John James is the author of The Milk Hours (Milkweed, 2019), selected by Henri Cole for the Max Ritvo Poetry Prize. His poems appear in Boston Review, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, PEN America, Best American Poetry, and elsewhere. He is completing a PhD in English literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

John James

Christopher Kondrich is the author of Valuing (University of Georgia Press, 2019), selected by Jericho Brown as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and Contrapuntal&nbsp;(Free Verse Editions, 2013). New poems appear or are forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Believer, Bennington Review, The Cincinnati Review, Crazyhorse,&nbsp;The Kenyon Review,&nbsp;and elsewhere.&nbsp;An associate editor for 32 Poems, he lives and works in Maryland.

Christopher Kondrich

Language Does Not Need to Be Hopeful to Provide Hope: A Conversation Between John James and Christopher Kondrich

"I have nothing to say, and I am saying it, and that is poetry." — John Cage

Poetry

Christopher Kondrich is the author of Valuing (University of Georgia Press, 2019), selected by Jericho Brown as a winner of the National Poetry Series, and Contrapuntal&nbsp;(Free Verse Editions, 2013). New poems appear or are forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, The Believer, Bennington Review, The Cincinnati Review, Crazyhorse,&nbsp;The Kenyon Review,&nbsp;and elsewhere.&nbsp;An associate editor for 32 Poems, he lives and works in Maryland.