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?” —

You can can get this blog delivered by email here, courtesy of Feedburner. I won’t spam you.

hahaha

link (I can’t do that btw, my skin involvement is mild.)

I guess when that program aired, people were p.o.’d at it, so ABC put a transcript of the interview with like one of the only scientists who is studying EDS. I am taking part in the NIH study mentioned - I had blood drawn for it this week. Those interviews are kind of grim. I am doing well in the pool with PT though and am not unoptimistic.

Interview With Dr. Nazli McDonnell, Part 1

Interview With Dr. Nazli McDonnell, Part 2

Anyway, STEP RIGHT UP here is a free chapbook pdf of my sideshow poems. It is for sale for $5.55 for a regular copy.

Poetry News:

1. — Scantily Clad e-chaps —
2. — When James Woolley, Smith Professor of English, discovered a lost manuscript of the 18th century Irish satirist Jonathan Swift, he was met with a jaw-dropping surprise: the poet’s first unpublished poem in centuries —
3. — “I do not think that more information always makes a richer poem. I am attracted to ellipsis, to the unsaid, to suggestion. . . .” —
4. — The Boston Public Library is seeking to fill the Curator of Manuscripts position in its Rare Books and Manuscripts Department —
5. — Job: Curator of Poetry in the George Edward Woodberry Poetry Room Harvard —
6. — Robert Fagles, Translator of the Classics, Dies at 74 —
7. — It’s time her genius was more widely recognised —
8. — The poet doubts the redemptive power of her own gift while simultaneously using it to find a tone that — in the final line — wavers perfectly between her contempt for consolation and her desire for it —

Poetry News:

1. — The poet who may be prime minister —
2. — I still begin with the particular, and hope to arrive at the universal —
3. — Her husband, the poet Osip Mandelstam, wrote a famous epigram about the great leader, for which he met an early death —
4. — Vehicle of literary endeavour —
5. — With breakneck pacing he packed all of life and death into scintillating, transcendent incantations —
6. — Grace Paley’s poems read nicely as first thoughts, as impressions in a journal, a pause on an afternoon stroll —

Poetry News:

1. — Power Crazy Senior General Than Shwe: A chapbook edited by A. J. Patrick Liszkiewicz —
2. — Are we all clear on what a chapbook is? —
3. — Taslima’s visa extended —
4. — Elizabeth Bishop’s Writings Collected in New Volume [with audio & video] —
5. — Upcoming exhibition: Notre Livre: À toute épreuve. A Collaboration between Joan Miró and Paul Éluard —
6. — Police say magazine secretary embezzled $30k —
7. — Robert Hass, later the US poet laureate, called ‘I Know a Man’ ‘the poem of the decade’ (he meant the 1950s) —
8. — Earliest-known recording of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” found in Reed College Archives—audio to be posted at Reed’s Multimedia Site, Friday, February 15, 9 a.m. (PST) —
9. — The day the persecuted Russian poet Joseph Brodsky went into exile, a recording of Mozart’s Divertimento in D (K. 136) was on his record player —
10. — The pull of an abstraction —
11. — Dear Mom: Someone stole my poem —
12. — Proponents say the time is right for a poet laureate to … um, do what, exactly? —

Poetry News:

1. — Our Rich Authors Make Cheap Literature; Ida M. Tarbell Laments Tendency of Some of Our Modern Writers to Sacrifice Their Independence and Self-Respect for the Sake of High Prices By Joyce Kilmer —
2. — Controversial Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasreen has been flown out of the Indian city of Calcutta after violent protests by Muslims —
3. — Nor was it a simple matter to find a poem that would serve as the essential illustration of Ashbery’s quality —
4. — It is not poetry that lasts but good poems, a critical difference. —
5. — The Chilean Pablo Neruda (1904-1973), one of the world’s most popular writers, found his gift early in his prolific career —
6. — NYT’s 100 Notable Books of the Year —
7. — Facebook is removing profiles of small Canadian publishers —
8. — Prize rewards younger poet’s technique, vision —
9. — Matthew Higgs … explores language as a visual-art medium that is also directly linked to poetry —
10. — Think Global, Read Local —
11. — Keats’s Secret: Exploring the Real Power of the Imagination —
12. — Paul Roche, Poet in Bloomsbury Group, Is Dead at 91 —
13. — Here are three of the five nominees for this year’s Governor General’s Award for poetry, each a many-layered reading experience —
14. — Later this month the winner of the annual Literary Review Bad Sex awards will be announced, and this year’s contenders are just as bad at sex as all the rest —
15. — The City of Cambridge’s Poet Populist contest is marred by ballot and voting irregularities

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. We went to our friend Erma’s and it was fun and delicious. After dinner, there was a many-hour jam session & I even played bass on one song — “Killer Joe” because it is really easy and I don’t really play anymore, LOL.

Public service announcement:

Seeking poets who might have an extra copy of their chapbook or book they’d be willing to donate to a lucky student. Each week, during my 8-week undergraduate poetry class, there will be a drawing to see who wins the book a poet has been generous enough to donate. The winner will be responsible for reading your book, reviewing it, and selecting a favorite poem to read to the class the following week. If you like, contact information and book price should be included so that others in the class can buy your book. Students will be STRONGLY encouraged to buy the books of poets who, after all, were kind enough to contribute a book to their education. If you’re willing, please send your book (autographed would be nice) and contact and price details to:

Jeff Winke
Upper Iowa University - Milwaukee Center
620 S 76th St.
Milwaukee, WI 53214

Poetry News:

1. Dryden sets up a cast of symbolic figures to express the folly and wrongdoing of an old year and the hopes of a new —
2. Poetry is hard work, and it should be, says professor —
3. Lexington poet clearly earns spot at front of pack —
4. Poetry is thought to be an elite art, and it has been called the one art most likely “to make people feel stupid” —
5. A pleasant history of chapbooks [link via Rob thank you] —
6. In China, satirical poem leads to jail time —

Shakespeare in Washington

Can someone explain to me why this is not considered a poorly-written poem? I’m not being a snark or whatever. I’m genuinely curious because I’m just not seeing why Mr. Pinsky chose it for publication. Thanks.