The Hopkins Review 17.2: Come Closer

In our spring issue, you’ll revisit friends lost, find fellowship from the recent to the ancient, and stare down more insidious in-group behavior with our signature gathering of poetry, fiction, translation, interview, visual art, personal essay, critical writing, and public-facing scholarship. Gioncarlo Valentine’s cover photograph Zola under Her Mom Farhia’s Coat sets the intimate tone.

must read

Featured
Two Minds.jpeg
Featured
poetry
Poems from TWO MINDS by Callie Siskel
poetry

At once cerebral and emotional, Two Minds is an essential meditation on the ways that loss cleaves and doubles our perceptive power.

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poetry

recent features

Featured
Poems from TWO MINDS by Callie Siskel

At once cerebral and emotional, Two Minds is an essential meditation on the ways that loss cleaves and doubles our perceptive power.

Read More →
Totality

Sarah Swandell’s debut short story about a couple sharing their secrets in the shadow of an eclipse.

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Key

Author M. Frost, a third-generation Baltimorean who works in occupational health, writes this poem, rooted in its place and moment, in response to the May 26, 2024 collapse of the Key Bridge. We publish it here, with a link to support the survivors and victims’ families.

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Three Poems from YOU by Rosa Alcalá

From the author of MyOTHER TONGUE comes a new collection of prose poetry exploring the intergenerational inheritance of gendered violence. Ruminating on daughterhood, mothering, and the body's cumulative wisdom, YOU traces a jagged line through fears and joys both past and present.

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Cristalina Parra on Writing Bilingual Poetry, and a Poem in Translation

Julián David Bañuelos translates Parra’s poem “Farewell” (“Adiós”) and asks about the process and influences behind debut collection Tambaleos: “I find pieces of home in different places.”

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Established in 1947 and relaunched in 2008, The Hopkins Review is a journal of literature and culture from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. It is published in partnership with Hopkins Press, America’s oldest university press.

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Subscribe to start with Vol. 17, No. 2, out now

 

  • In this issue and beyond, you’ll cross languages, borders, and cultures; you’ll also experience the rich artistic life of The Hopkins Review’s home city. This juxtaposition of global and local reflects our belief in conversation across real and perceived distances—art and scholarship, tradition and innovation. Our community includes readers, writers, artists, and scholars; the staff of the Hopkins Press Journals Division; esteemed advisory and contributing editors; and a brilliant editorial team of students in the Writing Seminars at JHU. We hope the issues in 2024’s volume—our 17th in THR’s “New Series” founded by John T. Irwin in 2007—provide both escape and connection.

  • Hajjar Baban, Kay Ulanday Barrett, Betsy Boyd, Morri Creech, Armen Davoudian, Jehanne Dubrow, Spencer Clark French, Katarina Frostenson, Heather June Gibbons, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Bradley tHarmon, Mark Harris, Joseph Harrison (1957–2024), Jennifer Keith, Kim Hyesoon, Ma Yan (1979–2010), Nathan McClain, Jean McGarry, Cindy Juyoung Ok, Aaron Poochigian, Donald Quist, Shannon Robinson, Jay Rubin, Rakuko Rubin, Mary Jo Salter, Diane Scharper, Callie Siskel, Willard Spiegelman, Karen Wilkin, Khaliah Williams, Gioncarlo Valentine, Winnie Zeng

  • On the cover is Baltimore-born photographer Gioncarlo Valentine’s photograph Zola under Her Mom Farhia’s Coat (2020). THR 17.2 also features a dynamic selection of drawings and mixed media paintings by Trenton Doyle Hancock, introduced by Karen Wilkin.


 
 

  • Meet the Poet

    featured in 17.2

    Nathan McClain (he/him) is the author of two collections of poetry: Previously Owned (Four Way Books, 2022), longlisted for the Massachusetts Book Award, and Scale (Four Way Books, 2017). He teaches at Hampshire College and serves as poetry editor of the Massachusetts Review. Photo credit: Moe Nazemi Photography

  • Meet the Writer

    featured in 17.2

    Khaliah Williams is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Her writing has appeared in Hawaii Women's Journal, Frontier Psychiatrist, Day One, Buzzfeed, and Salon. She lives in Baltimore with her husband and a decorative cat. She’s currently working on a novel about independent schools and college admissions.

  • Meet the Poet

    featured in 17.2

    Jehanne Dubrow is the author of nine poetry collections and three books of nonfiction, including Exhibitions: Essays on Art & Atrocity (University of New Mexico Press, 2023). Her writing has appeared in New England Review, POETRY, and Ploughshares. She is a professor at the University of North Texas. Photo credit: Cedric Terrell

  • Meet the Translator

    featured in 17.2

    Cindy Juyoung Ok is the author of Ward Toward from the Yale Series of Younger Poets. She teaches undergraduate and graduate creative writing.

  • Meet the Poet

    featured in 17.2

    Armen Davoudian is the author of the poetry collection The Palace of Forty Pillars (Tin House) and the translator, from Persian, of Hopscotch by Fatemeh Shams (Ugly Duckling Presse). He grew up in Isfahan, Iran, and is a PhD candidate in English at Stanford University. Photo credit: Matthew Lansburgh

  • Meet the Artist

    featured in 17.1–4

    Gioncarlo Valentine (b. 1990) is an award-winning photographer and writer. Valentine hails from Baltimore City and attended Towson University, in Maryland. Backed by his seven years of social work experience, his photographic work seeks to examine issues faced by marginalized populations, most often focusing his lens on the experiences of Black/LGBTQIA+ communities.

  • Meet the Translator

    featured in 17.1

    Amy Newman’s latest book is An Incomplete Encyclopedia of Happiness and Unhappiness (Persea). Her translations of Antonia Pozzi’s poems and letters appear in Poetry, Harvard Review, Blackbird, Atlanta Review, Tupelo Quarterly, and elsewhere. Her awards include a MacDowell Fellowship and the John Frederick Nims Prize for Translation.

  • Meet the Writer

    featured in 17.1

    N. Jane Kalu is a creative writing and literature doctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. Her short fiction has been featured or is forthcoming in American Short Fiction, Boston Review, Isele Magazine, Munyori Journal, and elsewhere. She’s working on a novel and a collection of short stories.

  • Meet the Poet

    featured in 17.1

    Tonee Moll is a queer & trans poet & essayist. She is the author of You Cannot Save Here and Out of Step: A Memoir. They hold an MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts from University of Baltimore and a PhD in English from Morgan State University.

  • Meet the Writer

    featured in 16.4

    T.J. Benson is a writer and visual artist from Nigeria who has published three books of fiction and regularly facilitates writing workshops. He founded Za! magazine and completed residencies like Art Omi New York and Moniack Mhor, Scotland.

  • Meet the Poet

    featured in 16.4

    S. Brook Corfman is the author of the poetry collections My Daily Actions, or The Meteorites, one of The New York Times Best Poetry Books of 2020, and Luxury, Blue Lace, winner of the 2018 Autumn House Rising Writer Award chosen by Richard Siken.

  • Meet the Writer

    featured in 16.3

    Petra Kuppers is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. Her third poetry collection, Gut Botany, was named one of the top 10 US poetry books of 2020 by the New York Public Library, and won the 2022 Award by the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment.

    Photo credit: Tamara Wade

Meet the Artist

featured in 17.1-4

Gioncarlo Valentine (b. 1990) is an award-winning photographer and writer. Valentine hails from Baltimore City and attended Towson University, in Maryland. Backed by his seven years of social work experience, his photographic work seeks to examine issues faced by marginalized populations, most often focusing his lens on the experiences of Black/LGBTQIA+ communities.