NEW POEMS
Cider Press Review
New poems “Two Provençals” by Jonathan Blunk, published online in Cider Press Review, April 2026.
New poems “Two After Juan Gris” by Jonathan Blunk from his sequence on the life and work of the Spanish painter, published online in The Ekphrastic Review, 6/23/25.
Nixes Mate Review
New poem “At the Ship’s Rail” by Jonathan Blunk, from his sequence on the life and work of the Spanish painter Juan Gris, published in Nixes Mate Review, 34/35, Winter/Spring 2025.
New poem “Of Hunger and Certainty” by Jonathan Blunk from his sequence on the life and work of the painter Juan Gris, published online in The Ekphrastic Review, 5/23/25.
REVIEWS
An Ideal for Living: A Celebration of the EP
Review by Jonathan Blunk of Graham Parker & The Rumour’s The Pink Parker (1977) in An Ideal for Living: A Celebration of the EP – Extended Play, edited by Corey du Browa, Hozac Books, 2024.
The Georgia Review
Review by Jonathan Blunk of Laura Newbern’s poetry collection, A Night in the Country in The Georgia Review, Fall 2025.
READINGS
14 Gold Street Series Reading
Friday, June 27, 2025, at 5:30-7:00 pm, by Jonathan Blunk, biographer of poet James Wright, at the North Kingstown Free Library, 100 Boone St., North Kingstown, RI 02852. Hosted by Father Spencer Reece.
Monday Poets at the Free Library of Philadelphia
Monday, May 15, 2023, at 7:00 pm, featuring Jonathan Blunk, Celia Bland, and Cindy Savett on Zoom, Philadelphia, PA.
440 Gallery Poetry Reading in Brooklyn
Sunday, March 5, 2023, at 4:40 pm, featuring Jonathan Blunk, Celia Bland, and Cindy Savett. 440 Sixth Avenue, Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York, 11215.
KGB Bar Monday Night Poetry Reading with Jonathan Blunk
Monday, December 12, 2022, at 7:30 pm, featuring Jonathan Blunk, Celia Bland, and Cindy Savett. On the eve of James Wright’s 95th birthday, Jonathan Blunk will begin his reading with a poem of Wright’s and a tribute to Gerald Stern.
On the Poetry Foundation podcast Poetry Off the Shelf, producer Helena de Groot interviews biographer Jonathan Blunk on the life and longing of James Wright.
Listen here: Poetry Off the Shelf: The Eternal Present (March 3, 2020, podcast #427)
Read the complete review: The New York Times Book Review
BOOK REVIEW | December 3, 2017 | EDITORS’ CHOICE
JAMES WRIGHT: A Life in Poetry, by Jonathan Blunk. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux.) Blunk illuminates the influences and obsessions of the ecstatic, troubled Wright and reveals him to be a lot like his poems: brilliant, intense and equally likely to soar or faceplant.
"[An] engrossing biography . . . Wright comes through vividly on almost every page. Blunk began working on the book in 2002, and it's clearly the better for that long gestation . . . Blunk makes judicious use of Wright's papers, including important letters that only recently came to light . . . It's in the extensive endnotes that Blunk really shines, illuminating his sources and his resourcefulness . . . Literary biography at its fine-grained finest."
―Eric McHenry, The New York Times Book Review (Nov. 26, 2017)
Jonathan Blunk reads his poetry and discusses James Wright’s Spanish translations, in Madrid, Spain
La Residencia de Estudiantes, Unamuno Author Series 2019 & Desperate Literature Festival, in Madrid, Spain, on Thursday, May 30, 2019, at Calle del Pinar, 21-23, 28006 Madrid, Spain