I've Got a Good Guess Where It Takes Place

Substituting for Maud, Wendy McClure (not, as I drowsily posted in the wee hours of the morning, the previous pinch hitter, Jimmy Beck) beat me to posting about this story, but Daniel Nester has a great article in the current Poets & Writers about life as the McSweeney's sestina editor, which isn't always pretty:

"You must be vigilant for the missing stanza or the end-word scheme gone awry. The exchanges I have had with writers whose sestinas I have solicited range from 'I'd be embarrassed to show mine to anyone' to 'Will you accept a Pindaric sestina with a modified envoi?' to the rather succinct 'I fucking hate sestinas.' This underscores the love-hate relationship many contemporary American poets have with the idea of climbing Mount Sestina. Just about every creative writing student is assigned to write a sestina to flex the rhetorical muscles, and more than a few are driven batty in the process."

Nester also scores an interview with poet/teacher Lewis Turco, whose The Book of Forms Nester cites on matters sestinal. "I began writing another [sestina] when you first called, and I've since finished it," Turco tells his interviewer. "It's titled 'The Vision,' and it tells the story of how I first decided to cast my lot as a writer. The end-words are eyes, tiles, white, time, blank and crapper."