Hard times …

… Greek Poetry in the Shadow of Austerity | The New Yorker. (Hat tip, G.E. Reutter.)

While many of the poets in “Austerity Measures” carry this activist tradition forward, one of the most striking features of the collection is its refusal to pin down what writing is and isn’t political. Van Dyck opts for a wider picture, including plenty of “work which doesn’t directly address the political situation,” thereby aiming “to provide deeper and more various answers” to questions of a poet’s responsibility in the political process. The book’s forty-nine poets are grouped into six loose areas of influence. This scheme, though inevitably imprecise, provides contours to a generation of poets who are largely unknown to English-speaking audiences.