Didn’t-go-to-the-AWP blues… February 9, 2008: As far as I can tell (apologies if I missed somebody), I am the ONLY current Harriet blogger not to have been at AWP in NY. What did I miss? Was there a secret meeting of Harrieteers? What did go on at all those parties? What was the most fabulous reading I missed? So here's a post for everyone who WASN'T there. What are your excuses? Your [...] by A.E. Stallings

Hail, Ichneumonid! February 9, 2008: Competing, scholarly priorities have prevented me from contributing to these interesting discussions on Harriet, and I fear that my own comments might seem very late in coming. Reginald Shepherd has expressed anxieties about the acid tone in an article by the poet Charles Bernstein, who formulates a sardonic rebuttal to an article by D. F. Fenza [...] by Christian Bök

A Midsummer Night’s Press February 8, 2008: This small but noble venture begins in 1991 in Connecticut, with hand-printed limited-edition broadsides of original works by writers established and emerging. Two years later it goes on hiatus as the press relocates and regroups, reappearing last year in New York City. This time around, the press produces attractive little chapbooks under its [...] by Rigoberto González

Read This: Tonino Guerra’s Abandoned Places February 8, 2008: Just want to recommend an extraordinary poet, Tonino Guerra—his book Abandoned Places (Guernica, 1999), translated by the American fiction writer Adria Bernardi. Guerra was born in 1920; he’s probably best known as a screenwriter who has collaborated Antonioni, Fellini, Tarkovsky and others. He writes poems in the montanari dialect of the [...] by Daisy Fried

Opening the Window to Get Some Fresh Air February 8, 2008: I'm very gratified by the strong response my recent posts, especially "AWP, Communazis, and Me" and "Who You Callin' 'Post-Avant'," have received. It's wonderful to know that people are reading and that they care enough to comment. However, I have been disturbed by the tenor of many (by no means all) of the responses, which have been hostile and [...] by Reginald Shepherd

te whiori o te kuri: james k. baxter redux February 8, 2008: When you read much of the poetry that comes out now--- when you try hard to read as much as you can, to figure out fast what's going to seem original, what's going to stick in people's heads years down the road-- when you do this and, at the same time, remember and reread and think about the poetry of the past-- the so-called canonical writers, [...] by Stephen Burt

The 2008 Palm Beach Poetry Festival – A Photo Essay February 7, 2008: --------------------- Thanks to Marie-Elizabeth Mundheim and Molly Sutton Kiefer (http://www.mollysuttonkiefer.com/) for contributing their Indestructible Eyes! Kudos, too, to Miles Coon, Susan Williamson, and Laura McDermott who organized the week and made sure the festival was an exceptional [...] by Major Jackson

Who You Callin’ “Post-Avant”? February 6, 2008: I was prompted to write this entry by the citation of my blog entry "Orwellian Me" in article called "Blogging the AWP, Part Two," on the Chronicle of Higher Education's "*Footnoted from Academic Blogs" page. Author Jennifer Howard cited me discussing the shifting boundaries of "inside" and "outside" in the poetry worlds; noting my use of the [...] by Reginald Shepherd

UbuWeb at AWP February 6, 2008: I, too, have returned from AWP, exhausted by the experience. I fear that I have little to report of interest beyond the social gossip that such an occasion usually affords—but in the interest of generating some comments about audio-works of the avant-garde, I am going to include the links to the works on my playlist for the panel entitled [...] by Christian Bök

Measureless Pleasure, Measureless Pain: Alicia Ostriker’s Men February 6, 2008: [I participated in the panel “A Celebration of Alicia Ostriker” at AWP last weekend. Here’s what I said:] Preparing for this panel, I tried to think of how to sum up my relationship to Alicia Ostriker’s writing—and realized I can’t do it. The work is too various—and I’m a lousy summer-upper. But reading and rereading poem after [...] by Daisy Fried