Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — It may be argued, then, that Plath’s “lasting achievement” was her ability to combine the personal and the mythical in her poetry, thereby endowing this with a timeless and “relevant” literary effect —
2. — A Russian Poet Unpeels Her Many Lives —
3. — Rare Emily Dickinson photo(?) purchased on Ebay —
4. — Intelligence And Rhythmic Accuracy Go Hand In Hand —
5. — Poetry workshop: Forward prize winner Matthew Francis invites readers to conjure sense impressions with metaphor and simile —
6. — In Paris in the 1930s he helped found the journal Black Student, which gave birth to the idea of “negritude,” a call to blacks to cultivate pride in their heritage —
7. — World-famous filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami is convinced that one of the problems Iranians encounter in understanding poetry is that they pay too much attention to rhythm —
8. — The Pulitzer jurists for this year’s poetry prize evidently felt the pain of Philip Schultz —
9. — Frequently asked questions about the business of verse By Robert Pinsky —

I have torn labrum in my hip & a cane now. I can do this. I just had to be freaked out for a while. I finally got an appt to the pain clinic & that is making me feel better — OK there are some tools and stuff out there.

I feel full of gristle.

edit: p.s. laughing is good.

Hey

I’ll be back around May 1st. Since my Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome diagnosis :/ my body has been somewhat falling apart haha. I don’t know if it is some weird psychosomatic shock, or this is a slide into physical disability or this is a temporary musculoskeletal freakout or ?.

The geneticist offered to refer me to a pain clinic when I was diagnosed but I said nah when she asked, although I have changed my mind haha and am waiting for a referral.

I’m trying an anti-inflammatory diet, exercise, I’m learning reiki, going to the chiropractor, etc. I bet I start PT again too. Mostly I am still, like, WTF? and as the primary breadwinner of the family (i.e. I pay the mortgage, have the job with health insurance, etc.) I am fighting a tendency to play catch with various scenarios in my head, all of which involve wrack and ruin WRACK! AND! RUIN!, hahaha. Plus there is the underlying fear of “am I going to be in this much pain - or worse - for the rest of my life?” And I have a weirdly high pain tolerance. Not that I enjoy pain. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that haha.)

I’m lucky though, from what I have read, a lot of people with EDS go years or decades without a diagnosis (it’s a rare condition) and/or a diagnosis of “it is all in your head.” Evidently, somatoform disorder is the new “hysteria.”

If you are looking for a orthopedic doctor in Nashville, I can recommend Dr. William B. Kurtz at Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance. He’s the smarty pants who noticed the EDS symptoms. The Division of Medical Genetics at Vanderbilt confirmed it, during a very thorough 3+ hour office visit.

Anyway, this is the last time I’ll probably blog about this so much; this whole thing is a drag. I know that readers come here for poetry news. I’m going to blog EDS stuff at Bad Glue — there’s a placeholder there now.

I’ll be back in the beginning of May, I think.

Poetry News:

1. — Unfortunately, poetry in general has a bad reputation —
2. — new lit mag alert —
3. — The Griffin Poetry Prize Announces the 2008 Canadian and International Shortlist —
4. — She did say, though, that her interest in cryptography, the study of coded writing, influenced her poems, along with her love of puzzles —
5. — Never has so much genius,” he wrote, “been combined with so little talent.” I never heard that one before, hahaha.—
6. — Taking the Pain Out of Poetry —
7. — Tracking Olympic Torch Relay, PEN Poem Relay lands in North America —
8. — Next on American Experience - Walt Whitman, Airing April 14, 2008 —

If you are doing NaPoWriMo, there are some writing prompts here

Geez you guys are stingy with the ad clicks, LOL:

I’ve tried to promote poetry as best I know how, but I need to close for a while. (It hasn’t anything to do with adverti$ing pittances.) Have a good remainder of the National Poetry Month. I love you, poets!

Poetry News:

1. — Poet d.a. levy memorialized in new book —
2. — Write, stop, pivot, punch —
3. — But tomorrow is another day that he can enjoy twice, full of bees, birds, and breezes in a beet field —
4. — Road Scholar Copy Edits America —
5. — Sinéad Morrissey’s Through the Square Window won the 2007 National Poetry Competition. What do you think of it? —
6. — In a 1946 article in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, Mr. Hall described himself as “shame-faced and apologetic,” but claimed that Fern had come to him in a dream and dictated her poems to him —
7. — Flarf Poets Still Not Dead Yet, I See —

Amazon has threatened publishers who sell direct at discount on their own websites with punitive action LOL. Just LOL.

Two prizes were awarded for poetry: Hass for “Time and Materials” and Philip Schultz for “Failure.”

read more

Poetry News:

1. — With this collection, Grace Paley ends as she began, as a poet. —
2. — Lynn Neary speaks with Nigel McLoughlin about his poetry and the Northern Ireland peace process —
3. — English-language poets are increasingly fascinated with the syllabic forms of Latin, Romance languages and Japanese. Can you write a good syllabic poem? —
4. — A poem written by an imprisoned Chinese journalist is following the Olympic torch around the globe. —
5. — For the past three years, a half-dozen handsome new books of poetry have been sent into the world annually by a new Seattle publisher —
6. — The banana of God —
7. — Take my book. It’s free. —
8. — Prince of nerves and manners, precise poet of desolations and furies —
9. — Jorie Graham’s latest poems focus on the possibility of ecological disaster. —

I posted some links last week regarding Amazon.com’s attempt to force publishers to use Amazon’s BookSurge print-on-demand service. Or the book won’t be available for sale on Amazon. I think Amazon took some non-BookSurge POD book’s “buy” buttons off, too. Is that still the case? My friend Scott’s book is only available through the used book interface now.

Evidently, most (all?) print-on-demand services (other than BookSurge) use Lightning Source to actually print the book. Lightning Source is a subsidiary of Ingram Book Group, which is a local (to me) Nashville company. (The printing biz is big in Nashville.)

I find it strange that I haven’t seen any local media stories about this, since Ingram is such a large local company (and the family is so prominent in the community). Unless I missed any mainstream media articles about this, the only local attention this has gotten is from some well-respected local bloggers — Rex Hammock & Newscoma. I guess POD is small potatoes in the business world.

POD & the WWW are 2 of the main reasons that I think that, for American poetry, this is one of the most exciting periods of time, ever. OK, I understand that hardly anyone buys poetry books these days, but for those of us who do, whoo boy, is there a groaning table.

An overview of why this sucks so much for small publishers.

A more detailed analysis of how this would affect a small poetry publisher.

And in the “first they came for POD” department: Newspapers, magazines, press syndicates, not just e-book and POD publishers, should beware of Amazon’s lock-ins.

So what can you do about it? Here are some ideas:

There are contact addresses here, so you can tell Amazon to quit bogarting POD distribution.

Boycott them & quit generating revenue for Amazon.com via your websites.

The Authors Guild is seeking input that will help them move forward with legal plans because of Amazon’s possible violation of antitrust laws.

This article suggests that the California Attorney General would be most interested in Amazon’s business practices.

(I still plan on using Lulu.com to publish my poetry manuscript this year.)

link

Poetry News:

1. — A translator from many tongues, she loves a pun, even when mourning a dead pooch —
2. — Atlanta Sings of Poems Electric, Past and Present —
3. — What We Miss if We Pass on Poetry (Hint: Not Poems) —
4. — Langston Hughes, 1902-1967: The Poet Voice of African-Americans —
5. — Houston poet wins $50,000 award —
6. — Reed Whittemore, Handyman to the Muse: Influential Poet Writes the Work of His Life —

yummy yum yum

I hadn’t been there in a while & cayenne is supposed to be good for pain, so I ate that for dinner yesterday.

No news today.

hahahaha.

(I love Prince’s Hot Chicken.)

The Newberry Library, an independent research library located in Chicago, IL, offers long-term and short-term fellowships to scholars who work primarily in the humanities. This year we have joined with the Poetry Foundation to offer a new short-term fellowship to poets and scholars of American Poetry. Please see below for a more thorough description of the award.

*Poetry Foundation/Newberry Library Fellowship in American Poetry*

This short-term fellowship is for working poets and scholars of American poetry. Preference will be given to poets who want to draw upon the Newberry’s collections as part of the creative process. The tenure of the fellowship may be one or two months. The amount of the award is generally $1600 per month. The fellowship is open to United States citizens only. Any American */poet/* with a record of publication is eligible to apply; we welcome applications both from poets residing in the Chicago area and from those who live elsewhere in the United States. */Historians/* or */critics/*/ /should hold a Ph.D. or other terminal degree or be Ph.D. candidates, and must reside outside the Chicago area.

Application due date is June 1st. For more information or to download application materials, visit our Web site at http://www.newberry.org/research/felshp/fellowshome.html. If you would like materials sent to you by mail, write to Committee on Awards, 60 West Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60610-3380. If you have questions about the fellowships program, contact research@newberry.org or (312) 255-3666.

Poetry News:

1. — Opening Day in the Motor City —
2. — These 2 links might not be safe for work: UNM’s director of creative writing said she will resign because her colleague has not been punished for posing in sexually explicit photos with students. and more here —
3. — The sheer aesthetic appeal of the poem, to which critics have paid too little attention and given too little credit, transcends, time and time again —
4. — A poet hits with an ear for music —
5. — Documentary records life of poet Stanley Kunitz —
6. — Daniil Kharms’ miniatures might well be required reading for anyone out to revolutionize literature —
7. — Meet the 2008 Guggenheim Fellows in Poetry —

Most popular outgoing links (as far as Feedburner is concerned) for last month:

This great poets list has only one woman. About right, too

the 100 best last lines from novels

Poetry should have punch. It should jab, it should undercut, clinch in the corners and consider in hard times the head butt

Here are some links specifically for National Poetry Month:

• NAPOWRIMO: write a poem a day. Looks like a bunch of people are already participating.
• University of Arkansas Press is having a sale on poetry books. Buy 1 Get 1 Free + Free Shipping. I liked The Burning World - Poems by Robert Gibb and Fire Baton - Poems by Elizabeth Hadaway so why not try them?
• The Academy of American Poets Poem A Day. Sign up and get a poem in your email inbox. And this is their National Poetry Month site. I thought their April Fool’s email parody of March Madness was cute.
• The Dead Mule has Poems on the Odds for National Poetry Month.
• Knopf also has a poem-a-day email, which has been including a link to a PDF broadside download too. You can sign up here.
• PBS and the Poetry Foundation have a multimedia site at pbs.org/wgbh/poetryeverywhere/
  with videos / poetry

Finally, to paraphrase Chris Rock, you know you’re in trouble when they give you a “month.”

Poetry News:

1. — Some poems seem inaccessible. But when one resonates, it changes our perceptions.
   —
2. — Poet Cathy Smith Bowers has made a career of nudging writers along —
3. — An icon sees poetic justice — and a conspiracy —
4. — Fairfield U offers new MFA in writing —
5. — An interview with poet Jorie Graham —
6. — Writers awarded Stegner Fellowships —

Nikki Giovanni at TSU today has been rescheduled, TBA.