In 1871, at the tender age of 16, Arthur Rimbaud penned “The Drunken Boat,” using vivid imagery and symbolism to tell the story of a boat adrift at sea before it finally sinks. Over a century later, the French poet’s title would become the namesake of an online journal of poetry—one of the first, in fact—that I would co-found at the turn of the new millennium.
Recently, I sat with The Ilanot Review and chronicled the history of Drunken Boat. I talked about its inception on a Brooklyn rooftop as my friend, Mike Mills, and I decided to take advantage of his HTML skills and my newly-purchased web domain to create a zine. Much to our surprise, the first issue caught the eyes of readers from as far away as the U.K. and Australia, and we realized that we had created something much greater than a hobby or a casual forum to share poetry.
Today, as one of the oldest electronic journals of literature, Drunken Boat is at the forefront of the arts and their voyage into digital spaces; The Review Review went so far as to say that “Drunken Boat is, or should be, central to any discussion of literature online or online literature.” We remain committed to challenging the norms and conventions of poetry and giving voice to historically marginalized and underrepresented artists.
To learn more, visit my website or Drunken Boat!
Ravi Shankar | Poet 