Last July, on hearing news of Reetika Vazirani’s suicide, we began a conversation in the Poetry Forum, pondering the connections between our art & self-destruction. We also hoped this thread would be used to post remembrances of poets who ended their own lives, to memorialize their lives and their poems. Now Paula Span has done exactly that for Vazirani, in tracing her life through conversations with her friends & family and writing this subtle & sensitive account of her career, her last days, & the struggles of the people she left behind to comprehend her suicide:

from the Washington Post:
“The Failing Light, Why did a rising young poet plunge into despair, taking her own life and the life of her 2-year-old son?”

Everyone is invited back to our Forum discussion of poetry & suicide to share reactions to this story.