All of us at NER mourn the loss of Paul Otremba, a wonderful poet and generous soul. We were fortunate to be able to publish his poems in our pages, most recently in fall 2018. Paul also served as a poetry reader for several years, reading and commenting on hundreds of manuscripts.

In an interview last October, Paul spoke to poetry editor Rick Barot about his poem “Like a Wide River,” as well as about industrial landscapes, the Mississippi in his imagination, and being an artist in the Anthropocene. He also briefly remarked upon his own illness and his forthcoming book, Levee.

At this time we’d like to offer this recent poem by Jennifer Grotz from 40.1, “The Conversion of Paul.”