Poetry Hut Blog

Poetry News:

1. — “David Alpaugh, who has both run and won a poetry book contest himself, offers his astute analysis of the business of selecting poetry books for publication by holding a competition…” —
2. — Colossus of Rhodes to be rebuilt as giant light sculpture —
3. — Trinity Rep Radio Theater: This program will feature stories and poems that explore the relationship between mothers and daughters. [MP3] —
4. — In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is a magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours —
5. — Not the original? A new translation by Burton Raffel offers a modern version of Chaucer’s medieval masterpiece. —
6. — The National Book Awards winners —
7. — The Review Review reviews lit mags (just print ones?) —
8. — DIY Poetry Movements from alt.NPR: Poetry Off the Shelf Podcast: How Zukofsky and the Language Poets got started, and the rules for starting a movement of your own. [MP3] —
9. — What is the social role of a micro-press in today’s literary marketplace, environment, and economy? —

Google has Life Magazine photo archives online. Not too many poets & no women. Some Millay, etc if you search “poetess” though. (And you better behave or Bette Davis is going to get you. I have to say, that is a very weird combo of reader/poet.)

Is there anyone out there who has cable TV / Discovery Health & can tape a show for me?

Dec 08, 10:00 pm
(60 minutes)

repeat:
Dec 09, 2:00 am
(60 minutes)

Mystery Diagnosis
The Baby Who Wouldn’t Stop Crying

Baby Averi Williams develops a bluish tint to the whites of her eyes and a bulging forehead; 15 year-old, Lynn Sanders is leading a normal life when she begins to experience a deep nagging pain in her hands during swim practice.

Poetry News:

1. — Marvell’s great poem manages to be serious and light, epic and personal, as aware of the pleasures of the flesh as the transience of life —
2. — Jared Smith comes to read and interview! - Nov 16,2008
   from Jane Crown’s Poetry Radio —
3. — What do John Milton and the elephant Babar have in common? —
4. — The magpie who came to stay: Artist Frieda Hughes has an unexpected house guest to her dream garden —
5. — This custom of composing verses jointly, with mysterious reverberations between them, surely lies behind the collaborative sequence in the first book, which has two titles, aligned together, because it has two authors —
6. — A public arts project in St. Paul, Minn., inscribes poems on neighborhood sidewalks. —
7. — St. Louis poet Donald Finkel inspired dozens of poets —

I still have a few days of pre-scheduled blog posts. After that I am finished for a while. I try to do right by poetry, poets, but I don’t have any energy left right now. Uuuuuuunnnnnnnnnngggggg.

I have a week and a half of medical tests scheduled at VUMC next month & I’ve ordered those dorky anti-gravity pants. I don’t care if I look like an idiot. Take care, have a great Thanksgiving, and I shall return.

Poetry News:

1. — WORD is year-long interactive performance art piece that will form the cornerstone of a broader exhibition exploring the meaning of text, poetry, and the possibilities of mutual participation through the internet… —
2. — Surrealist Migrations Wins Poetry Film Prize —
3. — “Al was one of the most important mid-Michigan poets in the state, one of the finest,” said M.L. Liebler, a Detroit poet, professor at Wayne State University and small-press publisher who published three of Hellus’ books. —
4. — Trinity Rep Radio Theater: Report on the Barnhouse Effect by Kurt Vonnegut, Lafayette Farewell by Ray Bradbury, My War by Diane C. Jaeger, a poem about the lasting effects of her time as a nurse in Vietnam. [MP3] —
5. — Bristol Pomeroy plays Richard Hartels of Montville, at left, in the movie “Marathon,” a look at the life of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet William Meredith … —
6. — “I think Theodore Roethke is the only poet who thinks like a flower.” —
7. — Cardiff South and Penarth AM Lorraine Barrett, along with South Wales West AM Peter Black, have invited author Patrick Jones to read his work in the Assembly next month. —
8. — Have a little poetry with your gum —

Speaking of Al Hellus & Theodore Roethke, there are almost 400 Michigan poets here. Except me hahaha. Autumn is the time when I really miss Michigan - cider mills, etc.

Poetry News:

1. — When the Civil War erupted in April 1861, Walt Whitman, at age 42, was too old to bear arms in the Union Army. It seemed that his best days as a poet were behind him as well. —
2. — Lesbian Poetry Retrospective Part II —
3. — Governor Doyle appoints Marilyn Taylor as poet laureate —
4. — Professor attempts to raise profile of poetry —
5. — Low-residency MFA programs offer writers the chance to grow from a distance. —
6. — Early recording of Beat poet Gary Snyder surfaces —
7. — What Is Art For? —

Just a reminder you can purchase one of my poetry books and help me scratch the surface of my medical bills haha. Or if you are broke you can download freely.

Poetry News:

1. — Pioneering small publisher New Rivers Press marks 40th anniversary —
2. — The 11th Resurrection of Galatea looks to be yet another faboo read. The official deadline is today but I can keep taking reviews through Monday. —
3. — Troubled Sleep: A Discussion of Ezra Pound’s “Cantico del Sole”
   from PoemTalk, Hosted by Al Filreis and featuring poets Charles Bernstein, Rachel Levitsky, & Joshua Schuster [MP3] —
4. — Center For Book Arts: Our complete catalogue of broadsides from the Center’s Poetry Broadside Reading Series is now available online with images - click here to take a look! —
5. — How complete should a complete works be? —
6. — Reporters Without Borders and the Burma Media Association are appalled to learn that detained poet Aung Than, a member of the opposition National League for Democracy, was probably infected with the HIV virus when he was forcibly injected —
7. — The first £50,000 biannual prize is dedicated to “complexity” and nominations - invited from all university staff - have produced a list of 20 titles —
8. — Waterstone’s should not have been shouted down by Christian Voice —
9. — Poetry’s roots in sacred song are undeniable. —
10. — In the case of Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath, the myth made by gossip has long obscured the art made by a couple of poets. That’s a pity. —

woot:Sun Shows Signs Of Life: Long-Awaited Solar Cycle 24 Starting To Take Off

Poetry Hut Blog Saturday SCIENCE! edition:

1. — “Notice the way she easily uses the language of the brain (”neural routes,” “receptive pathways”) to describe the function of fiction.” —
2. — Dead Parrot sketch is 1,600 years old —
3. — Scientists have developed a method to look into the brain of a person and read out who has spoken to him or her and what was said —
4. — “Also, the contemplation of serious science occupies part of my brain in such a way that allows poetry to come through.” —
5. — Weapons Of Mass Production’, I Mean, ‘Mass Destruction!’ How The Brain Prevents Verbal Errors —
6. — Scientists from VIB at Ghent University have succeeded in converting annual plants into perennials. —
7. — The Music of the Primes —

Twyla Tharp on the Subject of Motivation and Creativity

Poetry News:

1. — A poet has been forced to launch his new collection in the street after a bookstore cancelled the event because of a campaign by Christian activists. —
2. — Cocktails and prostate jokes —
3. — For the first time on the iPhone, poetry fans can make their own poems —
4. — Contrary to the popular myth, we don’t all have a book in us and pretending otherwise devalues great writing —
5. — Never one to waste words, he gets mileage out of each of these possibilities in this chapbook’s mixture of short essays, poems, and prose poem —
6. — Despite the promising subject, the poems do not quite work —
7. — Harjo, the University’s only Joseph Russo Endowed Professor, said her resignation was a result of the administration’s decision to retain associate professor Lisa Chavez. —

Glasses won’t really “fix” the problems I am having with the epiretinal membrane. Eye patch, it is, then. I’m getting new glasses anyway, because my prescription got better in one sense, LOL. David Bowie says to wear the eye patch.

Poetry News:

1. — will art survive the economy? —
2. — USC English professor named Calif. poet laureate —
3. — Dorothy Parker: Short stories Here We Are and You Were Perfectly Fine, and Alexander Woolcott’s elegy Our Mrs. Parker. [MP3] —
4. — How does one manage to have a book of poetry reviewed in The New York Times Book Review? Well, let’s see, perhaps we can glean a hint. —
5. — Why poetry is the soldier’s art —
6. — Write or Die: Do you dare? —
7. — Greensboro Baker Finds Lost Obama Poems —
8. — Filipina Poets in an exhibit at the Library of Congress —
9. — When a Real-Life Killing Sent Two Future Beats in Search of Their Voices —
10. — Douglas Kearney says winning a Whiting Writers’ Award is a fresh start —

ALERT: I have stopped using Feedburner to distribute my RSS feed, due to continuing problems/unresponsiveness to my customer service inquiries. The latest saga was an out-of-control Feedburner bot, which crashed my webhost’s server, where this blog resides.

This is my RSS feed address, which will no longer redirect to Feedburner. I think they have a courtesy redirect, but that eventually will time out. Unless you subscribed directly to the Feedburner feed, you should be OK. And in that case, Feedburner will eventually warn you.

Also, if you get this blog via email (through Feedburner) it no longer works. You can re-subscribe if you want, but you have to sign up at RSSFwd to complete the process. Sorry. Between Feedburner blowing me off, and Technorati dropping this blog from their indices because it doesn’t measure up to their standards, I’m getting the feeling that Web 2.0 hates me.

Last chance to vote in my lit mag subscription poll.

Poetry News:

1. — In a certain sense, poet Jane Augustine also owes a lot to Snyder: like him, she is an enthusiastic mountain climber, a devoted student of Buddhism, an erudite reader of world literature, and a poet who, despite traveling the world, has maintained her roots in the West where she was born. —
2. — M. Rahimi was inspired to write the book as a tribute to an Afghan poetess, Nadia Anjuman, who was beaten to death by her husband in 2005 —
3. — Though he can recite Ashbery and Tate from memory, his own poems are more deeply indebted to the music of Junior Brown, Paul Butterfield, and Sonny Boy Williamson. —
4. — Blue Positive, Martha Silano’s second collection of poems, reveals an intimate knowledge of the brightest and darkest aspects of motherhood. [MP3] —
5. — Winner of the eleventh annual Boston Review poetry contest —
6. — Jane Crown show with Kenneth Pobo —
7. — No Tell Books has a new blog. Go look. —

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. — Whitman a ‘poet of democracy’ —
2. — Archive of original WWI poem manuscripts goes online & link—
3. — Mitchell said the poem “In Flanders Fields,” written by John McCrae in 1915, inspired the Buddy Poppy program. —
4. — Steele is thought to be the first poet accepted in the artists program, whose roots reach back to the First World War. —
5. — Blood, bombs and bards: poetry from the frontline —
6. — new book out this week compiles poems and memoirs from women veterans —

Poetry News:

1. — Best of Southern literature honored —
2. — Robert Frost removed his coat to show the ruffians at Methuen’s Second Grammar School he wasn’t someone they should mess with —
3. — Miami a natural haven for persecuted writers —
4. — It may sound cliché, but every once in a while a writer, musician or anyone who calls himself an artist presents the world in a way that teaches a unique perspective on the beauty of life —
5. — The Bat Poet Needs Your Help —
6. — Tightrope Books Launches The Best Canadian Poetry 2008 —
7. — Antiques dealer in Bard probe bailed —

The lit mag readership poll is still open.

Poetry News:

1. — Poster poems: Terza rima —
2. — Those overly punctuated lines make you stop and start, forcing you to inhabit a mind formulating an opinion, one phrase at a time —
3. — Though the lives of poets often remain mysteriously veiled during our earliest encounters with poetry, biographical details can provide an important bridge of accessibility for young readers —
4. — I was engaging in a dubious art form that has no audience —
5. — Like the 18th-century Galante style in music, Merrill’s work has a high, almost lacquered finish and prizes the qualities of refinement, intricacy of design and formal containment —
6. — Irish poet Ciaran Berry has won the £3000 Jerwood Aldeburgh first collection prize for what judges described as an unusually assured and mature collection of poetry. —

Lit mag readership poll is still open.