Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio | Essays and Criticism

  • The hopelessness in Autumm Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

    David Caplan is a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia. In the following essay he considers the hopelessness that “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio” expresses.

  • Use of Memory and Geography

    Jeannine Johnson currently teaches writing and literature at Harvard University. She has also taught at Yale, from which she received her Ph.D., and at Wake Forest University. Her most recent essay is on Adrienne Rich’s “To a Poet,” published in the Explicator. In the following essay, Johnson considers Wright’s use of memory and geography in “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio,” arguing that his commitment to place prevents him from inappropriately idealizing his subject.

  • The Poetry of Football

    Bruce Meyer is the director of the creative writing program at the University of Toronto. He has taught at several Canadian universities and is the author of three collections of poetry. In the following essay, Meyer analyzes how Wright captures the “poetry” of the game of football in “Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio.”