John Wall Barger

Honored by these generous words from Matthew Olzmann about my new poetry book, Resurrection Pie.

Out in one month. Preorders here:
lsupress.org/978080718606...

#poetry #newbook

Here's something super cool I get to put on the back cover of my forthcoming book, which comes out in March 2026. Giant thanks to Shane McCrae @akasomeguy.bsky.social

I’ve got a cover! My new book of poetry is coming out with @lsupress.bsky.social early in 2026. 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Grateful to the designers who made this spiraling metallic (anti-pie) cover-vibe. And to my editor James W. Long for his guidance and encouragement. 🥳

Preorder info: lsupress.org/978080718606...

Original Child Bomb Threnody It would be tempting, if you were a theoretical physicist working on the first atomic bomb, to imagine yourself as a demiurge. To frame the process as spiritual longing for God’s wrath . . .

I've got a new essay on Hiroshima -- via the poet Tōge Sankichi, the director Ishirō Honda, David Lynch, and others -- in the great journal @fullstopmag.bsky.social 🥳

www.full-stop.net/2025/10/30/f...

How to write about memories of being bullied? I have no idea!

Anyway, thanks Prairie Fire Magazine for including this little poem in their new issue!

Things as It is: An Interview with Chase Twichell Chase Twichell on poetry, Zen, and the luminous attention that begins where the self ends.

"When a poem has an ideological mission, it knows where it wants to go, and turns its back on all the other possible destinations" -- Chase Twichell

Thanks to Chase Twichell for talking to me about Zen & wasps & the limits of language. & to Guernica!

www.guernicamag.com/things-as-it...

Here is a picture my mother Jean took of my parents' gorgeous desi dog Ruthie beside the marvelous literary journal The Dalhousie Review which was good enough to publish one of my poems. Little pockets of love and light

Grateful to have a new poem in the latest Tampa Review.

Yayy!

I'm working hard this summer on translating the powerful and puzzling poems of Marina Pizzi from Italian. I hope to have a draft of her book, Intimate Distances, finished before long.

Pleased to have a few of these translations published in Beltway Poetry.

www.beltwaypoetry.com/three-poems-...

Victoria Chang: “The Swan” A poem by Victoria Chang: “The thin shirtless / man fishing by / the river. The woman // by his side, smoking.“

Stunning poem by Victoria Chang in the Yale Review

yalereview.org/article/vict...

Excited to share some good news in my life, with big gratitude to LSU Press @lsupress.bsky.social & editor James W. Long, and others I'll thank soon, my next poetry collection, RESURRECTION PIE, is coming out in early 2026. 🥳🥳(second pic is me fiddling with pages of the ms in an empty classroom) ❤

Just got some good news! Mary Dalton chose my poem “Darwin Awards Song” for Best Canadian Poetry 2026, which will come out in a few months. Big thanks to Event for originally publishing the poem in 2024. And to Mary Dalton!

“History of the Miserable Octopus” and Three Other Shorts — River Styx Magazine “Once, an octopus—many-hearted, hive-brained, boneless, muscular as a cloud—constructed a human form out of cheap materials that he knew would fall apart after eighty years at the most. He floated dow...

Very grateful to @riverstyxmag.bsky.social for publishing four flash fiction pieces of mine!

www.riverstyx.org/fiction/hist...

Thanks A Dozen Nothing! @adnpoetry.bsky.social You guys rock

Thank you to David Romanda for taking the time to interview me about poetry and teaching. It was a thoughtful and rewarding conversation.

www.romandapoetry.com/john-wall-ba...

One last Q & A with our featured poet for April, @johnwallbarger.bsky.social:

Q: Hey John, do you own anything unique?

A: 1989 R100RT BMW motorcycle!

Enjoy some great new poems by John at www.ADozenNothing.com!

Wanting to write a poem? Here's a fun prompt from our April featured poet @johnwallbarger.bsky.social.

Happy Friday! For all his talk of unlearning, our April poet @johnwallbarger.bsky.social also clearly learned a thing or two along the way:

Q: Hey John, if you could teach a semester-length class about a single poem, what would you choose?

A: “It Happens Like This,” by James Tate. The goat that becomes (maybe) Christ!

Definitely read that poem. It's great. And check out great work by @johnwallbarger.bsky.social at ADozenNothing.com!

Happy Friday! We love this poem by @johnwallbarger.bsky.social. You can read it along with five others at www.ADozenNothing.com.

Q: Hey John, is there anything you’d like to tell us about the poems we’re featuring this month at ADN?

Solid advice from our April poet @johnwallbarger.bsky.social:

Q: Hey John, what’s something you’ve learned from your students?

A: To stay open and also to let go of my ideas quickly when need be.

Painting: "Untitled" by Atsuko Tanka, 1956, MOMA

Check out new poems by John at ADozenNothing.com!

Here, our April poet @johnwallbarger.bsky.social makes us pine for his beautiful state:

Q: Hey John, what’s something you consider “poetic” about your part of Vermont?

From our April featured poet @johnwallbarger.bsky.social, some advice we're definitely going to take:

Q: Hey John, you’ve written some great long poems. Any advice for poets hesitant to try composing longer work?

I'm thrilled to have six new poems out with A Dozen Nothing (@adnpoetry.bsky.social‬) ❤️

After a super-chaotic morning, I'm psyched to be at my gate in Boston on my way to AWP in L.A.!

I'm still (living in Vermont) haunted by the dogs of Himachal Pradesh, India

I'm so grateful to the terrific journal I-70 Review for making me a feature poet in their new issue, and publishing six new poems of mine.

They also submitted one of the poems, The Great Cooling (pic below), for a Pushcart prize!

This seems about as appropriate as it will ever be