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Poet of the Week
Poets are, and always have been, plunderers of other poets: the true patron of poetry is Hermes, the god of thieves.
Henry Israeli‘s most recent poetry collections are Our Age of Anxiety (White Pine Poetry Prize), and god’s breath hovering across the waters, (Four Way). His poetry has appeared in journals including APR, Boston Review, and The Harvard Review, as well as anthologies including Best American Poetry. He is also the founder of Saturnalia Books.
Basman Aldirawi (also published under Basman Derawi) is a Palestinian physiotherapist, writer and poet from Gaza. He has contributed dozens of stories/poems to the online platform We Are Not Numbers and other platforms including ArabLit, Mondoweiss and Vivamost. He also co-authored Light in Gaza: Writings Born of Fire, 2022 and the Arabic poetry anthology, Gaza, the land of poetry, 2021.
Raphael prefers to go by Ralph, he feels it suits him better and he’s heard every Ninja Turtle joke ever uttered. He is the author of the debut poetry collection Paper Pistol (University of Arkansas Press, 2026), selected by Patricia Smith as a finalist for the 2026 Miller Williams poetry prize.
Ethel Rackin is the author of In Time (Word Works Books, 2025), Evening (Furniture Press, 2017), Go On (Parlor Press, 2016), and The Forever Notes (Parlor Press, 2013). Her work has appeared in The American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, New England Review, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, Volt, and elsewhere.
Sal Randolph is an artist and writer who lives in New York and works between language and action. She is the author of The Uses of Art, a memoir, and her poems have been featured in BOMB, jubilat, La Vague, Luna Luna, Pamenar, Sound American, Vestiges, and elsewhere. Her weekly is Free Words (salrandolph.substack.com).
Ramsey Tawfick is a British-Egyptian Coptic poet and filmmaker based in London. His work has appeared in places like Palette Poetry, Pamenar Press, Kahf magazine and engine(idling. He is a finalist for the Rising Poet Prize (Palette Poetry) and was longlisted for the Leonard Cohen Prize (ONLY POEMS).
Kathy Fagan’s seventh collection, The Unbecoming, is forthcoming from W.W. Norton in Autumn 2026. Her 2022 collection, winner of PSA’s William Carlos Williams Poetry Prize, is Bad Hobby (Milkweed), available in print and audio. Sycamore (Milkweed, 2017) was a finalist for the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Award. A 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, she is Professor Emerita of The Ohio State University, where she co-founded and directed the MFA Program in Creative Writing and co-edited The Journal/OSU PressWheeler Poetry Prize Series.
Jason Bredle is a linguist and intellectual property specialist serving the life sciences community. His most recent poetry collection, I Love You But I Don’t Speak Your Language, was awarded the 2025 Juniper Prize for Poetry and is forthcoming from the University of Massachusetts Press.