Loneliness, while inherently isolating, is also a universal experience. This dichotomy lies at the heart of poet Katie Ford’s newest collection, “ If You Have to Go .” Dominated by a crown of 39 sonnets — each linked by the repetition of the last line of a poem as the first line of the next — the book unfolds as a dreamlike narrative loosely...

There was a time when Rachelle Cruz, M.F.A. ’12, had all but given up on getting her poetry collection published. A 10-year labor of love, she recalled sending out “ God’s Will for Monsters ” 20-25 times before taking a two-year break from her attempts. As a last-ditch effort, Cruz submitted her collection to Inlandia Institute’s second annual...

“The Wilderness” by Maurya Simon is now available. (Jaime Clifford) RIVERSIDE, Calif. ( www.ucr.edu ) — How do you encapsulate several decades of your life? That was the question for Maurya Simon , professor emerita in the Department of Creative Writing and professor of the Graduate Division at the University of California, Riverside, while putting...