It may sound like I’ve taken off on a cross-country hike, and in a literary sense that may be true … I have two poems in the new issue of Terrain: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments. It’s one of my favorite publications, combining literature and concerns about the environment and the way we live in it. Simmons B. Buntin publishes and edits this wide-ranging review. Happily he chooses to include poetry and…
Though according to most working poets, it’s about as likely to have daily poetic inspiration as it is to have lightning strikes each morning in your living room. Or so says former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser in an interview that made me feel reassured about my lack of ideas. He says he sits in his living room every morning to write and “nine days out of ten nothing good comes of it.” Yet he does…
Martha Silano has an interview she did with herself up at Blue Positive. To me the most interesting question was what impact the economic crisis has had on her writing. Are you writing more or less? I’m going to try the self-interview later this week. My favorite question of the ones Martha answered, after the economic crisis one: at what age did you decide to be a writer? Martha decided at age 9. So did…
For those who like to read — and do — interviews with poets, take a look at Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides. Currently up is an interview with Tom Hunley, poet and publisher of Steel Toe Books. Robert has an eclectic mix of interviews on a variety of topics. Good reading. As I already mentioned, I thoroughly enjoyed a mostly email, but also phone exchange with poet Barbara Crooker for an interview now up at…
Bloghopping is becoming the new television, at least for me. Changing channels in the blogosphere is so much more rewarding than channel surfing the idiot box, despite the proliferation of PBS channels on my cable provider. Take for example the new zine I found, Ourobouros. Its mission and first issue are arresting, especially the reason editors Jo Hemmant and Christine Swint give for the choice of name: “The snake swallowing its tail symbolises infinity; to…
Hello — is there an echo in here? Haven’t we been having this conversation for, oh, say the last 10 years or so? The New York Times has apparently never heard about this until now. I’m sure they said the printed book was finished when someone invented paper, and that wall-scratching thing was … just so-over. Of course the book isn’t finished! It’s morphing, a verb that didn’t even exist 10 years ago when this…
No, not that way. I just won a book at the Wompherence! On the last day, the daily drawing came up with my name and I won a book by Susan Rich. It’s her first collection, The Cartographer’s Tongue / Poems of the World; White Pine Press. 2000. Susan writes that it includes several poems written while she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in West Africa and an election official in Bosnia. Also has many…
Watch a slideshow of gorgeous books by members of the Women in Poetry Listserv at the Wompherence. It’s fascinating — just reading all those titles and seeing the images poets select for book covers — inspiring and makes me want to spend a lot of money. That can’t be bad at the holidays! Other areas of note at the First Annual Festival of Women’s Poetry (aka Wompherence): Interviews and an amazingly large International Section. Hurry!…
I discovered on Sherry Chandler’s blog that The Guardian has an article today about poets Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney developing a new opera. The article interests me for the candor of the poets, rather than an interest in opera. Though it is fun to see a writer take on that overblown form. Here in San Francisco, we’ve had the splashy premiere of Amy Tan’s “The Bonesetter’s Daughter,” to deliriously enthusiastic review. I’ve been reading…
The First Annual Women’s Poetry Festival has launched its fabulous Website, and will open its online conference November 1. Take a stroll around — the venues are already up and filling with exhibits, conversations and news of upcoming events. Hosted by members of the Women’s Poetry Listserv, an 800+ member-strong online poetry discussion group, the Wompherence is shaping up to be full of activities and discussions. They offer a bookstore, a general discussion board, publishers…