2007 December : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation

Archive for December, 2007

Visual Poetics 05

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Miss%20Bodoni.jpg
“Miss Bodoni”
from Studio Pin-Ups
by Taylor Lane
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Big in Britain just now, though unknown in America (that should change soon): David Morley’s book The Invisible Kings, which I’m halfway through at the moment and entirely happy about. Big British reviews include Tim Liardet’s in the Guardian, Jane Yeh’s in the TLS (no web version of that review, alas), and Jane Holland’s on her blog.
Morley’s poems explore (pick one, any one) (a) his Romani (Roma or Gypsy) heritage (b) macaronic tactics, interpolating Romani (Gypsy) language into English sentences and lines (c) the afterlife of the Romance (poetic, symbolic adventure) tale in a Romani (Gypsy) context (d) the vividly un-”English” metres partly created, and mostly (alas) abandoned, by the Les Murray of the 1980s, the Murray of “The Buladelah-Taree Holiday Song Cycle” (Murray blurbs and has supported the book), and (e) the resources of the very short lyric, with some whole poems comprising juxtaposed couplets, and others made up after patterns from handicrafts.
One of those “others” happens to be a patterned (partly visual) poem: you’ll find that one below the fold.

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12.20.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1)

Rigoberto González

Information: 20 Years of Joda

As a few of us choose go on break from HARRIET (I’m off to the homeland to see my carnal, Texaco Alex), I’d like to end the year with this shout out because Montoya dedicated it “To Rigoberto De Michoacán.”
It’s “joda,” with a strong J, as in “joder,” as in“chingar,” as in “twenty years of struggle,” as in “twenty years of fighting back.” This collection, commemorating two decades worth of work by Chicano poet José Montoya, one of the writers who pioneered the use of Caló and code-switching in American poetry, was published in 1992 by Chusma House Publications. It includes a portfolio with representations of Pachucas y Pachucos, Cholas y Cholos, Chicanas y Chicanos and other images reflecting a vato’s worldview. “I chose to include ’em,” Montoya explains in his preface, “because they were done in el mismo espíritu that the poems were written in.” One of his watercolors graces the cover.

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12.20.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3)

Major Jackson

Asian American Writers’ Workshop

Occasionally, I like to visit the Asian American Writers’ Workshop website and when possible attend one of its literary events in New York City. One of the great joys of the contemporary arts in the United States of the past three decades is the emergence of organizations whose aim is to promote and celebrate the richness of the American experience as represented in the creative visions of its diverse inhabitants, many with great legacies, histories, and needless to say, complex stories of survival, determination, and acculturation.

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12.20.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Wednesday

The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists. Day one featured Poetry Foundation staff picks. Day two, recommendations from Poetry magazine contributors. Day three, a range of selections from our current Harriet bloggers. Happy New Year!

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12.19.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Christian Bök

Visual Poetics 04

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“Boiling C”
by Kelly Mark
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12.19.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (1)

Rigoberto González

Wednesday Shout Out

Sometimes simplicity’s the thing, though that doesn’t mean the ideas or motivations behind the poem are simple. I came across this beautiful debut on one of my visits back to Arizona State (Josh Rathkamp’s yet another graduate of that writing program—go Sun Devils!), and I was pleased to discover this distinct voice that has much to say about young relationships, first heartbreaks and early encounters with the untamable, unpredictable world of adulthood.

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12.19.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Tuesday

The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists, beginning with recommendations from staff of the Poetry Foundation. Today, you’ll find selections from several Poetry magazine contributors. We’ll conclude with the current Harriet writers weighing-in on their favorites for 2007 (and in some cases, from years past). Happy New Year!

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12.18.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Monday

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The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists, beginning with recommendations from staff of the Poetry Foundation. Following that, we’ll post picks from several Poetry magazine contributors, including Charles Bernstein and Afaa Michael Weaver. We’ll conclude with the current Harriet contributors weighing-in on their favorites for 2007 (and in some cases, from years past). Happy New Year!

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12.17.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2)

Rigoberto González

Girlstory!

Last Friday I had the privilege of sitting as one of the guest judges at the final round of the All Girl Poetry Slam. Sponsored by Girlstory, a multi-cultural, multi-generational women’s writing collective (and an organization created out a residency at another important arts organization, Community Word Project), this venue is all about fostering girl power, and the December 14 event determined the poetry slam team on its way to the Brave New Voices Poetry Slam this summer in Washington D.C.