This week, the magazine features “Determination,” by Stephen Dobyns. I had the chance to ask the author about the kindling and spark that fed this comic poem. _“Determination” begins with and loops ...

When I realized I couldn’t answer the questions posed about two of my own poems on the Texas state assessment tests (STAAR Test), I had a flash of panic – oh, no! Not smart enough. Such a dunce. My ...

When I realized I couldn't answer the questions posed about two of my own poems on the Texas state assessment tests (STAAR Test), I had a flash of panic — oh, no! Not smart enough. Such a dunce. My ...

On a recent Friday afternoon, I joined Joe Hoover, S.J., our poetry editor, and James Davis May, the winner of last year’s contest, in a spirited debate to choose the winning poem for the 2025 Foley ...

Badly worded or poorly conceived questions on standardized tests are not uncommon (remember the question about a “talking pineapple” on a New York test in 2012?). But here’s something new: The author ...

1. Sometimes I see a poem in Slate or another magazine, and it doesn’t do a thing for me. Half of the time I can’t figure out what it means—what is that all about? Generalizing won’t do. We’d have to ...

Listen to more stories on the Noa app. One of the highlights of my first three years as a literature professor at MIT—and indeed, of my 15-year career as an educator—has been the recent discovery that ...

Badly worded or poorly conceived questions on standardised tests are not uncommon (remember the question about a “talking pineapple” on a New York test in 2012?). But here’s something new: The author ...

Maggie Smith’s poem “Good Bones” became a viral sensation when it was published in 2016 the same week as the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando. The exposure — rare for a living poet, let alone ...