Blog Posts tagged with "Four Reincarnations"

A year ago today, Max Ritvo passed away after a long battle with cancer. Here are just a few of the most wonderful interviews, reviews, and remembrances of Max available on the internet.

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Letters from Max, a book including the correspondence between Max Ritvo and Sarah Ruhl. Letters from Max tells the story of the relationship between a young poet diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and a celebrated playwright who began as his teacher and became, over the course of an extended correspondence, his friend, and finally, his student.

“Gratitude compels the recognition that we exist because of the gifts of others, that we are all connected. And gratitude reminds you that you already have everything you need, and is thus a restraint on consumption. Practicing gratitude in a consumer society is a powerful act of resistance.” —ROBIN WALL KIMMERER

In many respects, 2016 feels like a year that has mostly taken: from the notable artists we’ve lost—including two of our own, Max Ritvo and Phebe Hanson—to the countless assaults on the bodies and fundamental rights of our brothers and sisters, our environment, and our democracy. At this moment, when the losses are so tangible and when consumerism is at its height, we offer our deepest gratitude for all you have given in 2016.

One Friday afternoon this past May, I received an email from Martha Collins. She asked me to consider a manuscript by a young poet named Max Ritvo. Jean Valentine had selected his work for a chapbook competition, Martha explained, and Lucie Brock-Broido had selected some of the poems in the manuscript for publication in the Boston Review. Martha added only that there was some urgency, as an illness had thrust this young man into what would become the final stage of his life.