Ben Lerner, Personal Poet February 01, 2024
Who is Ben Lerner? Readers of his fiction will be able to supply some answers: an intellectual and a museumgoer, a Midwesterner turned Brooklyn-dwelling dad, someone deeply interested in the world around him but ambivalent about his commitments towar...
The Poet’s Place January 18, 2024
Some friends and I have a running argument about Amanda Gorman, the young poet who read at Joe Biden’s inauguration. Gorman, they say, is not exactly a great poet. “The Hill We Climb,” the poem she read at the National Mall before thousands of specta...
The Art of Humblebrag September 27, 2023
Let’s get this out of the way: As my own literary ambitions stalled—mostly due to poorly handled and occasionally crippling episodes of depression and anxiety, along with a poor aptitude for managing my career—I became increasingly jealous of Ben Ler...