Erika Staiti at saidwhatwesaid.com has put together a forbiddingly comprehensive record–236 pages at last count–of the online conversations that took place in the wake of the “Numbers Trouble” debate published in Chicago Review 52:2/3. Follow this link for the whole massive PDF, or click here for Staiti’s Editor’s Statement and Appendices.

From John Wilkinson’s fan letter-cum-review of Keston Sutherland’s “Hot White Andy,” a long poem first published in Chicago Review’s British Poetry Issue (53:1) and republished as a chapbook by Barque Press:

The present review seems to be the first of a poem I think the most remarkable poem in English published this century. Having seen the shell-shocked response of two very different audiences I am at a loss to account for the speechlessness unless we’ve been outdone in our jabber and feel abashed (I’m assuming there is some kind of operative ‘we’ about, I hope so). The poem is doing some work nonetheless. A passion for new British poetry was admitted to me more than a year after this poem had been detonated in their heads, by some graduate students on a major poetics program in the US. But given the absence of print or internet commentary, I feel compelled to write a fan letter rather than a critique, and to say a possible poetic future starts here — and if it doesn’t, I suppose I can go and grow vegetables.

I’m getting to this a little late, but The New Yorker ran a “Briefly Noted” item on C.D. Wright’s new Rising, Falling, Hovering. About the book’s “stunning” title poem, which first appeared in Chicago Review, the unsigned reviewer has this to say:

Wright weaves the strands of various narratives—a trip to Mexico, a friend’s recent illness, the speaker’s conflicts with her college-age son, her grief over the news from Iraq—into a profound meditation on our longing for common experiences. The benumbed activities of the day (“I have been to Pilates I found my old coat”) are interrupted by reports of the war’s mounting casualties: “As of three hours ago / 2,311 of our members are to remain Forever Young.”

The first part of the poem—available as a PDF here—appeared in Chicago Review 51:3; the second part appeared in CR 53:2/3, our most recent issue. Both issues are still available for sale.

Over at Delirious Hem, Elizabeth Treadwell has organized “Dim Sum,” a slate of 14 responses to Juliana Spahr and Stephanie Young’s “Numbers Trouble” [PDF] and Jennifer Ashton’s “The Numbers Trouble with Numbers Trouble” [PDF], both of which appeared in Chicago Review 53:2/3.

Other responses to the debate are available here.

This week’s Publisher’s Weekly turns a welcome spotlight on Jeff Clark, the designer responsible for some of the truly remarkable book covers that have appeared over the last few years, from Matthew Rohrer’s Rise Up (Wave Books) to Hannah Weiner’s Open House (Kenning Editions) to Jonathan Bate’s biography and selected poems of John Clare (FSG). Jeff’s work is everywhere these days; besides being design director for Flood Editions—which has not one but two books of poetry up for an NBCC award this year—he designs for Ahsahta Press, Wave Books, and Essay Press, among many others. He also designed every Chicago Review cover between the Ed Dorn special issue (50:2/3/4) and our latest issue (53:2/3).

“Hot White Andy,” a long poem by Keston Sutherland that was featured in Chicago Review’s British Poetry Issue, has earned its italics. The poem henceforth to be known as Hot White Andy is now available as a standalone chapbook from Barque Press for $10 (plus $3.50 for shipping).

Allow us to mention in extended passing that the British Poetry Issue of CR—which includes all of “Hot White Andy,” Sutherland’s “Roger Ailes,” nearly 80 pages of poetry by Andrea Brady, Peter Manson, and Chris Goode, critical essays on the work of all four poets, fifteen reviews of new British poetry, and everyone’s favorite poetry map—is still available for $12 (shipping included) at the Chicago Review website. What’s more, the unitalicized version of “Hot White Andy” includes a representation of the Andy Cheng Memorial Tower (above), which the new version does not.

But if you do decide to order Hot White Andy, you might as well pick up the new issue of QUID while you’re at it. QUID 18 (sometimes known as This is not “This Ain’t No Chicago Review”) gathers poetry from all four corners of Brighton and includes a very, very smart essay by Keston on the indigenous stupidity of poets. Yes, I said the indigenous stupidity of poets. You’ll have to read it.