorial team at Arc was concerned about potential cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Out of worry for all of the writers and arts organizations that would suffer as a result, Arc began planning a special issue to highlight poets from the land currently known as the U.S.A.

In This Issue

This issue is the result, containing poetry from 27 contributors hailing from 18 different states and showing that great poetry is coming out of every corner of the country neighbouring our own.

As diverse as its contributors, this issue contains poems about fiestas, recycling, jazz, toxic masculinity, and road rage, among many other subjects. With new work from Laura Da’, Heather Christle, Fady Joudah, and Naomi Shihab Nye, pick up this issue to learn about some of the great voices sharing their poetry south of the 49th parallel.

 

Some of the treats from this issue include:

  • A flowing, long poem by Chamoru writer and interdisciplinary artist Lehua M. Taitano;
  • Benjamin Hertwig’s and Frances Boyle’s appreciative reflections of recent American poetry collections;
  • Enlightening essays on Sally Wen Mao, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, and Safia Elhillo; and,
  • Jeffrey Gibson’s visual art, which combines Native American traditions with the visual languages of modernism.
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