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In this month's update, we have two new poems, a longish reflection on contemporary politics in the light of Aristotle, Burke, and Frank Capra, and a very short reflection on the Sign of the Cross. On this Ash Wednesday, I note that all these items make for good Lenten reading, with one poem giving you reason to look inward and another representing what you may well find there, if you do look. Click the links below to read them all! Also included below is a recent lecture I delivered on the relationship of Poiesis to Human Dignity. It sums up the present state of my understanding on human nature, art, and contemplation. I gave the lecture to a small, private audience and did not intend it for wider distribution, but since it is now, like everything else, on the internet, I guess there is no harm in sharing.
 Look at these beautiful volumes, placed for the moment where I keep a signed edition of Yvor Winters's Collected Poems along with some other dear momentos. What you see here are the first hard cover copies of The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking and Some Permanent Things, both now in Second Edition with redesigned cover and dust jacket.
When these books first appeared, in 2014 and 2015, Wiseblood books was a young press and issued volumes only in paper. Wiseblood has grown and flourished in the intervening years and the publisher wanted to issue these volumes from the early list in elegant hard cover editions. Some Permanent Things had already appeared in a second edition, revised and expanded; Fortunes had long been in need of a second edition to make a few corrections, typographical and substantial. Now we have both in a matching set. I have ordered ten matching sets of these books and would like to offer readers the opportunity to order signed, hard cover sets of these books, for $64 (shipping included). If you are interested, please simply drop me a line using my Contact form on this web site. You can pay by check or by Paypal, and I will get your volumes in the mail within the day. Thank you, Readers, for your past support and your continued interest in my work in verse and prose.  St. Mary Woolnoth My last update spoke of the poetry of autumn. This one finds us barely past the beginning of the Christmas Season and the people of West Michigan sunk beneath about thirty inches of snow, all raising its brilliant and silent hymn of glory. As we mark these joyous feast days, we recall also another anniversary, the centenary of the publication of T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. St. Mary Woolnoth is the historic Anglican Church in central London that sits opposite Lloyd's Bank. During Eliot's years at the Bank, he would visit that parish and its consolation and summoning to the life of the spirit would be memorialized in his great modernist poem. The homily for the Second Sunday of Advent moved me to write an essay on Yvor Winters. And the feast of the North American Martyrs led to my commission to write a poem in their memory. Look below to find those three items. Click the icons to read them. Click still another to read Patrick Kurp's review of The Strangeness of the Good. And scroll even farther down, if you would like to see my public conversations with Dana Gioia and Robert Royal. One took place during the Summer Literary Series at the University of Saint Thomas, where my MFA program had gathered for its annual residency. The other took place at the Napa Institute, in late July. I will have a further special announcement soon, regarding my books, but in the meantime, click and enjoy these free items. I hope they somehow enrich this season of new birth for all of you.
"We all are falling." So Rilke writes in his poem, "Autumn." This months update includes writing on autumn, both its poetry and its politics, along with two poems, one old one new. First Things has just published my short essay, "The Poetry of Autumn," which is one of several pieces I've written (though the others are forthcoming) that considers the New England poetic tradition and its famous representatives. "The Culture Wars Comes to Michigan" is my first essay for The Dispatch, an argument against the egregious Proposal 3, which would install an unlimited right to kill unborn children -- and indeed all manner of other violences -- in the Michigan constitution. Also in First Things, this time in the November issue, is "For Martha," a new sonnet." The Catholic Thing has just reprinted an older poem of mine, "On a Palm." Since they were reprinting it anyway, I asked them to print a revised version that I think improves the poem (the revised version will eventually appear in my book On the New Physics). This poem has the same title and is from the same poetic sequence as another poem of the same name. The differences between them are very great, including that that other poem appeared in The Best American Poetry 2018, while this poem did not. While I am at it, I am including a video of my reading with Frederick Turner and Paul Mariani at the Future of the Catholic Literary Imagination conference, which was held on the final weekend of September and the first day of October. The reading was sponsored by the Catholic Culture Podcast. As always, click the icons below to read the new work.
A few new items have gone out from my desk in the last month, including two new book reviews and one new poem. So, click below to read about the work of Daniel Brown, John Foy, and Paul Mariani, and have a look at the beautiful spread The European Conservative created for the debut of my work in their pages. This month also marks the publication of two new anthologies, Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, edited by Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas, and The Saint Mary's Book of Christian Verse, edited by Edward Short. Some of my poems appear in both these anthologies. I've included some pictures below. Those of us who want to make a lasting work, and worry about the mortality of mortal things, will appreciate what a blessing it is to have poems live on in anthologies, where new readers and future readers may discover one's work.
What's new this month from James Matthew Wilson? I'd like to know myself. After a month of running the Houston residency for the MFA program, circling Lake Michigan with family and friends, a trip to Louisville to give three lectures and receive the Memoria Press Parnassus Prize, and then doing a public interview with Dana Gioia at the Napa Institute, there has not been a whole lot of time for writing. I have some new work forthcoming in books and magazines, including a good number of poems, and I expect to have two new books out in the coming year, but for the moment I have two prose pieces to share, both of which speak, I think, to an important theme in the intellectual and Christian life: honesty. Or, what W.H. Auden called being "silly." Have a look.
I write this note from Houston, where the University of Saint Thomas Summer Writers Institute begins tomorrow. For three days, participants from around the country will convene to discuss theology and the arts, the history and practice of literary craft, and their own work. Through a generous donation, we were able to pay for all students' tuition and food for the Institute. We kept the numbers low to ensure an intimate but convivial gathering and personal attention to each participant's writing. As soon as that concludes, the first annual MFA residency in creative writing will begin and, for ten days, our students will gather to discuss poetry and fiction, to critique each other's work, and to hear from some of the great writers of our day. Indeed, the Saint Thomas Summer Literary Series will run from tomorrow through June 28th and bring an incredible slate of writers and scholars to Houston to discuss the future of Catholic letters. Online silence will soon descend, and so let me share just a few items in the usual monthly update. I have a new poem to share, two new essays (including one bringing to a close my three-part Map of Dante), and a miscellany of lectures and podcast appearances, all viewable or listenable just by clicking the images below. The selection of videos here may prove a little overwhelming: a lecture on the Catholic imagination in American poetry, my participation in a discussion of the classic Italian film La Strada, some thoughts on poetry, and my conversation with several distinguished writers on the question of literature, form, and story.
My most recent book reviews are available here. In the months ahead, I'll be publishing short essays on what the great works of the Catholic literary revival have to teach us still. If you read last month's "The Body of Notting Hill," which was the first in the series, you'll have a sense of what I mean. New poems are forthcoming for a number of magazines presently. I'll be traveling the lecture circuit so much that I do not have time to list the dates and places. I hope you'll find something in these new pieces to while away the hours and draw you nearer to good art and transcendent beauty.
This month, I have a few encounters to share. First, my new poem "Encounter," in North American Anglican Review. Second, a set of five poems in Alabama Literary Review, most of which were inspired by the re-encountering of my native terrain, after my family's permanent return to Michigan this summer. Third, my interview with Matthew Sawtelle of Vermillion magazine. And, fourth and finally, my re-encounter with The Catholic Thing, where I resume my regular column after a short hiatus. This month begins a series of essays inspired by Catholic authors; this round, Chesterton and Pope Francis on the irreducible necessity of the truth of incarnation. Click the icons below to read the latest from James Matthew Wilson
The establishment of the world's first MFA program in Creative Writing in the Catholic Literary Tradition is taking a little time away from the Wilson writing desk. Who could have guessed? There is forthcoming work, however, and will be more as we head into the new year. For the moment, have a look at this new poem and new review essay, both of which dwell on one of my favorite subjects, the question one's natural homeland and our spiritual homeland. Click the icons to read.
Providence often draws the unlike together to make it a coherent whole. So it seems in this month's update, where a new poem, an essay in political philosophy, and a reflection on composing a new Litany for a requiem Mass all seem to call us to enter more deeply into the religious mystery of being -- or rebuke us for the often cruel ways in which we refuse to do so. Click the links below to have a look.
In the very old department, have a look at my new essay in Catholic World Report in commemoration of the seven-hundredth anniversary of Dante's death. In the new department, please find links to two recent poems in Reformed Journal: "Cracks" and "The Prow of the House." In the very, very new department, learn a bit more about the new MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas, Houston, in my latest Catholic Thing essay, "A New Chapter of Grace." Click the icons below to take a look!
I remember once mentioning to a classmate of mine that I'd gone to the movie theater the evening before. She was compulsively facetious and, no sooner had I shared this small bit of intelligence, than she spat out, "Oh, was it a talkie?" On the road, preparing even now to unload the boxes I only just loaded in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, I have not done much writing this month. But I did have the great honor of delivering a lecture for Thomas More College, in New Hampshire (set in my home study just before the shelves came down) and then to appear on a wonderful video podcast. I share them with you here in hopes that, should you be interested in seeing a movie and hearing a talkie, on the subjects of beauty, poetry, and the divine, these might do the trick.
These last weeks have been -- and will remain, I pray -- singular in my writing life. My library broken down into book boxes and stacked about me, as they await moving day, I managed to crank out a handful of new pieces. These are the last I shall write in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, my family's home these last twelve years. Anything new I may write will be written somewhere in Michigan, after our return to our home state after such a long absence. Some of that final work will be forthcoming in the months ahead, but two little pieces managed to appear within eight hours of each other (not good pacing, Wilson!). I hope you will enjoy a little tribute to two great writers under one title: "O Rare Ben Jonson," and also my review of Sohrab Ahmari's important new book, The Unbroken Thread, which appears in the latest issue of National Review. Click below to read them now. On the far side of that move I will also continue with the founding of the new MFA program in Creative Writing at the University of Saint Thomas, in Houston. There has been much good and generous publicity for and attention given to this new institution; it is not only hopes that are pinned on its flourishing, but those of many who want to see an improved and richer age of thought, literature, and culture within American society and within the Catholic Church. If you have any interest in joining us, in supporting us, or simply in learning more about what we are up to, do not hesitate to drop me a line through the contact page of this web site.
This last week, it has been my distinct pleasure to fight for things worth loving: the Church and Her Saints; the academy and the joy of wonder; the human person as a being made for more than petty bodily pleasures. Click on the icons below to read my latest in The Wall Street Journal, Public Discourse, and Genealogies of Modernity.
This week, I have to share two newly published poems and an exciting conversation with actor Peter Atkinson, who hosted me on the daily podcast of his theatre company, The Merry Beggars. I invite you to click through had have a read, a listen, or both. Finally, I update this website regularly so that it brings news of all my various publications. I encourage you to check back regularly, to subscribe to my irregular and informal newsletter, to pick up a copy of one (or more) of my books, and, last but not least, to pass on word of my work to your friends, enemies, neighbors, and distant, long-estranged uncle in California. Everyone -- even that guy! -- needs a little more poetry in their life.
 Thanks to the generosity of the Benedict XVI Institute, my new book of poems, The Strangeness of the Good, was launched from its berth last night. I was delighted to read some poems and field questions along the way from those in attendance. Nothing replaces the pleasure of a proper reading and book signing, but it is gratifying to be able to spend even this sort of time with readers and with those concerned about the arts of beautiful and the sacred. If you missed the event, you can watch it all right here, and if you still have not picked up a copy of the book for yourself, I encourage you to click the book cover (at left) and do so. I could not have expected to ring in the New Year by getting to spend so much time in conversation with the Bishops of the Church. But last week, I appeared on the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan's radio show to discuss my Wall Street Journal essay on Christmas. And, tomorrow night, I will join San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone to launch my new book, The Strangeness of the Good. I invite you to watch the interview by clicking on the newspaper below (I come on at about 27:00) and also to register for tomorrow night's book launch. We are all looking forward to proper events in person returning this new year, but it is a curious blessing to be able to include people from all over the world in my public events thanks to the internet. I'm grateful for the interest that has already been shown in my work and for this opportunity to share it with others.
 I'm about to go downstairs to play some Christmas carols, but before I do, let me wish all readers a Merry Christmas in the only way that I really know how: to share some writing on the subject. Here is my Christmas essay for The Wall Street Journal's weekend magazine. Click on my beloved Jimmy Stewart to read it.
Readers may have come across my essay, "Poetry and the News," which kicked off the a Theopolis Institute Conversation last month. Since its appearance, five poets and scholars have weighed in and, now, I have written a final response and reflection -- one that reflects on the meaning of Ezra Pound and modernism for poetry, but one which also sets down some observations and principles that help, I hope, explain why so few people read poetry in our day but also why they should. Click the Theopolis Logo to see my Final Response. Jessica Hooten Wilson kindly recommended The Strangeness of the Good in her newsletter, last week. She is back, in Law and Liberty recommending it once more and this time with the kind of detail that I hope will whet your appetite. 2020 may be the year that we want to forget, but Wilson argues I have made that dismal period memorable in a way we will want to remember. Click the Law and Liberty logo and scroll waaay down to see Jessica's generous recommendation.
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