My New Book of Essays January 25, 2008: My first book of prose, Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry, is just out in the University of Michigan Press Poets on Poetry series, and I have to share the news. This is a project on which I’ve been working for several years, and I’m incredibly excited that it’s finally come to fruition. I got my [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Random Poetry 05 January 24, 2008: ----------------- "thus can books that come I judge come infinite" (By coincidence, the first nine words drawn at random, in this order, from the jumbled lexicon of all words in an English translation of "The Library of Babel" by Jorge Luis Borges) ----------------- (more...) by Christian Bök

AWP Countdown January 24, 2008: Say what you will about this conference, it’s the one I look forward to every year. And I hope to see you there. I’m on two panels this time around, and I’ll spare you the details. I’d rather promote other happenings, like the annual Con Tinta Pachanga, one of the many off-site events made possible because the Chicano/Latino writers [...] by Rigoberto González

Wednesday Shout Out January 23, 2008: Winner of the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize, Gregory Pardlo’s Totem, is (as its title declares) a literary version of an emblem representing, in this case, the ancestry that inspires the poet’s verse. But the ancestry in question extends beyond the homes of the poet’s childhood and moves into the intellectual and [...] by Rigoberto González

On Lying January 23, 2008: I just read a poem in some journal, I forget where, in which there was a plumber who wasn’t just a plumber, he was also a dreamer, or something. Well, he certainly wasn’t fixing pipes. Plumbers in poems never have their hands in a toilet, have you noticed? Toilets show up in poems often enough. Frank O’Hara’s poem “Memorial Day [...] by Daisy Fried

Howard Nemerov on the Difficulty of Difficult Poetry January 23, 2008: Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) is almost forgotten today, but he was an excellent poet (in the post World War II formalist mode so scorned today, especially by those who know nothing about it) and a brilliant thinker about poetry. (He was also photographer Diane Arbus's older brother.) His witty and formally exquisite poetry deserves to be better [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Hellos and Goodbyes January 22, 2008: Our planned cycling of Harriet impersonators is causing some pangs. One regular reader Mary Meriam writes: “I understand Alicia’s [A.E. Stallings] days are numbered with you, Harriet. What a pity!” We couldn’t agree more. Though we fashioned Harriet to change personalities every three to four months, facing the switchover is difficult. [...] by Emily Warn

Random Poetry 04 January 22, 2008: ----------------- "Contemplate hexagonal air normal closets each the is railing endlessly say great of dictum Centre hexagons and not capital exists librarian elegant the seated up says books remote each and that have established" (An acrostic text, generated by taking two short aphorisms about chance by Jean Baudrillard and using them to "read [...] by Christian Bök

Poeta en Nueva York January 22, 2008: There’s been plenty of talk and balk on Harriet regarding translations, and as a translator and teacher of literary translation, as someone who’s first language is not English, I’ve decided to finally speak up but through the introduction of one of the best translation projects I have come across to date: Pablo Medina and Mark Statman’s [...] by Rigoberto González

Happy Birthday, George Gordon, Lord Byron January 22, 2008: I live in a town where Byron is Big. There is a beautiful statue of him being embraced by Ellas (Greece) on the corner of a main thoroughfare. There is a street named after him in the center, on which he also has an eponymous hotel. Heck, there is a whole neighborhood named after him. There are even people named after him--Byron has become a [...] by A.E. Stallings