A novel with no intimation of a story whatsoever[….] Plotless. Characterless. Yet seducing the reader into turning the pages nonetheless. […] Actionless[.] Which is to say, with no sequence of events. Which is to say, with no indicated passage of time. […] A novel with no setting. […] Ergo meaning finally without descriptions. […] A novel with no overriding central motivations[….] With no social themes, i.e., no picture of society. […] A novel entirely without symbols. (Marks

“…we have to get over, as in getting over a disease, the idea that we can ‘all’ speak to one another in the universal voice of poetry” (Charles Bernstein, A Poetics, 5) Today on my drive to campus, I found myself mulling over a recent discussion with a poet friend about appeals to the “common reader” and “universal human truths” in the discourse around contemporary American poetry, and our mutual distrust of these terms. Poetry, so the story goes, has lost its ability to spe

A watershed is a geographic feature that divides water into different systems. A watershed also represents the tributaries and gathering ground for a central body of water. As graduate students at the University of Nebraska, we acknowledge the significance of watersheds to the agricultural industry as well as the ecology of the Great Plains region. However and perhaps most popularly, a watershed is known to be a crucial event or occurrence recognized as causing a turning poin