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Interview with Holly Karapetkova on Delmarva Today: Writer’s Edition

October 2, 2019 By The Editorial Team

Holly Karapetkova

DelmarvaPublic Radio's weekly program, Delmarva Today, is hosted by Delmarva Review's very own Fiction Editor, Hal Wilson. In Writer's Edition #73, Hal interviewed Holly Karapetkova, whose poetry has appeared in Delmarva Review. Her writings are broad-ranging and unveil the deep wounds left by our history of racism, slavery, and environmental degradation. In sad recognition of the 400 year anniversary last month of the introduction of slavery into the colonies, our conversation will focus primarily on Holly’s poems on slavery published in volume 11 of the Delmarva Review. It was in August 1619, that a pirate ship dropped anchor off Jamestown, Va. 20 to 30 slaves were offloaded and sold to the colonists. This was only 12 years after the founding of the colony and one year before the Puritans landed at Plymouth Rock. We forget that it was also 157 years before the declaration of independence. 400 years ago last month, at colonial Jamestown slavery was woven into the very fabric of our country. Holly’s poems capture that ingrained nature of racism we still experience today.

Continuing the theme of exile and separation, we also discuss a number of her poems on immigration.

Holly’s poetry, prose, and translations have appeared widely in print and online in places such as Alaska Quarterly Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, Poetry Northwest, The Nashville Review, and Delmarva Review. Her books include Words We Might One Day Say, winner of the 2010 Washington Writers’ Publishing House Poetry Award, and Towline, winner of the 2016 Vern Rutsala Poetry Contest from Cloudbank Books. In addition to her poetry and translations, Holly has written more than 20 books for children. She teaches in the Department of Literature and Languages at Marymount University.

Click below to tune in. This is a fascinating and timely discussion.

 

 

Filed Under: Feature, Podcast Tagged With: Delmarva Public Radio, Hal Wilson, Holly Karapetkova, Immigration, Podcast, Poetry

Pushcart-nominated “Responsibility ” by Holly Karapetkova

December 3, 2018 By The Editorial Team

Holly Karapetkova
Holly Karapetkova

Holly Karapetkova

RESPONSIBILITY

Excerpt from Delmarva Review Volume 11. Adapted for podcast production by Delmarva Public Radio, Writer's Edition. 

“When the kitchen breakfast is over, and the cook has put all things in their proper places, the mistress should go in to give her orders… The mistress must tax her own memory with all this: we have no right to expect slaves or hired servants to be more attentive to our interest than we ourselves are.”
-Mary Randolph, Virginia Housewife;
Or, Methodical Cook, 1828

With one hand                                       I serve teacakes on
the blue                                                    India china,
with the other                                        I wipe mosquitoes
sweating                                                   from my neck.

With one voice                                       I order French
tureens from Calder’s                          & Co.,
with another                                           I order the cook
not to burn                                             the gravy.

The hush of                                            what is beneath the
damask                                                     tablecloth
at night                                                     grows knives.

With one mouth                                   I smile at
the good doctor with                           the other I grit
my teeth                                                  watching dark eyes
always                                                      watching me.

They know what moves                     in shadows
refuse to polish                                     the silver
for love of                                               tarnish. They know
the other names                                    for everything names
they flash                                                like knives
when no one is around                      looking.

Filed Under: Feature, Prose & Poetry Tagged With: Holly Karapetkova, Poetry

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