Friday Links
August 25, 2025
Cruising Across Elk Lake
Singing the Counter-Revolution: Ryan Wilson Interviews EPB
Lu’ella D’Amico:The Sound of Accompaniment: Brian Wilson, Catholicism, and the Spiritual Life of Boys
Caught Up in the Drift
Chris Childers: Birthdays, Roman and Otherwise
Matthew Milliner: Julian for Everyone
Singing the Counter-Revolution: Ryan Wilson Interviews EPB
Amazing interview!
For so many people, when they think of poetry, when the Platonic ideal of poetry pops into their head, it's an imposter– it's not poetry at all. And I really worry that, just like so many of the beautiful languages that exist in this world, real poetry is dying. I really wanted to do something about that. I knew that it was important to me to write poetry that was in conversation with the past, poetry that knew what it was doing technically speaking, and hopefully doing something important, content-wise. But I also wanted to enable other people to understand what poetry was, to be exposed to some of the great poetry of the past. And if you are familiar with Versecraft, you'll know I tend to focus on poetry that's pretty recent. I do have some episodes on Renaissance poetry and 19th century poetry, but I tend to focus mostly on 20th and 21st century poets who write in form.
Lu’ella D’Amico:The Sound of Accompaniment: Brian Wilson, Catholicism, and the Spiritual Life of Boys
I’ve been agnostic about the Beach Boys, but essays like this one are making me reconsider:
Somewhat surprisingly, I have to admit that the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson contributed to my religious awakening and offered me two unexpected gifts: a joyful attentiveness to beauty and a vision of spiritual accompaniment. Wilson—though not attached to any particular religious tradition—taught me, a sometimes (read: oftentimes) overthinking English professor, not to be embarrassed by spiritual joy. His music helped me let beauty of all kinds minister to my senses, a skill I began to carry into worship, as the liturgy progressively became less something to comprehend and more something to receive.
Caught Up in the Drift
McGonigle was unknown to me, but this essay make shim seem awfully intriguing. h/t: Sheenan!
The modulated praise that McGonigle earned for Patchogue was a high point for a writer whose influences are primarily European and whose uncompromising vision long ago left him at odds with mainstream fiction. To give you an idea of how contemptuous of the literary marketplace McGonigle has been for nearly 40 years, just consider that his obscure debut novel, The Corpse Dream of N. Petkov (1987, Dalkey Archive Press), was a stream-of-consciousness reconstruction of the last moments of Bulgarian politician Nikola Petkov, hanged in 1947 in Sofia after a show trial. Even during the height of the Evil Empire, no one was likely to rush over to the local Barnes & Noble or B. Dalton to scoop up a novel about the ex-head of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, executed by the Soviets for anti-Communist activities.
Chris Childers: Birthdays, Roman and Otherwise
If you aren’t reading Chris Childers, what are you even doing with your life?!
Matthew Milliner: Julian for Everyone
There are upsides to going to a college where students aren’t allowed to drink. It means that on a Friday night, fun-thirsty youth deprived of their keg parties instead pile into a lecture hall for a true rager: duelling perspectives on the theology of the fourteenth-century mystic Julian of Norwich offered by two Midwestern philosophy professors. On this recent occasion, my colleague Adam Wood made a case that Julian could be squared with Thomas Aquinas. My colleague Ryan Kemp, on the other hand, gave a more existential, Kierkegaardian approach to the anchoress (since published in his elegant book of essays). Both were brilliant, and both were right, because Julian’s writing is capacious enough to allow for both interpretations, and then some. About one hundred students showed up, as well as people from the community. It was hard to find a seat. Keg-party hangovers typically last a day, but all of us who attended this intoxicating evening are still thinking about it months later. I’m thinking especially about Julian’s perspective on unmerited grace.
