Ben Purkert @BenPurkert Twitter profile

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

Woke up to a stellar review of my novel in @washingtonpost , WHAT IS MY LIFE ?!?!?!!?

Review | A bumbling man-child, it turns out, can still be a funny antihero

Ben Purkert’s witty debut novel stars a sometimes lovable screw-up who would feel at home in a novel by Philip Roth.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

Toni Morrison wrote the best opening paragraph of a novel ever

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

my toddler loves pizza and loves bagels so I figured I'd notch an easy win and make him his first pizza bagel and holy shit I've never been so wrong in my life

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

hey remember when Anne Carson did that Guardian interview and just totally slayed it

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I will add that, as someone who has both Jewish and Italian ancestry, I took this L especially hard

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

even he, mid-tantrum, has some pity for me I think, because he can tell that I really genuinely thought I had this one in the bag

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

sometimes i'll just be walking down the street, saying something in my head, and then i'll add "including the parrot"

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Anne Lamott on writing toward vulnerability

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

every semester I make myself PROMISE to begin with a happy poem and then um

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

the opening totally slays me every time

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Mary Ruefle on motherhood is a beautiful thing

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

This new Kaveh Akbar essay on spirituality and poetry is absolutely stunning, a revelation

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

wild how every writer has basically one central theme that runs across all their work, and when readers point it out, the writer is like Huh

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

this juxtaposition, i'm fully dead

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

ok well this blew my mind

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Mary Ruefle’s answer

Nicole Tallman

@natallman

2 years

Why do people love poets more after they’re dead?

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

ok this poem just completely broke me open, my lord

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

What's happening at Rutgers is that *multiple* unions are joining forces for a common good and it's honestly inspiring to see @ruaaup @ruaaup_ptl #RUOnStrike

Why Rutgers faculty are striking for the first time in 257 years

"I don’t want to enjoy securities that other people who perform similar teaching work don’t enjoy."

www.motherjones.com

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

@EcclesiastesSun for the sake of comparison:

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Jane Hirshfield on poems and secrets

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Charles Simic on genre, you're welcome

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

this is literally hell

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

good morning from Emily Dickinson

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

end of summer so yes i will be channeling surly nabokov and his empty butterfly net

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

What's the one piece of writing feedback that still haunts you to this day?

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

this Jen Levitt poem, my lord

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

nobody else's poems make me laugh and cry like @heatherchristle

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

@ItsIntuition they're all such snobs, the little ones

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

and if you haven't read Jazz, consider buying a copy from your local bookstore! currently 3 copies left in stock at @Loyaltybooks >>

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I honestly love poetry twitter. you’re like Can anyone recommend a sestina featuring a crab, a neutron, and wicker furniture? and then the replies are in the millions

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

good morning to this gorgeous and deeply haunting Ed Hirsch poem

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

here's some Denis Johnson to completely fuck up your workday 😈

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

still thinking about this @VChangPoet poem

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

parenthood is so hard but sometimes it is also this Ross Gay poem ✨

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

publishing advice from Ocean Vuong, via @themoneyiowe

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

another Jen Levitt stunner

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

incredible Maureen Seaton poem, RIP (via Kaveh Akbar)

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

so I wrote a novel (!) and it’s coming out next year (!) and my one wild and precious life is officially a wrap 💀🍾✨

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Sestina, an Italian bistro that serves a six-course meal in which each course is made from the same six ingredients

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

Mary Ruefle wrote basically the best Mother's Day card ever

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

@JaminLM omg yes he HATES bumps literally threw a tantrum because our carpet is not smooth enough

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

the carnage continues

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

here's a novel you can preorder in which both pizza AND bagels appear, if you'd really like to stick it to my three year old

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

My students read this @heatherchristle poem and compared it to this meme and it's the best literary analysis of our time

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

the single most relatable opening to a novel ever, by Deborah Levy

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

11 months

i henceforth will never write another book because how can i ever top this, no i cannot

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

and she finishes it off with a volcano flex

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

the world just gained another pisces and I couldn't be more thrilled

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

Grace Paley will haunt me with this forever

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

Only pubbed one (1) poem this whole damn year but hey here it is! @thenation

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

love this new @VChangPoet in @POETSorg

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

for those curious about the opening paragraph, here's Morrison (from her foreword) on how she came to write it, after feeling frustrated by earlier attempts

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I think this poem is *extraordinary* (the ending especially!) and here's a few quick thoughts on why:

Benjamin Gucciardi

@bengucciardi

2 years

Vievee Francis, from the latest @sewaneereview

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

the life of a writer is waking up at 3am to scribble out the most searing urgent truth and then reading it over in the morning like ok this is trash tho

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

BOOM, another body blow

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

9 months

will never recover from when my aunt and uncle came to a book event and, when nobody else showed up, they praised it as "pleasantly intimate" 💀

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

hey the hype was right, this rips

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

“The real joy of poetry is to experience… leaping inside a poem.” RIP Robert Bly

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

total stunner from Matthew Nienow in @Missouri_Review , my lord

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

kinda wild how some edits are like Hey maybe cut this adverb? and others are like Have you delved sufficiently into the depths of your soul and brought that dark discovery to the page?

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

poets will start a sentence with “of course” and then unleash some truly wild and scarily unhinged brilliance

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

we writers are somehow the most observant and least self-aware creatures on this sad planet, bless us

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

the euphoric affirmation of reading a universally acclaimed book and then finally stumbling upon the review that articulates your own particular objection better than you ever could

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

WS Merwin published this banger at age 89

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

@brinicio Wow that’s incredible actually

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Whenever anyone says anything about "Raising the stakes," I instinctively go into a full-body shudder

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

🚨🚨🚨 my book has a COVER and yes it is quite literally fire The Men Can't Be Saved, out 8.1.23!! preorder now or burst into flames...

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

new gig alert!!!! thrilled to be joining this MFA community and these students, what a wild gift

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

John Fowles on the fundamental difference between novels and movies

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

@livrstrat what train did they take? only asking bc i need to know every detail, so i can fully and faithfully live life as this icon

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

brutal knockout, here's the whole thing if you want to score it for yourself

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

5 years

There's a part in Virginia Woolf's diary (I'm paraphrasing and don't have the book with me) where she wonders how bombs dropped in London will impact the reception of her book and it reminds me that certain behaviors we writers attribute to social media are in no way new

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

Every writer is torn between two conflicting impulses: Don’t rush to publish, relish the process, take your time, and... OMG A BUS WILL HIT ME TOMORROW I JUST KNOW ITTTTT

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

imagine living like this and not even being a staff writer for the ny review of books, humiliating

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Jorie Graham on what it really means to live a life

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

On poets publishing outside of poetry:

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

most unforgettable literary twitter drama of all time? rank voting strongly encouraged

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

this may be the goodreads review that ultimately turns me into the joker

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Incredibly sad to hear about Charles Simic's passing. I've never met anyone who cared as deeply about levity. He was so serious and so funny and so full of poetry in his bones.

Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Charles Simic on genre, you're welcome

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

Annie Dillard has zero chill and I remain in awe

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I talked with @adalimon about her poems, her garden, and where she finds hope. All new Back Draft with the all new US poet laureate (!) in @GuernicaMag

Back Draft: Ada Limón

The new US poet laureate discusses the myth of individualism, the climate crisis, and what makes a “core poem.”

www.guernicamag.com

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

literally nothing is deader than the Poetry Is Dead take, it is a corpse floating in a sea of formaldehyde

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

my dentist just ordered two copies of my book... authors, I am begging you, RUN to get a cleaning

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

another total stunner from Jenny George

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

for the whole glorious thing:

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

nothing as thrilling as when a student who's been stone silent in class hands in their first assignment and it's totally brilliant and suddenly you see that the light was on the whole time

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

Jane Wong on independence and survival

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

5 years

If you find yourself in need of some beautiful poetry today, I offer you these lines from @Danez_Smif

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

Poem by Kevin Young

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

10 months

Vanity Fair named my novel a Top 20 Book of 2023 (!!) and so today is officially my NYE 🪩🍾🕺

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I’ve read these proofs enough times that my eyeballs are literal spinning dreidels and yet it’s still a thrill that my novel is coming sooooon 🎈

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

hey my galleys just arrived! I love them!!!! my harshest critic, however, remains unimpressed

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

Love this interview with the late Lucie Brock-Broido, especially this part. via @GuernicaMag @eawright @bookswimming

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

I don't know whether this poem can help. I don't know if poems ever really help. But I do know that this one gives voice to an otherwise unspeakable pain.

Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz

You whom I could not save,

poets.org

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

From Joy Harjo's Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

7 years

My book has a COVER and it's all feeling very real. FOR THE LOVE OF ENDINGS, @FourWayBooks , March 2018!

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

@EcclesiastesSun for what it's worth, I like Sula more than Jazz, but the Jazz opening paragraph is unbeatable for me

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

1 year

the fungi are plotting something, stay vigilant out there 👽🛸

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

3 years

Forever grateful that I get to interview writers about their revision process for @guernicamag . Here's what Back Draft was up to this year >>> 📝👀

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Ben Purkert

@BenPurkert

2 years

maybe the only difference between poetry and fiction is that when someone asks what your poetry is about, it’s socially acceptable to say Everything and walk away

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