First Publication

Conversation with
Marvin Artis

This fall we’re celebrating the joy of first publication with fourteen poets who have never before had their poems appear in print or online. Rattle has always been a testament to the fact that publishing histories do not matter—powerful poems lurk inside all of us—and this issue highlights that truth. Culled from over 1,000 submissions, these standout poets are starting what we expect to be long careers in literature. The issue is also the breakout party for Marvin Artis, a previously unpublished lawyer in New York City who has enough brilliant poems hidden away to fill up a book. We’re publishing four of them in this issue, and Alan C. Fox visited with him for a conversation to learn more.

Also in this issue, an especially deep open section draws on love, death, and life in a hot dog factory. Featuring two poems each from Heather Bell, Kim Bridgford, James Valvis, and Roberty Wrigley, plus two Francesca Bell translations of German poet Max Sessner—this is the most poems we’ve ever published in a quarterly issue—47 of them.

 

	First Publication
	Marvin Artis	Meditation on a Dining Room Table
		Purple Hearts
		Life
		Penumbra
	David Borman	Modern Form
	Justin KB	Slow Worship
	Caleb M.X. Dance	Handscape
	Kristian Doyle	Sonnet
	Thomas Mann	Ask
	Farah Peterson	Auschwitz I & II
	Natasha Rao	Poem for a Blue Page
	Justy Rothe	Twice
	Julie Schultz	Singularity
	Ryan Thier	The Call to Pour
	Daniel Valdez	Leslie Doesn’t Believe in Love
	Jessica Venturi	To Mourn
	Nasreen Yazdani	How to Turn Off a Ceiling Fan
	Poetry
	Heather Bell	Love Poem
		Sad Song
	Kim Bridgford	The Carbon Monoxide Gas
		The Oven
	Travis Burke	Uncle Ivan and the Last Dog Race
	Barbara Campbell	Tangles
	Robert Carr	After Mother Dies, Most Men Need a Lover
	Kevin Clark	Elegy
	Nicelle Davis	After Coffee with My Nurse Friend
	Stephen Gibson	The Real Thing
	Mike Good	C.W.P.
	Jackleen Holton	Jesus Is My Flu Shot
	Samuel Hughes	At Night, My Father Does Not Sing
	Judy Kronenfeld	Letter to the Ministry of Loneliness
	Jacob Lindberg	You’re Bound to See Someone You Know …
	Katherine Lo	Gravitational Time Dilation
	Taylor Mali	The Father Speaking Through My Son
	Benjamin Myers	The Town Drunk Recalls the Rainmaker …
	Soonest Nathaniel	Parting Ritual
	Kathryn Petruccelli	Lamps
	Doug Ramspeck	The Long Dead
	Aaron Reeder	To My Uncle Who Is in Prison for Robbing Banks
	Mather Schneider	Suicide Lane
	Prartho Sereno	A Few Questions Before We Go On
	Max Sessner	August Evening
		It Is
	James Valvis	Mail Call
		The Distracted
	Robert Wrigley	So We Meet Again
		Rain
	Conversation
	Marvin Artis
	Cover Art
	Thomas Terceira