"In
September 2014, NPR writer and critic Juan Vidal wrote an essay whose
titular question, "Where Have All the Poets Gone?" provided a platform
for various musings regarding the political state of contemporary
American poetics. According to Vidal, "For centuries, poets were the
mouthpieces railing loudly against injustice. They gave voice to the
hardships and evils facing people everywhere... What has happened?" He
further suggested that poets writing today have failed to create work
that carries the same "weight" as the poems written by their literary
forefathers.
Should American poets still be trying to write
"Howl"? Are Neruda, Kerouac, Baraka, and the rest of the Beat Generation
the only viable prototypes for political literary expression in
American culture? How does the influx of identities, voices, and life
experiences that are now expressed in mainstream American letters
potentially create and communicate new political vision(s) -- vision
that may sound or appear different from Ginsberg's poetic/political tour
de force, but is no less necessary, compelling, challenging, or
iconoclastic? What do we even mean when we talk about the weight of a
political work? How is that weight both carried and expressed by poetry
today?
To address these questions, Sundress Publications' newest
anthology Political Punch: Contemporary Poems on the Politics of
Identity showcases the substantial amount of political writing that is
being done today.
Contributors include Kenzie Allen, Jasmine An,
Cameron Awkward-Rich, Ahi Baraka, Anne Barngrover, Jennifer Bartlett,
Scott Bear Don't Walk, Erin Belieu, Rosebud Ben-Oni, Xochitl-Julisa
Bermejo, Jennifer Jackson Berry, Callista Buchen, Cortney Larmar
Charleston, Sarah A. Chavez, Chen Chen, Alicia Cole, CA Conrad, Oliver
De La Paz, Emile DeWeaver, Jennifer Fitzgerald, Amber Flame, Lisa A.
Flowers, Yolanda J. Franklin, Jennie Frost, Carmen Gimenez-Smith,
Arielle Greenberg , M. Ayodele Heath, Sara Henning, Jeb Herrin,
Elizabeth Hoover, Mark Irwin, Allison Joseph, Bhanu Kapil, Vandana
Khanna, Ayisha Knight-Shaw, EJ Koh, Kristin LaTour, Kenji C. Liu,
Timothy Liu, M. Mack, Shahé Mankerian, Shane McCrae, Freesia McKee, Lynn
Melnick, Philip Metres, Hoa Nguyen, Jennifer Perrine, Saba Syed Razvi,
Jessica Reidy,
Lois Roma-Deeley, Danny A. Romero, Lee Ann Roripaugh,
Danielle Sellers, Glenn Shaheen, Raena Shirali, Karen Skolfield,
Christopher Soto, aka Loma, Anna B. Sutton, Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie,
Emma Trelles, Donna Vorreyer, Jim Warner, Ginny Wiedhardt, Hanif
Willis-Abdurraquib, and Emily Jungmin Yoon!"
