AGNI 69
Contents
Editor's Note
Essays
High Compression: Information, Intimacy, and the Entropy of Life
What Will the Soul Do for Solace Then?
by Dinah Lenney
Crucibles: Intimations of Randomness
Poetry
Combine
by Adam Day
Why
by Stephen Dunn
Winter in the Garden
Fire Season
by Ian Harris
Shadow of Two
by Eva Hooker
The Last Man Who Knew Everything
The Divine Right of Caprice
Adjacent to the way
Striking the Set
Chernobyl Eclogue
Art Feature
Where Were You When the Moon Was Full?
by Aldwyth
In Her Hands: The Art World Goes to War (essay)
Radical compressions and striking explosions. Brian Christian proposes a radical theory of art as information, and Senior Editor Bill Pierce riffs out further connections, while artist Aldwyth (as elucidated by fellow-artist Rosamond Purcell) offers uncannily apt illustration. Lovers’ beds abound—in fiction by Gary Amdahl, Michael Mejia, and Margo Berdeshevsky—and poets, including Adam Day, Garrett Keizer, Eva Hooker, and Deborah Pease, find what’s fresh and disturbing in the nothing new that is under the sun.
Editor
Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts
Founding Editor
Askold Melnyczuk
Askold Melnyczuk
Senior Editor
William Pierce
William Pierce
Sr. Fiction Editor
William Giraldi
William Giraldi
Fiction Editors
Jessica Keener
William Charles Delman
Jessica Keener, William Charles Delman
Poetry Editors
Lynne Potts
Jay Deshpande
Lynne Potts, Jay Deshpande
Asst. Poetry Editor
Sumita Chakraborty
Sumita Chakraborty
Advisory Board
Leslie Epstein
Robert Pinsky
Derek Walcott
Rosanna Warren
Leslie Epstein, Robert Pinsky, Derek Walcott, Rosanna Warren
Editorial Assistants
Cassie Schmitz
Renee Emerson
Trenton Pollard
Indu Ohri
Hank Backer
Nikki Bazar
Maia Rauschenberg
Mara Birkerts
Cassie Schmitz, Renee Emerson, Trenton Pollard, Indu Ohri, Hank Backer, Nikki Bazar, Maia Rauschenberg, Mara Birkerts
Contributing Editors
Lucie Brock-Broido
John J. Clayton
William Corbett
Stuart Dischell
Sharon Dunn, ed. emerita
Thomas Sayers Ellis
Marie Howe
Diana Der-Hovanessian
Ha Jin
Alex Johnson
Susan Johnson
Fred Marchant
Fiona McCrae
Gail Mazur
Joe Osterhaus
Dzvinia Orlowsky
Liam Rector (1949-2007)
George Scialabba
Tom Sleigh
Sue Standing
Oksana Zabuzhko
Lucie Brock-Broido, John J. Clayton, William Corbett, Stuart Dischell, Sharon Dunn, ed. emerita, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Marie Howe, Diana Der-Hovanessian, Ha Jin, Alex Johnson, Susan Johnson, Fred Marchant, Fiona McCrae, Gail Mazur, Joe Osterhaus, Dzvinia Orlowsky, Liam Rector (1949-2007), George Scialabba, Tom Sleigh, Sue Standing, Oksana Zabuzhko