Smartish Pace, one of my favorite lit-journals, has a new dimension on their website: media. You can watch videos and listen to audios of group and individual poetry readings and also an interview with founder Stephen Reichert. The site also has other interviews, but not with audio. And as I may have mentioned before, you can hear me read two new poems, “O Beautiful” and “Designer” on Terrain. If you want to see an amazing…
I love interviews with poets that touch on their process and development and get beyond the po-biz aspect. 32 Poems has a great blog that includes a regular series of interviews. I especially enjoyed the one with Mary Biddinger of Barn Owl Review. A poetry blog I Shall Call You The Moon has interviews and even invites readers to nominate themselves to be interviewed. Prairie Schooner’s book contest deadline of March 16 is coming up.…
Recent and major software problems have sent The Gazebo into exile. You can find its temporary home at: Gazebo in Exile We’ll be back up with our full site soon, but for the time being you can post poetry, announcements, calls, chat and much of the usual fare at the Exile site. Some of us are taking advantage of this slower activity to polish up our manuscripts and get in training for National Poetry Month’s…
I’m rereading Camille Paglia’s brilliant Break, Blow, Burn and admiring her explications, or close readings, of 43 of the best poems in English. Her essays are fun to read because they approach the poems as an integral part of the poet’s life and times, viewed from ours. She’s big on what she calls “context” in reading poetry, and criticizes the trend of “orphaning the text” from its surroundings and the life of the poet who…
I had an interesting lunch today with my friend, the eminent gadfly of poetry criticism David Alpaugh. We got to talking about new publishing paradigms and how they might affect poetry. I mentioned the Kindle and other such eBook reading devices. David asked if those were the new devices that let you flip the pages. So I came home and did a little research. And found that no, the Kindle and Sony Reader don’t have…
Well, it was overdue. No, not that. I won’t be having another of those. It’s the debut of a new anthology: Women. Period. It’s about — well, you know. I’ve never tried before to promote an anthology on the topic of menstruation, so this will be a new experience. Glancing through the collection, I am impressed by the names, the range of approaches, the mix of poems and prose pieces. Not to mention the thickness…
It’s that time of year again — no, not Groundhog Day, something much more momentous. It’s the six-week period when most poetry book contests are open. If you are marketing a slim volume, this is your moment of sunshine to grab. Also your moment to spend a small fortune in contest fees. It’s not as expensive as a Hawaiian vacation, but in the vicinity of a very nice weekend away. Actually, I know someone who…
I’m pleased to report I have three poems from my chapbook Another Circle of Delight up in the current issue of Babel Fruit. Ren Powell, Cati Porter et all have created another delightful issue. This one features poets “Under the Influence,” or responding to other poets. My favorite is by Barbara Crooker, who wittily responds to Emily Dickinson’s answering machine in. Martha Silano is also waxing witty in “She Had Some Tantrums” influenced by Joy…
Barn Owl Review #2 was just announced. It’s to debut at AWP 2009. I won’t be there except between its covers. The issue has poems by a great cast, some of them old friends of mine — Hi, Kelli, Seth, Patrick, Brent, Jeannine, Rebecca, Steve, Susan, Steven! *** Making my way through Amy Tan’s memoir, The Opposite of Fate. I do love a good writer memoir. I’ve got a whole shelf of them now, and…
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…