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In a long-lost Fader interview that resurfaced the day after David Berman’s death, Nick Weidenfeld levels charges of solipsism and lack of empathy that he defines as “an inability to…

David Berman is the only poet I’ve ever known. He didn’t call himself one. He didn’t dabble in poetry. He didn’t try to impress people with his poetry. When I…

In Roe Ethridge’s cover photograph for David Berman’s book of poems Actual Air (1999), two glass office towers rise over a row of pines (fig. 1). Below, a dry and…

In “Snow,” the opening poem of David Berman’s first and only collection Actual Air, the speaker walks through a winter scene with his younger brother: I pointed to a place…

Actual Air was the first book of poetry I read that felt contemporary. It was 2003 or so and the book had been published by Open City in 1999. I…

A rabbi, a real cabbalist, once said that in order to establish the reign of peace it is not necessary to destroy everything or to begin a completely new world….

“Songs are like tattoos.” In the hours after news of David Berman’s tragic death swept across social media in August 2019, I found myself remembering Joni Mitchell’s memorable line about…

David Berman — musician, poet, accidental comedian, non-accidental philosopher — released seven albums, one book of poetry, a collection of cartoons and a handful of EPs. He didn’t tour his…