Category: Poetry News (Page 2 of 6)

Here is a link and news wrap-up for the first month of 2016:

Ten Easy Steps to Get Your E-Book Ready for Editing

Reading Aloud: Author Open Mic Night Doesn’t Have to Suck

Poetry is protest for poet Sasha Banks (PBS Newshour)

Chinese publisher pulls 'vulgar' translation of Indian poet (The Guardian)

What is the real cost of being a poet and a writer? (Scroll In)

Emily Dickinson biopic, passing of poet James Tate mark Amherst 2015 literary scene (MASS News)

Justin Chin, S.F. poet who incorporated complex themes, dies (SF Gate)

Review of Ezra Pound: Poet, Volume III, The Tragic Years 1939–1972 by A. David Moody (Dallas Morning News)

C.D Wright Obituaries

• Los Angeles Times
• The Boston Globe
• Brown Daily Herald
• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• NPR
• ABC
• The New Yorker

I also received a postcard from the Dodge Festival. They say they are returning to Newark, New Jersey, to the Performing Arts Center and Downtown Arts District. I haven't been in decades but this event was the most fun I ever had at a poetry event. Read the review, "How to tell if you are at Ozzfest or the Dodge Poetry Fest." Save the date: October 20-23, 2016!

Poet Kay Ryan Explores Love, Loss & the Passing of Time in "Erratic Facts"  (NPR)

In new collection, Marin poet Kay Ryan contemplates nuances of loss (San Francisco Chronicle)

An Unexpected Revival For A Beloved Russian Poet Anna Akhmatova (NPR)

Massachusetts historians digging for poet’s lost house (WWLP local news)

 This Poet Nails Why 'All Lives Matter' Will Always Be A Horrible Argument  (Huffington Post)
This is an awesome example of the practical and political influence of poets in our own times Poets are able, through their abilities with rhetoric, to explain and comment more precisely on complicated cultural issues and conflicts.

Ode to Whataburger by Amir Safi goes viral  (The Houston Chronicle)

A Conversation with First Latino U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera Part 1 and Part 2  (Democracy Now!)

Patti Smith on 19th Century Poet William Blake and on Creating Political Art "Unapologetically” (Democracy Now!) 

Experimental Game Turns Players into Poets and Writers (Big Think)

Full disclosure, I had a class with Ross Gay at Sarah Lawrence so I'm taking this opportunity to enthusiastically name drop. I haven't read this book, "Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,"  yet but I'm feeling very positive about what I've read about it so far, it's tone and the kind of mindful direction it seems to take. It's been shortlisted for National Book Award (Los Angeles Times).

Stamford jazz poet reflects on New Orleans 10 years after Hurricane Katrina (News Times)

Edgar Lee Masters, the American Poet Pope Francis Quoted (Time Magazine)

CK Williams Dies (New York Times)

Profile on Kenneth Goldsmith (The New Yorker)

Do you think the inventors of printing typeset would have ever predicted this as the result of their hard labors?

 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (for shrug)

For the few years I've been publishing this poetry blog and tracking news about poets, I've come to see that poets actually get lots of ink in the mainstream US press. Maybe more than they deserve if you consider the small amount of poetry books that sell every year in America. And this is a good thing!

Was Shakespeare a stoner? Study says poet may have used pot (The Today Show)

You may know the acclaimed poet Elizabeth Alexander from her reading at President Obama's 2009 swearing-in ceremony (NPR)

Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman Who Captivated C.S. Lewis (New York Times)

STL poet laureate opens Ferguson Commission meeting with poems on Michael Brown and police violence (The St. Louis American)  Scary things were happening in St. Louis this week due to the one-year anniversary of the first shooting to put police violence against black people on the media radar.  Michael Castro pictured above.

Publisher’s Weekly’s Picks for 10 Best Novels by Poets

Our So Sad poet did good!

Poetry in the News

James Tate dies:

– The Washington Post

– The Los Angeles Times

A lot of poetry news happened during the month I was gone. Here is a sampling…

Poet creates first class for transgender poetry  (PBS.org)

The Progress of Poet Maxine Kumin  (Forward)

Amy Gerstler’s “Scattered at Sea” throws convention and familiarity overboard and asks us to consider what remains.  (Washington Post)

Poet Gregory Pardlo on Elton John’s ‘Bennie and the Jets’  (The Wall Street Journal)

A poem anonymously posted in a London bar is driving everyone crazy with its awesome twist ending  The happy palindrome (my Dad sent me that one)

Poet Lorca named one of seven most important Spaniards in contemporary history  (Olive Press)

Gary Snyder, 'Poet Laureate of Our Continent,' Lives in the Present   (Newsweek)

Poet Richard Blanco Talks About Cuba and His New Literary Project  (Miami New Times)

Is Poetry Dead  (CNN)

'It's Me, Singing, Gone But Here': Honoring Poet Philip Levine   (Huffington Post)

Women's National Book Association honors poet Amy King  (The New Orleans The Times-Picayune)

A Day in the Life of a Modern Poet  (The Huffington Post)
“Last fall, we were issued a $250 fine for accepting a donation for poems we wrote on The High Line on National Poetry Day. Later, we learned of the vicious debate swirling the city about buskers and other public performers. We hadn't done our homework before trudging our typewriters to the city, so we innocently accepted the few bills floated our way as we wrote and gave away our poems for two hours before a sharp-tongued park police officer whipped out her citation pad. We fought the ticket in court, but lost, and felt so discouraged by the outcome that we were nervous to attempt writing poetry in public again.”

Larkin, Poet’s Corner? Shouldn’t there be another place for poets like him?  (The Guardian)

Poet Claudia Rankine: ‘The invisibility of black women is astounding’  (The Guardian)

Bill Murray Joins Poets House’s Annual Walk Across The Brooklyn Bridge (The Observer)

Local Coverage courtesy of Ann Cefola:

• TV Coverage
  
• NY Daily News

Inaugural Poet Launches Cuba Writing Project (NBC Miami)

The Poet Who Died For Your Phone (Time Magazine)

A Poet Can Indeed Be Trouble In 'Set Fire To The Stars' (NPR)

At 96, Poet And Beat Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti Isn't Done Yet (NPR)

Dylan Thomas biopic stars pay homage to the poet's favorite New York haunt (The Guardian)

When a Poet Needs a SWAT Team:  The American Spectator Can there be any help for a white, male poet who has declared himself dead? (American Spectator)

A new U.S. poet laureate was declared: Juan Felipe Herrera!

• LA Times
• MSNBC
• NPR
• The Guardian
• New York Times

My condolences and prayers to the families of the Charleston shooting victims. The Guardian coverage: The Charleston shooting victims: a poet, a politician, a librarian, women of faith"

Simon Armitage, Making poetry pay:  In a culture that has consigned poetry to the margins, Armitage has become something very rare: a genuinely popular British poet. Aida Edemariam hits the road with the busiest man in verse.  (The Guardian)

‘Welcome to This House,’ the Private Life of a Poet: Barbara Hammer’s impressionistic yet informative portrait of the poet Elizabeth Bishop.  (The New York Times)

Poet Jessica Jacobs talks Georgia O’Keeffe and her debut collection  (Mountain Xpress)

Russians Honor Deceased Poet Brodsky on His 75th Birthday (The Moscow Times)

Caution: World-Changing Poetry at Work, In essays as forceful as they are graceful, the poet Jane Hirshfield argues that poetry possesses the ability to transform the way its readers perceive the world.  (The Daily Beast)

Poetry Kept My Patient Alive (Opinionator)

Egyptian Court Acquits 17 in Case Arising From Poet’s Death at March  (The New York Times)

Poet Aja Monet Confronts Police Brutality Against Black Women With #SayHerName
(Huffington Post)

Also, if you join the Academy of American Poet's email newsletter, there were good links in the last few weeks to LGBT Pride Poems and Mother’s Day poems.