I know exactly what you want to do with your beautiful Memorial Day weekend – get a peek at my thesis essay on persona poetry! You know you want to.
If you’ve been following this blog, you know I’ve been interested in persona poetry pretty much since I started writing. Poemeleon, that paragon of online poetry magazines, just published its theme issue on persona poetry, which contains poems by me (from the Japanese MS,) Mary Agner, Dorianne Laux, Bob Hicok, Lana Ayers (her Red Riding Hood is a hoot,) and a bunch of other cool poets.
Plus, a shorter-and-sweeter version of my MFA thesis critical essay on the persona poetry of Lucille Clifton, Louise Gluck, and Margaret Atwood called “Why We Wear Masks.” Also, why isn’t there a good anthology of persona poetry already out there? Paging publishers and anthologists!