“The poetic, as I am so elastically and ethereally defining and redefining it, needs an almost surreal sense of liberty, a comfort with its own illogic.” — William Bowers

Essays by William Bowers, Padgett Powell, and Sam Anderson. Mark Schone digs in to New York Times–bestseller J.H. “Jim” Hatfield’s fabricated life. Photography by Adam Shemper. Poetry by C.I.M. Jones and R.T. Smith.

Other contributors include Hal Crowther, David Ramsey, Katy Vine, Paul Reyes, Lauren Wilcox, and more.