An Introduction to Kylan Rice by Kristina Marie Darling


Reminiscent of the work of noted poets Kristen Case, Jennifer Chang, and Richie Hoffman, Kylan Rice is a rising star in the contemporary literary landscape. His faultlessly constructed lyrics engage a wide range of intriguing philosophical concerns, namely perception, epistemology, and otherness. More specifically, Rice is concerned with the alterity within the individual subject–self seen as other, as Paul Ricouer would say–and the myriad ways this alterity is evoked not through social interactions, but instead thorugh landscape and architecture. As a reader, I am compelled by Rice’s ability to bring the nuances of writerly technique to bear on these lingering questions of nature, estrangement and ultimately reconciliation, a “song that rushes in.”

Kylan Rice, PhD, is the associate editor of the Missouri Review. His books include An Image Not a Book (2023), a collection of poetry, and Incryptions (2024), a collection of essays. Individual poems and essays have appeared in journals such as Colorado Review, Denver Quarterly, Image, Kenyon Review Online, Oxford Poetry, Quarterly West, and West Branch, among others. He co-edits Thirdhand Books, a poetry press, and lives in Columbia, MO.