Friday Links
June 20, 2025
Elk Lake, PA
On a Gnat’s Horizon by Brian Brodeur
Joshua Hren on James Joyce’s Debt of Love
Substack Poets of Note from Poetics with Robert Charboneau
“What is Art, and Why Does It Matter?” with Daniel McInerny & George Harne
Congrats to Chrism Press!
The Catholic Imagination: How Do We Define it? How Do We Use It?
First Things Poetry Prize
On a Gnat’s Horizon by Brian Brodeur
A mini-master class from Brian Brodeur in New Verse Review. Excellent!
Now, a particularly aggressive symptom of poetic decadence is overabundance. Like compulsive shoppers clamoring through Costco, many of the most celebrated contemporary American poets display an almost pathological urge to pack individual poems with disjointed fragments, flabby backstory, sloppy commonplaces, fuzzy abstractions, gushing pathos, and pointless leaps. Poems and books of poems often feel bloated. (Of the twenty most recent Pulitzer Prize winning volumes, twelve contain more than ninety pages.) In the absence of meter and rhyme, many poems sound prolix, indifferent to the melic possibilities of formal play. Plagued by chatter and lax rhythms, much of what one finds in today’s literary periodicals resembles notes for poems the poet lacked the discipline to write.
Joshua Hren on James Joyce’s Debt of Love
Unless you realize that the promethean Stephen at the end of Portrait is portrayed ironically—as an arrogant upstart rather than a revolutionary artist who, having unshackled himself from the strictures of Church and country, has the actual ability to “forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race,” it can be hard to enter Ulysses sympathetically; the truths Joyce tells us through Stephen arrive indirectly, through irony. See how the apprentice-apostate can’t help but profess his faith in Mrs. Dedalus’s prayer that her boy might both know and feel—for, as Pascal knew well, “the heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”
Substack Poets of Note from Poetics with Robert Charboneau
Robert Charboneau has a really wonderful poetry Substack. In this installment, he shares some of the poets he has discovered on Substack. I’m really grateful to him because he’s introduced me to some new (to me) contemporary poets!
“What is Art, and Why Does It Matter?” with Daniel McInerny & George Harne
Christendom College hosted a thought-provoking discussion on the nature and significance of art, featuring philosophy professor Dr. Daniel McInerny alongside College President George A. Harne, Ph.D. The event, part of the college’s major speaker series, explored the question: “What is Art, and Why Does It Matter?” Dr. McInerny is a passionate speaker and writer on art and beauty, as evidenced in his recent book, "Beauty and Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts." When he is not teaching and mentoring his students, McInerny has been writing fiction, nonfiction, drama, and screenplays for years, including his adult fiction novel The Good Death of Kate Montclair, and his Kingdom of Patria series for middle-grade readers.
Congrats to Chrism Press!
The Association of Catholic Publishers announced the winners of its annual Excellence in Publishing Awards. And Chrism Press swept the awards! So well deserved. Congrats to all the winners and everyone at Chrism (including our own Rhonda Ortiz!).
The Catholic Imagination: How Do We Define it? How Do We Use It?
Wednesday, June 25 at 8pm EDT join Catholic Literary Arts for a discussion on the Catholic Imagination. Lots of great guests on the panel so it should be informative and fun!
First Things Poetry Prize
The deadline for First Things Poetry Prize is June 30 and the judge is Dana Gioia. $2000 to the winner and $1000 to the runner up.
