AGNI 52
Contents
Editor's Note
Fictions
New Slave, Old Master
But, Microsoft! What Byte through Yonder Windows Breaks?
Hugo 2000
Essays
Rafael Alberti between the Sword and the Carnation
by Louis Bourne
Mixed Choir with Eleven Voices
Melville’s The Confidence Man and His Descendants in David Mamet’s Work
What the Poets in Germany Are Up To These Days
by David Lehman
A Note on Eduard Bagritskii’s “Origin”
The Rise and Fall of Yiddish
by Ilan Stavans
Poetry
The Coming Back of Chopin through Hands Now Gone
Translated from Spanish by Louis Bourne
Under Scorpio
Lowlands
Hoods and Scatters
In Between
Draft of “El Poeta Declara Su Nombradía”
Having Descended to the Heart
by Scott Cairns
Ruminant
by Scott Cairns
Easter
by Dan Chiasson
Phantom Pain
God Compares the Soul to Five Things
by David Daniel
Nights and Days
by David Daniel
Table
by David Daniel
Uncle Emmet, Wiser Than God
by David Daniel
Venus Among the Wanders
by David Daniel
Revival
Notice
Mathematics
Muslin
self-portrait as youth with cherries
Translated from German by Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright
Jazz Poem
Body, Remember
The Satrapy
Labor
Social Cleansing Including Request for Spiritual Assistance
Translated from German by Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright
Untitled
Confirmation
Unlucky Photographers
by Dara Wier
Art Feature
On Gail Boyajian's Three Paintings (essay)
A View From Above
Communication
Enjoying the Out of Doors
Conversations
Reviews
Found in the Dreamhouse
The Biography of Displacement
The Language of Sorrow
by Rafael Campo
“There Are Other Stories”: Pamela Painter’s The Long and Short of It
A Real Modest Proposal
by Zhu Hong
Democracy’s Disconnect
by David Lehn
Seeing Dickinson Plain: Editorial Strategies and the Poet’s Intentions
Swords and Scalpels
by Rose Moss
Visiting This Life
The Poetry of Freedom (translated from the Polish by Clare Cavanagh)
Translated from Polish by Clare Cavanagh
Previously unpublished interviews with Jorge Luis Borges and Stanley Kunitz; the “Best German Poetry of 2000” in translation; fiction by Madison Smartt Bell, Pamela Painter, and Charles Bock; poetry by Daniel Berrigan, Jason Shinder, Peter Balakian, Dara Wier, Dan Chiasson, Charles Bernstein, and Linda Gregg and Thomas Sayers Ellis; “The Rise and Fall of Yiddish” by Ilan Stavans.
Editor
Askold Melnyczuk
Askold Melnyczuk
Managing Editor
Eric Grunwald
Eric Grunwald
Advisory Board
Leslie Epstein
Robert Pinsky
Derek Walcott
Leslie Epstein, Robert Pinsky, Derek Walcott
Art Editor
Gerry Bergstein
Gerry Bergstein
Music Editor
Eric Chasalow
Eric Chasalow
Poetry Editor
Valerie Duff
Valerie Duff
Fiction Review Editor
Mark Brownlow
Mark Brownlow
Editor Emerita
Sharon Dunn
Sharon Dunn
Editorial Assistants
Josette Akresh
Christopher Brätt
Rachel DeWoskin
Annie Gauger
Claire Jarvis
Nick Montfort
Christopher Rizzo
Josette Akresh, Christopher Brätt, Rachel DeWoskin, Annie Gauger, Claire Jarvis, Nick Montfort, Christopher Rizzo
Contributing Editors
Thomas Bahr
Erin Belieu
Sven Birkerts
Lucie Brock-Broido
John J. Clayton
William Corbett
Stuart Dischell
Sharon Dunn
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Marie Howe
Diana Der-Hovanessian
Ha Jin
Alex Johnson
Susan Johnson
Fred Marchant
Fiona McCrae
Gail Mazur
Joe Osterhaus
Dzvinia Orlowsky
George Packer
Solomea Pavlychko
Liam Rector
Scott Ruescher
George Scialabba
Tom Sleigh
Sue Standing
Rosanna Warren
Oksana Zabuzhko
Thomas Bahr, Erin Belieu, Sven Birkerts, Lucie Brock-Broido, John J. Clayton, William Corbett, Stuart Dischell, Sharon Dunn, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Marie Howe, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Ha Jin, Alex Johnson, Susan Johnson, Fred Marchant, Fiona McCrae, Gail Mazur, Joe Osterhaus, Dzvinia Orlowsky, George Packer, Solomea Pavlychko, Liam Rector, Scott Ruescher, George Scialabba, Tom Sleigh, Sue Standing, Rosanna Warren, Oksana Zabuzhko