The hole we’re in gets deeper, scoop by scoop. Ernest Hilbert takes its measure.
06.03.2026 16:10
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The hole we’re in gets deeper, scoop by scoop. Ernest Hilbert takes its measure.
This morning our newsletter readers received Ernest Hilbert’s “Dig,” from our Winter 2026 issue.
“You’ll dig your hole with teaspoons, thimbles, pins. / Get started soon. It’s going to take a while.”
Shane McCrae, one of the nation’s finest poets—and a contributor to the Winter 2026 issue—joins editor Boris Dralyuk in conversation about John Berryman, 152 of whose uncollected “Dream Songs” he has recently gathered in ONLY SING (FSG, 2025).
Two piercing poems, beginning with this one, by Will Wells.
Today we shared poems by Will Wells and Brooke Clark that treat, with light, sensitive hands but clear eyes, the moment of summing up, when we take account of what we will leave behind us, and, if we are lucky, accept it for what it is and what it isn’t. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/make-peace...
One of those moments an editor—this editor, at least—dreams of.
The Summer 2026 issue of NIMROD will carry this previously unpublished sonnet by Weldon Kees (1914-1955), one of the subjects of @mortenhoijensen.bsky.social’s essay from our Summer 2025 issue. It was discovered by Dana Gioia. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/night-in-j...
This morning our newsletter readers received Mays Kuhail’s mstory “Between the Seas,” which was awarded second place in our annual Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction competition by Nancy Jooyoun Kim (@nancyjooyounkim.bsky.social). nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/between-th...
Contributor's copies of the Winter 2026 issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social have arrived in Latvia. Many thanks to @bdralyuk.bsky.social and the team for including my humble poem among such luminaries.
Thank you, @nimrodjournal.bsky.social & @randallmann.bsky.social!
Thank you, @bdralyuk.bsky.social. The newly remade @nimrodjournal.bsky.social is so good, and I'm glad this anti-to-do-list has a home there. 💚
“The list
won’t last.”
A slim villanelle by Anna Lena Phillips Bells (@aproflection.bsky.social).
@aproflection.bsky.social
Today our newsletter readers received two poems from our Winter 2026 issue by Anna Lena Phillips Bells. These took second place in our annual Pablo Neruda contest, judged by @randallmann.bsky.social and are featured in the poet’s new Anthony Hecht Prize-winning collection, MIGHT COULD.
A copy of the winter 2026 issue of Nimrod atop a blue USPS mailbox. The cover displays the magazine's nameplate, its date, and the names of contributors, in colorblocked shades of brown.
A page from Nimrod Winter 2026 with the following text: ANNA LENA PHILLIPS BELL / Undoing / The list, / though long, / won't last, // though, loosed / to sing, / the list // spools past / even evening. / Won't last, // you, this fast, / unpausing— / you list, // creased, / task-stung. / To last, // rest, persist / in ceasing. / The list / won't last.
SScreenshot with text on a pale yellow-orange background reading: Mann on Anna Lena Phillips Bell: I love the economy yet fecundity of language in these poems, the sidelong wit and sense of wonder. My favorite of these is the villanelle "Undoing," the scrupulous pleasures and refusals therein: the play and pathos "spools past," slow but fast. And there is much to note in other poems too, the "style and stigma" of flowers; the unexpected elegy for a hat, a hat a proxy for us all as we inevitably fall apart. In knowing, winning ways, the poet transforms the everyday into a kind of open secret.
Here's the new @nimrodjournal.bsky.social, looking ✨✨✨. It has two poems from MIGHT COULD, including this one. Thanks to editor @bdralyuk.bsky.social, and to @randallmann.bsky.social, judge for the Neruda Prize, for naming this poem second place and for his comments. 💚
Excellent essay - a translator nightmare, and a not uncommon scenario. If you think translators ‘just’ translate, read this for a sense of the levels of research and responsibility we’re often tasked with, and how much can be at stake.
A beautiful sight, if I do say so myself…
We’re three issues in to the new run of NIMROD, redesigned by @utulsa.bsky.social’s own M. Wright. Our gratitude to the university, where the journal was founded 70 years ago, and to you, our subscribers and supporters, is boundless!
Esther Allen (@eallen.bsky.social) can spin the woolliest yarn with scholarly precision… You know who else was known for such things?
Our free newsletter subscribers have just received Esther Allen’s (@eallen.bsky.social) essay from the new Winter 2026 issue—a Borgesian tale of petty feuds and international rights, obsessive friendships and tangled copyrights. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/borges-and...
Thrilled for one of my #poems to appear in the latest issue of @nimrodjournal.bsky.social with Rachel Hadas, A.M. Juster, Brian Brodeur, and many other wonderful poets & writers.
Many thanks to poet & editor, @bdralyuk.bsky.social.
#poetry #memory #Medusa #mother
@franklininstitute.bsky.social
We’re thrilled to reveal the cover of our Winter 2026 issue, which is already reaching subscribers! Take a look at the contents here: nimrod.utulsa.edu/current-issue/
Thank you, partners, and happy New Year!
Happy New Year, writers! The contest windows are open!
nimrodjournal.submittable.com/submit
Go on over to read my little New Year’s note and, more importantly, Nicholas Pierce’s interview with Erin O’Luanaigh, who writes smashing poems like this:
Read an interview with Erin O’Luanaigh about her debut collection, AVAIL (@pauldrybooks.bsky.social), by Nicholas Pierce, along with her poem “His Girl Friday” from our Summer 2025 issue. nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/falling-in...
We could not be more excited to read your submissions to our annual literary contests! Please go to our site to learn more (link in bio, URL in the image).
We are excited to reveal the judges of our 2026 Literary Awards! Learn more about their work and enjoy a poem by Rachel Hadas from our coming Winter issue: nimrodjournal.substack.com/p/the-2026-l...
