Welcome to SWWIM Every Day’s preview coverage of Miami Book Fair (MBF) 2021! The poets whose work you’ll be reading every weekday from October 25 through November 12 are just a few of the many authors from around the world participating in this year’s MBF, the nation’s largest gathering of writers and readers of all ages. They all look forward to sharing their work, thoughts, and ideas both in person and online. Between November 14 and November 21, new poet conversations and readings will be launched and available for free on miamibookfaironline.com (in addition to other content). For more information, visit the website and follow MBF on Instagram and Twitter at @miamibookfair and use the hashtag #miamibookfair2021.
1. How do you picture the shape of a year in your head Is a question my grandmother often asked. The jog at dusk ends at the point to watch the sun disappear. We drag sticks in the sand to spell out our names. To myself I write: Happy Birthday. The few trees before the beach in silhouette. The sky is red, the boats in the small harbor, docked. On the Rappahannock my grandparents moved to retire. As they aged, my mother rented herself this house. Because the land is the same level as the water The house sits high up on stilts. At night, from bed, The stars through the windows burn a circuit of lights. It all depends on where you start. A year is a circle, If not a point around which experience spirals. Because our mother is gone, we do not need the house. We tell ourselves this. Soon we will clean out inside.
Sally Keith’s fourth collection of poetry, River House, was published by Milkweed Editions in 2015; she is the author of The Fact of the Matter (Milkweed 2012) and two previous collections of poetry, Design, winner of the 2000 Colorado Prize for Poetry, and Dwelling Song (UGA 2004). A recent Guggenheim Foundation Fellow, she teaches at George Mason University and lives in Fairfax, VA.
Credit: from River House by Sally Keith (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2021). Copyright © 2015 by Sally Keith. Reprinted with permission from Milkweed Editions. milkweed.org
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