Wiseblood Books

05/12/2026

What does it mean to be a reader of good taste? How can we inhabit the moral imagination in a way that avoids heavy-handed moralism? How can we grow in prudential judgment and spiritual discernment while delighting in the books we get lost in? And can looking at the world through the “million windows” of the “house of fiction” really elevate or transfigure the lives we lead?

In More than a Matter of Taste, Joshua Hren explores these questions and presents fresh takes that possess timeless significance.
Our founder and editor-in-chief, Joshua Hren, has written his tenth book More Than a Matter of Taste, published today. You can read more about it in his Substack:
https://open.substack.com/pub/beatificvisions/p/trying-to-render-justice-to-reality?r=88dby&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

05/07/2026

“The city of the dead is right in the middle of this other city, the heart of the whole country, and no one cares.”—from “A Prayer” by Wojciech Chmielewski
Have you gotten your copy of White Week from Wojciech Chmielewski, the award-winning Polish author? This is his FIRST book translated into English, available from Wiseblood.

https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/a-polish-master-of-short-prosein?r=88dby&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

05/01/2026

What’s Wrong with Men? Something? Everything? Nothing?:

Laments and warnings over the dire-strait state of young men play out predictably according to the two-sided breakdown of our partisan politics: men’s troubles stem, alternately, from right-wing incel podcasters to left-wing woke college admissions boards. The solutions, too, range from the obvious (stop watching po*******hy / get off social media) to the medical (use creatine).

https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/whats-wrong-with-men-something-everything?r=88dby&utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

04/29/2026

We live in an age rich with wonderful podcasts, so many that it would be impossible to listen to them all. Over the years, Matthew Wickman has hosted many engaging conversations on his Faith and Imagination Podcast–digging deeply into the important questions of human existence. Paul Pastor was recently a guest on the show to discuss faith, the state of contemporary poetry, and his poetry collection The Locust Years.
Read more in our newsletter:
https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/poetry-and-peace-wrestled-from-suffering?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

04/23/2026

Midge Goldberg describes Rhina Espaillat's work as "A Gracious and Modest Punch to the Gut" It has been an honor to publish Rhina's work. She's a national treasure! Read more in our newsletter (with a link to Midge's review):
https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/a-gracious-and-modest-punch-to-the?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

04/21/2026

Do "listen-in" to this conversation between our Deputy Editor Mary Finnegan and Steve Knepper over at New Verse Review . . .
"I think being a nurse taught me a type of attention. One way of paying attention is to quietly observe, allowing your senses to take in sounds and scents and sights, to rest your hand gently on something and feel it, to taste something, instead of just consuming it. But as a nurse, most of the time, you’re moving around, doing multiple things at once, and yet you still have to attend to the small details, little changes in the patient’s breathing or color, his smell or how he moves. You have to pay attention to these small things that seem like nothing until you put them together. For example, a tiny little increase in heart rate might not mean anything, but put that together with a change in color, a slight increase in respiratory rate, a slight swelling of the leg, and, well, all of those signs present at the same time in the same patient might be pointing to a brewing problem. As a nurse, you need to notice all those things and consider them together, analyze them, while doing all of your other tasks and duties. And this is often in the midst of noise and distractions, and, sometimes, chaos. To do that well requires you to cultivate an ability to receive and perceive no matter the circumstances and then to trust your intuition. It requires you to predict what might happen based on those signs and symptoms. And you just have to learn how to do this, to cultivate skills you already have, to learn ones you don’t. These are all things you need as a writer too."

Nursing, Ireland, and Narrative Verse

04/16/2026

Here It Snows in June by Eric Cyr, available for pre-order from Wiseblood Books. Read more in our newsletter:
https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/here-it-snows-in-june?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

04/10/2026

If you are in the Philly area, May 7th, please join Wiseblood author Alfred Nicol, poet April Lindner and our deputy editor Mary for some poetry.

04/09/2026

Join us in a poetic feast!

Poet Caitlin Doyle captured Espaillat’s generosity of spirit when she observed: “Over the course of her career as a major figure in American letters, Espaillat has put together a body of work that, like the best kind of supper, combines everyday ingredients in unforgettable ways. . . .” That praise extends to her ninth full-length collection of poetry, For Instance, which we released in January of this year. As Doyle reminds us, “we are blessed that Rhina Espaillat has invited us, once again, to feast at her table.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/wisebloodbooks/p/join-us-for-a-poetic-feast?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

03/30/2026

The Catholic University of America Press just published this interview with Dana Gioia on Faith in the Furnace of Doubt: Dana Gioia's Visionary Poetics, a new book by our founder and editor-in-chief Joshua Hren:

Q. How does it feel to read Joshua Hren’s Faith in the Furnace of Doubt?

A. My reaction is complicated. Obviously, I’m enormously grateful to have such an intelligent and perceptive book written about my work. Who wouldn’t be? How many authors have such a brilliant book written about them while they’re still alive? I not only feel flattered but humbled.

My other reaction is astonishment. Reading Faith in the Furnace of Doubt, I was shocked by each chapter. The book told me things about my poetry that I had never consciously noticed. And they were all true! It reminded me of the first time I heard my own voice on a recording. Yes, it was my voice, but it sounded different than it did in my own ear.

Read more of the interview, as well as a free excerpt from the book, here:

On the blog this week we offer our readers the Epilogue from Joshua Hren’s new book on Dana Gioia, and then a brief Q&A with the esteemed poet! https://dhjhkxawhe8q4.cloudfront.net/catholic-university-america-press-wp/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/30143319/The_Silence_Of_The_Poets_From_Faith_In_The_F...

03/30/2026

NEW REVIEW OF RHINA P. ESPAILLAT'S TRANSLATION OF SOR JUANA from Denise Trull
https://open.substack.com/.../the-mystery-of-poetic...
Espaillat's Sor Juana translation and her translation of St. John of the Cross are on sale now.
"It is all expressed here: that awful, dawning dread when that one person is taken away or simply must part ways through life’s circumstances. It’s confusing and disorienting. The pen suddenly shakes in our hands and we wonder what we will do without their input, their advice, their wonder, their deep questions, their joy at our words shared. The poem she wrote is an exquisite metaphor for this grief. I understood every word of it, though it describes its own unique circumstance. I am grateful for the helpful catharsis it engenders."
https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p137/The_Liquid_Pour_in_which_my_Heart_has_Run%3A_Poems_by_Sor_Juana_Inés_de_la_Cruz%2C_Translated_by_Rhina_P._Espaillat.html

https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/store/p135/The_Spring_that_Feeds_the_Torrent%3A_Poems_by_St._John_of_the_Cross%2C_Translated_by_Rhina_P._Espaillat.html