Elizabeth Hoover is an Assistant Professor of English at Webster University and the author of the archive is all in present tense, which received the 2022 Barrow Street Book Prize judged by A. Van Jordan. A native of Pittsburgh, she discovered her passion for archives, libraries, and museums exploring the Carnegie Library and adjacent museums. This poem folds together family stories, iconic images from photographer W. Eugene Smith’s “Pittsburgh Project,” and the speaker’s contemporary experience to capture how the past haunts the present and research unfolds in real time.
of what is not written, the archive only dreams
of what is not written, the archive only dreams When the archive dreams of Pittsburgh, smoke poursfrom the stacks, and librarians don goggles, wrap the booksin tarp. When the archive dreams of Pittsburgh, I perch on an overhead crane and watch as a silhouetteemerges from a row of hook blocks, shimmingwith a pole to flip …