Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — Prison court sentences blogger to 20 years, poet to two years —
2. — In “Ballistics,” the poet continues his vein of poetry that holds one-sided, intimate conversations with the reader —
3. — Child’s Garden of Hip-Hop (for Mom to Love, Too) —
4. — In his new collection of poems, Warhorses, Yusef Komunyakaa explores familiar themes with idiosyncratic grace and musical intensity. —
5. — Poetry Roundup —
6. — Harjo, Cazimero win $50,000 USA Fellowship grants —
7. — Wordplay with Peter Culley & Ezra Pound [MP3] —
8. — A Guilty Conscience for her Time —
9. — Poem of the week: In the Trenches —

Poetry News:

1. — Time to rediscover the glory of chapbooks —
2. — The notebooks of W.S. Merwin, one of the most eminent poets in the world, are anything but beautiful —
3. — Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who returned to India from Sweden early in August, on Monday, said she has no plans of leaving the country —
4. — Fall Preview: Poet John Ashbery Makes His Elliptical Way into Library of America —
5. — Former US poet laureate receives $100,000 prize —
6. — “Isn’t it amazing,” he said, ” to have 1,000 people show up and waiting in line to hear a poet?” —

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Poetry News:

1. — Sharon Olds: ‘I’ve tried to make sense of my life … make a small embodiment of ordinary life, from a daughter’s, wife’s, mother’s point of view’ —
2. — From terror to relief, humour to grief, death may be a black subject, but is one of the richest seams of inspiration to poets, and you simply can’t avoid it… —
3. — Traveling Poetry Hut —
4. — Tibet’s most famous woman blogger, Woeser, detained by police —
5. — Decatur Book Fest: Billy Collins is a sellout —
6. — There are certain notions about poetry that must apparently always automatically spring to mind. I’ve decided to start a list of them here. —
7. — Cheap & ridiculous poetry messages hurting fans —
8. — Jane Crown’s poetry radio invites poets,novelists and small press publishers to interview on their craft —

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One of the editors of Cider Press — Robert Wynne — has responded to (what appears to be) unethical behavior regarding their Cider Press Review Book Award. And Stacey Lynn Brown’s rebuttal. (I’ve read that Pavement Saw Press’ contest has been problematic. And did you know that there was no winner chosen this year for the Cave Canem Poetry Prize?)

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Every year, there are thousands upon thousands of poets contributing money into contests. In many cases each poet is spending hundreds and sometimes over a thousand dollars a year doing this. If we do a very conservative estimate that there are 4000 poets a year spending $250 (that would be roughly 5-6 contests and doesn’t include postage) a year — that’s a million dollars into this contest system.

— read the rest and take the Take the “Are Poetry Contests Killing Your Soul?” Quiz

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Game Show Vs. Riefenstahl. There are better (?) pictures:

Come On Down! — XXXOOO Love, Leni.

ps. Looking at the DNC pics also makes me hear rows of slot machines in my head. There needs to be a Harley in the background, rotating slowly on a turntable platform, surrounded by a bank of slot machines.

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Poetry News:

1. — William Logan in the NYT on Frank O’Hara —
2. — Actually creating reading of substance trapped in constraints —
3. — To annotate his poems is to realise how much cultural and metaphysical freight they carry —
4. — Much of her work drew on the southern working-class milieu from which she sprang, and she produced powerfully evocative poems remarkable for their painful insights into people’s lives —
5. — I am free to confess that my own poetry would have not developed in the direction it did, for better or worse, were it not for the spell that was cast over me as a boy by Warner Bros. cartoons —
6. — Late Czech poet and immunologist Miroslav Holub mined greater treasure from the sciences than any other poet I know —
7. — Friends of the Harvard Public Library announce 2008 poetry award winner —
8. — Georgian budgie learns Stalin’s poetry —

I’m still waiting for the Wheel of Fortune episode where the puzzle turns out to be SCARLETT AND FRANK O’HARA (or JOEY AND ELIZABETH BISHOP).

Poetry News:

1. — with its closing lines inscribed on Bishop’s tombstone… —
2. — One of an avant-garde group called the Neoteric, or “new’’ poets, he lived a short, libidinous life —
3. — Blogging the AWP —
4. — Haiku poet aims to preserve seasonal words —
5. — Richard Newman has spent the past thirteen years working to keep St. Louis’ oldest literary magazine alive —
6. — New Voices in Writing Offer Their Advice —

Poetry News:

1. — Writing tops poll of ideal jobs —
2. — Prolific poet was a gracious critic —
3. — Mary Jo Salter and Brad Leithauser, a couple with individual success, will write the next chapter of Hopkins’ Writing Seminars —
4. — Conversation With a Poet Laureate —
5. — Rare Anne Spencer collection headed to UVa —
6. — Renowned poet and Tennessee native Nikki Giovanni will return to her alma mater this fall as a distinguished visiting professor at Fisk University —

March 20-23, 2008 “You are invited to our nation‘ capital for a festival that celebrates our great tradition of poetry of witness and resistance.”

“There were no differences by political party in the percentage of those who said they had not read at least one book” … and One in Four Read No Books Last Year

Evidently, lit mag distributor Bernhard DeBoer has gone out of business.

Here is an OPML file of my poetry-related blog subscriptions. I guess you can right-click to download it. You can import it into Bloglines or Google Reader or other blog readers. I recently switched from Bloglines to Google reader entirely because Bloglines kept giving me old feeds.

Poetry News:

1. — The intellectual seeds planted by the college still flourish in Black Mountain today —
2. — Simic Receives $100,000 Poetry Award —
3. — Nature a theme in laureate’s poems —
4. — There is always ferment in the world of poetry, probably because there is rarely money in the world of poetry —
5. — Sam’s gruff melody grabs attention —
6. — It’s making an assumption that we’re incapable of reading better books —

I don’t know about this forthcoming Beowulf movie … that … accent brings to mind (immediately) Arnold Ziffel and “hotscakes.”

I thought Wow! What a surprise.^* A poet living in the Northeastern USA was appointed Poet Laureate of the United States!! I’m not finished with this yet. Hey! the Civil War ended over 100 years ago, OK? LOL

(And poor Reed Whittemore was appointed twice & doesn’t even have a page at The Academy of American Poets. A few appointees don’t.)

“The new 2008 edition of Poet’s Market offers “Roundtable: Poets and Blogs” by Anne Bowling. Featured are bloggers Amanda Johnston, C. Dale Young (Avoiding the Muse), Kate Greenstreet (Every Other Day), Janet Holmes (Humanphone), Reb Livingston (Home-Schooled by a Cackling Jackal) [and me].” You can read more here. Thanks for the opportunity.

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