Sweet Briar Poet’s Work Appears in Paris Review

JENNIFER McMANAMAY
Staff writer

John Casteen

A poem by John Casteen, who teaches English and poetry workshops at Sweet Briar College, appears in the latest issue of a prestigious literary magazine.

Casteen’s Nocturne: Redaction is published in the online Summer 2009 Paris Review, along with works by former U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, Rome Prize fellow Craig Arnold and others.

In an e-mail to colleagues in Sweet Briar’s English department, Casteen wrote that for “some happy reason,” The Paris Review chose to make his poem available online.

Later, reacting to congratulations on the news, Casteen confessed that he felt like he had “slipped one past the goalie,” upon discovering his work in the Paris Review.

“I hope people like it,” he said. “I wrote that poem in my office in Fletcher Hall, on my birthday, while eating a chocolate bar that Eleanor Salotto had given me.”

According to its Web site, The Paris Review was founded in 1953 to emphasize fiction and poetry during a time when criticism held a “dominating place” in literary magazines. William Styron, writing in the inaugural issue, said the idea was not to exclude criticism but to relegate it to the back of the book, where he said it belongs.

“I think The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they’re good,” Styron wrote.