Brief Candles by Bill Rector

Is Shakespeare universal? In “Brief Candles,” a series of sonnets that recreate Shakespearean figures in modern settings, Bill Rector argues, Yes! These characters, from Macbeth to Caliban, are as familiar as the strangers we pass on neon-lit streets.

About the poet: Bill Rector is a retired physician. He was Poetry Editor of the Yale Journal of Humanities and Medicine and is co-founder, with Mark Irwin, of Proem Press. He has published his work in numerous journals, including Field, Prairie Schooner, The Denver Quarterly, The Colorado Review, and Hotel Amerika.. A full volume of poetry, “bill,” was published in 2007 by Proem Press; it has been followed by four chapbooks: “Lost Moth;” Epiphany. “Biography of a Name;” Unsolicited Press. “Two Worlds;” White Knuckle Press; and the present volume.