Beautiful & Pointless: A Guide to Modern Poetry

(Harper)

The author aims to take some of the mystery and fear out of reading modern poetry. In this witty guide, Orr tries to give readers a “sense of what modern poets think about, [and] how those poets talk about what they’re thinking about.” Orr is the poetry columnist for The New York Times Book Review and a former Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.

Paw in print

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The September 2026 cover of PAW, featuring the headline "Minds at Play" written in game pieces — crossword, Scrabble, and Rubics Cube.
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September 2026

Princetonians who puzzle; inside ORFE’s rise; how 9/11 changed lives.