Another gay poet to know: Kaveh Akbar

Earlier this week, I posted an item spotlighting Poem-a-Day, which recently featured a gay African-American poet, Cyrus Cassells. The April 23 edition of that service brought "My Father's Accent" by Kaveh Akbar, a gay Iranian-American writer who is currently poetry critic at The Nation and has published several collections. In contrast with Cassells, whose work tends to be sensuous and lyrical, Akbar's style is rough and gritty, and his poems overflow with violent images--as in a 2017 poem, "Ways to Harm a Thing." To put it another way: If you like Dennis Cooper novels, you'll probably like Akbar's poetry.