This City Could Be Your Poet: Boston

The Open Bar

As Xenophobic as we Portlanders can be, we know our city is not alone when it comes to having a vibrant and eclectic and wild poetry community. In an effort to discover these territories, we have reached out to some of our favorite poets, asking them for an introduction to the city in which they write, read, and live in. 
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Matthew Lippman, whose poetry appeared in our 2007 Winter Reading issue, takes on a tour through poetic Beantown.
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Tin House: Where do you live?
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Matthew Lippman: Boston, MA.
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TH: Are you from there?

ML: No. I am from New York City

TH: Describe the poetry scene of your city in one line.

ML:  There is a nice mixture of the old and the new. It is alive.

TH: What are a few of your favorite collections or poems to come out of Boston?

ML: 45 Mercy Street by Ann Sexton & I Thought I Was New Here by Gregory Lawless.

TH: What local poets are you most excited for the rest of the country to read?

ML: Greg Lawless, Rob MacDonald, and Kerrin McCadden.

TH: Is there a poem that best describes your city?

ML: “Boom I’m Home”  by Sophie Weissbourd

TH: Do you have a favorite local press?

ML: Graying Ghost Press

TH: If we were visiting, what reading series would you take us to?

ML: Blacksmith House Poetry Series

TH: If you could choose one poet to move to your city, who would it be?

ML: Michael Morse. He loves to play with language like it is some kind of refined Play Dough. His material is both super crystallized and wonderfully malleable.  Morse’s poetry is a poetry of brotherly love, birds, baseball, and, of course, the big human heart that everyone is afraid of and everyone wants a piece of at the same time.

Matthew Lippman is the author of three poetry collections.  His latest, AMERICAN CHEW, won The Burnside Review Book Prize (Burnside Review Book Press, 2013), MONKEY BARS (Typecast Publishing, 2010), and THE NEW YEAR OF YELLOW, winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize (Sarabande Books, 2007).