The official @slantbooks blog.
| Platform |  | Pricing | Only free issues | Publishes | Twice weekly |
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To Make a Song
[adapted from my Introduction to Shomer’s Riptide: New and Selected Poems (Blair 2026)]
In “Jazz at Bradley’s,” Enid Shomer writes of “the darkness / that must be swallowed to make a song.” As we read through Riptide: New and Selected Poem...
The Element of Surprise
It was a hot Thursday evening in New York, and I did not have a book.
That was deliberate: I only had a tote bag with work computer and a change of clothes so I could walk around easily. I had been widowed a bare six weeks before, and as m...
Paul Mariani’s New Poems
In his tenth volume of poetry to date—Sing Me a Song, She Said—acclaimed poet and biographer extraordinaire Paul Mariani (born in 1940) delves into his childhood and youth in a working-class family in New York City, his evolving relationshi...
“There wouldn’t be much poetry without my faith”
We recently spoke with author Paul Mariani about his new Slant book, Sing Me a Song, She Said.
Your book’s Part II, Sing Me a Song, She Said: A Verse Drama is a portrait of your childhood and early family life, especially the character of...
Close Reading Rupert Brooke’s “Mutability”
In a recent post, my friend George Dardess focused on the theme of “mutability” in poems by Shelley and Spenser. I’m grateful for his insights into these writers, the words they find and the structures they organize to evoke and contain the...
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Authors
The writers behind this newsletter.
Books grounded in a sense of "felt life" since 2013. Slant is an independent, not-for-profit literary press specializing in fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, philosophy, theology, and belles lettres.
Ph.D. in theology, the imagination, and the arts. Writing about narrative, Shakespeare, and culture. Managing editor @slantbooks.
Christian, poet, and writer. I love Edmund Spenser, the Brothers Karamazov, the Book of Ecclesiastes, the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and Jesus Christ, among other things.
Gregory Wolfe is the publisher & editor of Slant Books. He is the author of Beauty Will Save the World, Intruding Upon the Timeless, The Operation of Grace, & other books. Bylines: Washington Post, Wall St Journal, America, Commonweal, & First Things
writer living in Detroit
retired English teacher, Roman Catholic deacon, reader, writer, cartoonist
I am a poet, writer, and educator. I am an emeritus professor of English at UNC Asheville, where, among other things, I directed the Center for Jewish Studies for 30 years.
I'm a wife and mom outside DC. I also raise money for journalism and write nonfiction.
William E. Cain is the Mary Jewett Gaiser Professor of English at Wellesley College.
I have a PhD in English Literature. My first published book was Words and Values, a close reading of popular language. Since then I've published widely on the spirituality of poetry in various journals and books.
Brian Volck is an author and retired pediatrician who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is the author of two books of poetry and a memoir, Attending Others.
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