SAM LADKIN ON ROB HALPERN

Sam Ladkin on Rob Halpern in the Summer 2013 number of World Picture: "The arc of Halpern’s poetry plots out the hopeful transportation of the queer into the common; his work narrates a transformation to be undertaken, in its greatest expectations, by society in general. What then is the strategy of this work? What does it seek to do, or how does it seek to behave in a way that will foment such developments? The answer to that question is held in a complex, disparate but interwoven set of theories that share two common traits: first, the suspension of the strong or traditional sentiments or affects of leftist politics (and their double in fascistic and nationalist overdeterminations); and second, the commitment to rethinking social bonds in a socialist tradition." Read the entirety of this overwhelmingly rigorous appraisal of Halpern's poetry here.