The History of Art January 14, 2008: Journal Entry - Saturday, Jan 12th: Bennington, VT At the graduation ceremonies this evening, Frank Bidart began his address with this emphatic warning: "The history of taste is not the history of art." Although he was speaking to the 25th graduating class of the Bennington Writing Seminars, who endured the loss of its founder Liam Rector last [...] by Major Jackson

Rhyme Driven January 13, 2008: As a poet who works in form, I weary of seeing in critiques--either in on-line workshops or in published reviews--the complaint that a poem or phrase or line is "rhyme driven." Of course rhyming poetry is rhyme driven. Rhyme is an engine of syntax. If rhyme is in the car I want her stepping on the gas, minding the wheel, eyes on the road, [...] by A.E. Stallings

NBCC Award Finalists January 13, 2008: Just returned from the party at City Lights Bookstore. You can check out the finalists for the other categories at the National Book Critics Circle blog Critical Mass, but since I’m on both the NBCC board and on Harriet, I thought I’d post the poetry finalists here. I cannot disclose the nature of the discussion that took place at the [...] by Rigoberto González

Translate This, Part Deux January 12, 2008: Even across the gap between German and English, Paul Celan is one of my favorite poets. I’m not sure if one can really be “influenced”? by a writer as singular as Celan, but his work has been an important presence for me for many years. I have written about him twice on my blog, here and here. His intensity of vision, diction, and rhythm, [...] by Reginald Shepherd

187 Reasons January 11, 2008: I’m in San Francisco for the National Book Critics Circle board meeting, and the award finalists for the six categories will be announced tonight at City Lights Bookstore (I’ll post the poetry finalists as soon as the party’s over), so it seemed appropriate that I highlight a title from City Lights Press. Additionally, the media has been [...] by Rigoberto González

Visual Poetics 08 January 11, 2008: ----------------- "Untitled #22" from The Untitled Project by Matt Siber ----------------- Darren Wershler-Henry has argued that, despite rumours of its decline, visual poetry has in fact colonized the entire, iconic landscape of capitalism, creating a graphic terrain already infused with optical artistry—and he goes on to suggest that most [...] by Christian Bök

helphenstiniana January 11, 2008: Arts-oriented blogs like this one may resemble collections of essays and reviews-- written in haste, perhaps, and repented at leisure-- but they can also draw on other sorts of forms far older than HTML. One such form is the so-called diary-- not the book of daily entries Americans think of when they think of the term, so much as the periodic [...] by Stephen Burt

Translate This, Part Un January 10, 2008: In my previous post, I wrote about some of the losses and gains of translating poetry in general. But, because I believe that generalities only have meaning when grounded in specifics, I wanted to talk about a few particular examples. Thus, for my next few posts I will be listing some poetic translations that have meant a lot to me. My list [...] by Reginald Shepherd

Sun-drenched translation January 10, 2008: Reginald's recent translation post has me thinking about translation again... as did my week-long marathon of getting in an application for an NEA translation grant (hope springs eternal!) And I had been meaning to write as well on some Greek women poets ever since Rigoberto's post on Aurora de Albornoz many weeks back. Some poets do seem to [...] by A.E. Stallings

Glossographia January 9, 2008: When's the last time you looked up the word "dictionary" in the dictionary? I guess that'd be slightly like looking into a mirrorful of mirrors, but on reading Ange Mlinko's review of new books of poems in the January issue of Poetry , I thought it might be helpful; as she writes, "Rare it is to find such a neat convergence in the dead center of [...] by Don Share