More than 2,000 navigational beacons, big and small, oversee the nation’s 60,000-mile-long coast. Now they need an upgrade.

Frail-Craft. Jessica Fisher. Yale University Press. $16. 68 pp. It is not surprising that Pulitzer winner Louise Gluck, in her role as judge, awarded Jessica Fisher’s manuscript, Frail-Craft,… ...

In fractal geometry, objects usually have fractional dimensions — 1.46 for the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, for example. The human bronchial system has a dimension of 2.9.