Due to the massive migratory movements of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries, the borders that outline the definition of German national identity are now strikingly fluid. Efforts to define “Germanness” in terms of a single common language, religion, ethnicity, or restrictive literary canon fail to encompass—and at times even acknowledge—the complex identities, artistic productions, and experiences of cultural hybridity of at least 20 million Germans with Migrationshintergrund [migration background] and the 11 million people that comprise the Ausländische Bevolkerung [foreign population] of Germany in 2018. In the de facto multicultural nation that Germany is now, Zafer Şenocak, born in Ankara in 1961, and Zehra Çirak, born in Istanbul in 1961, use (and purposefully misuse) German to subvert the aesthetic expectations of classic German poetry.

Abstract: Henry Beston is well-known for his seminal book, The Outermost House, and other works about the environment and his quest for an earth-centered life. His daughter, Kate Barnes, is a celebrated poet in Maine, where she published three collections of poems and served as the state’s first poet laureate. In this article, I discuss the complicated relationship between Beston and Barnes, articulated in letters and poetry. Barnes’ refers to her rich literary genealogy (her mother was the prolific writer, Elizabeth Coatsworth) in many of her works, but those poems which mine the depths of her relationship with her father are among the most complex in subject and image. Three principal themes emerge in these poems: Beston’s filial regret at having two daughters and no sons; Barnes’ use of mythology to reframe her family narrative; and her celestial kinship with her father. We can see in her last published collection, Kneeling Orion, a father-daughter tension that is partially resolved.

Harry Targ, Professor Emeritus Purdue University, serves as a guest editor for this special combined issue that explores art, social justice, and protest.

Wesley R. Bishop, founding and managing editor of NMR, introduces the fall 2022 issue.