SOURCE: Landau, Deborah. “‘How to Live. What to Do’: The Poetics and Politics of AIDS.” American Literature 68, no. 1 (March 1996): 193-225.

In the following excerpt, Landau argues that My Alexandria offers an important revision and reinterpretation of AIDS suffering and homophobic stereotypes, providing a redemptive, consoling, and life-affirming response to the disease countering popular misconceptions and the effects of fear, anger, and despair.

Senator Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican who has vigorously fought homosexual rights, wants to reduce the amount of Federal money spent on AIDS sufferers, because, he says, it is their “deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct” that is responsible for their disease.

—The New York Times, 5 July 1995

Don't let anybody tell you death's the price exacted for the ability to love. 

—Mark Doty, My Alexandria

What is the role of the poet in the time of an epidemic? Since AIDS was first identified, more than 360,000 cases have...