7 / Points of View

Diverse stories, diverse techniques

The pieces featured in “Points of View” are markedly broad in focus—the debate over killing wolves in Alaska, the cruel face of poverty in Philadelphia, and Robert Frost and the impact of poetry. The writers in this issue do not favor any one particular technique; rather, they write from perspectives both intimate and distant and their backgrounds range from journalism to poetry to immersion nonfiction.

These pieces show how writers who find something to say, and who find the right way to focus on it, can employ a startlingly broad array of narrative techniques to make the intimate emotions and realities of their characters spring to life in the minds of their readers. Featuring work from Sherry Simpson, Maxine Kumin, Charles Simic, and others.