Real Enough

In his latest turn at Harriet, Jason Guriel (whose new book of poetry, Pure Product, is inching ever closer to publication) extends his previous column on late novelist Roberto Bolano into a meditation on the phenomenon of made-up poetry moonlighting as a plot device in novels.

"It’s fascinating when novelists – especially those who aren’t known as poets – actually do write some poetry, for the purpose of, say, prodding along a novel’s plot. We usually neglect them, these works-of-art-within-works-of-art, but they’re not without their critics and admirers."

Read the rest here.