Poetry Hut Blog
John Ashbery

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. — Written on the body: literary tattoos —
2. — Guy Maddin is planning on writing an upcoming feature with a longtime friend. “It’s called Keyhole,” Maddin tells Paste. “Which I’m co-developing with the poet John Ashbery.” —
3. — Literary magazines: grotesque and Gaitskill —
4. — Opposing Ezra Pound’s dictum to “Make It New,” conceptual poetry responds with “Why Make It New If You Can Reframe the Old?” —
5. — I’ve never found anything cool in used books —
6. — Darkness surrounds the wit, lightning flashes of sheer intelligence transform the darkness, and, it must be said, great windy stretches of self-indulging discourse blow throughout —
7. — On this episode of “Studio 360,” radio personality and poet Sean Cole takes a closer look at Emily Dickinson’s legendary poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” —
8. — This is my goodbye and thank you after almost two years of writing my Times poetry column. —

Do not forget that every people deserves the regime it is willing to endure. — Hans Scholl

Poetry News:

1. — Knox is at her best in poems that demonstrate an understanding of poetry —
2. — More on the Frost “poetry punishment at the Poetry Foundation’s blog, Harriet —
3. — John Ashbery’s Notes From the Air: Selected Later Poems and Robin Blaser’s The Holy Forest: Collected Poems of Robin Blaser are the International and Canadian winners of the eighth annual Griffin Poetry Prize —
4. — Is there an American poet more unique and incapable of characterization than James Tate? —
5. — Putting Your Poetry in Order —
6. — An extraordinary poet examines ordinary subjects —
7. — In the introduction to ‘The Best American Erotic Poems from 1800 to the Present’ (Scribner, $30), the poet and critic David Lehman points to what he sees as a “vital American tradition of erotic poetry” —
8. — Hollins University will receive a $5 million gift to establish what will be known as the Jackson Center for Creative Writing —
9. — Exiled Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen finds refuge in Sweden —
10. — An athlete in the extreme sport of poetry —

Poetry News:

1. — An award-winning poet and physician describes how words help him understand and express human suffering —
2. — lovely —
3. — WordPlay 5/18/08 Coleman Barks [links to MP3] —
4. — In the second of a series of exchanges in which we are bringing poets together to discuss new books, Cate Marvin and Joshua Mehigan spar over books by Alice Oswald and Daniel Anderson —
5. — Roethke’s Poetry Rooted in Humble Beginnings and Mayor reads “The Saginaw Song” as his hometown celebrates poet Theodore Roethke’s 100th birthday —
6. — Yale also conferred honorary degrees on former US Trade Representative Carla Hills, astronomer Martin Rees, architect Cesar Pelli, poet John Lawrence Ashbery and others —
7. — Among the year’s outstanding works for children are poetry books that combine melody and meaning —

Meritage Press (St. Helena & San Francisco) and xPress(ed) (Puhos, Finland) are delighted to announce the release of THE HAY(NA)KU ANTHOLOGY, VOL. II, edited by Mark Young and Jean Vengua.

Poetry News:

1. — The sonnet is a frequently misunderstood form with an enduring appeal. Fancy having a crack at your own ‘little song’? —
2. — it also cements her reputation as the greatest poet of her generation —
3. — This sense of freedom is produced by Ashbery’s diction (no American poet has had a larger, more diverse vocabulary, not Whitman, not Pound) as well as his formal choices. —
4. — Sometimes the hothouse of a partnership fosters frustration and magnifies our tiniest faults —
5. — Dylan Thomas revival proves death has no dominion —
6. — Crozier realised that with a sensibility as English as his own, he couldn’t create a postscript to Black Mountain, so he left America and came home —
7. — Wash. adviser fired for helping underground paper regains job —

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. — This poem was written by thirteen-year-old Helen Keller (1880-1968) who, only six years before, was “a wild little creature” —
2. — new small press alert —
3. — Byron, Shelley and Miss Havisham —
4. — MLB Poetry Previews: Boston Red Sox —
5. — Romantic, Surrealist, clear-as-glass, impenetrable charlatan: Ashbery has been called all of these —
6. — new lit mag alert —
7. — Markov chains appear in everything from mathematics to music to gambling to Google searches, but Allmann decided to put a different spin on the algorithm by feeding it poetry —
8. — Beth Ann Fennelly’s best poems are as noisy as a rat in a coffee can —

Could be worse.