Boston Book Festival 2019

According to an interview in BOMB, Nick Flynn’s latest collection of poetry, I Will Destroy You, was written “in a state of consciously and actively attempting not to write.” The result is a collection of poems, as Flynn admits, that “came out sideways,” depicting struggles with marriage, with fatherhood, with fidelity, and with mortality--in short, with what it means to be alive in the world. Martha Collins’s latest book, Because What Else Could I Do, is a spare yet visceral collection of fifty-five short poems, most addressed to her late husband in the six months following his sudden death. Booklist praises the collection, which “urgently and unflinchingly captures the shock and reverberation of unexpected grief.” Collins and Flynn will each read from their latest collections, followed by a discussion of the work, moderated by award-winning poet Fred Marchant. Sponsored by Mass Poetry.