Rattle Poetry Prize
Conversation with
Robin Coste Lewis
The Winter 2019 issue of Rattle is fresh out of the oven, and we can’t wait for you to dig in to this diverse selection of poetry—from Grace Bauer’s “Unspeakable Elegy,” an understatedly powerful portrait of grief, to Jasmin Roberts’ “Self-Selection for Preservation,” an unflinching depiction of a grandmother who “lived her entire childhood in a segregated south.” We’ve got sharp-as-a-tack formal poems, poems whose titles are poems in themselves (“When Your Mother Asks You If You’re Seeing Anyone and No Longer Means a Therapist”), poems with insights so searingly true you find yourself holding your breath for a moment (“He wants to know what it’s like to be a woman / so I say, we all got touched in ways we didn’t want.” —Jeanmarie Evelly).
In addition to all that, we’re proud to present the results of the 2019 Rattle Poetry Prize, including a sonnet based on a painting by Alice Neel, an ode to a deported uncle, and many others, all of which beg to be read again and again. And then, of course, there’s our 2019 winner, “Stroke” by Matthew Dickman, a poem so good it feels more like an experience than words on a page.
Last but not least, Alan Fox sits down with Robin Coste Lewis for a conversation that is as illuminating as it is varied, touching on fame and public life, the evolution of language, Sanskrit, mythology, and much, much more. You won’t want to miss it.
