Battle of the Songbirds May 28, 2008: "If a bird is a really crummy singer, he shouldn't even bother trying the same song type everyone is singing, because he will get matched and shown as a loser." (more...) by Don Share

Battle of the Titans May 27, 2008: by Kenneth Goldsmith

CALABASH–IMAGINE–2008 May 27, 2008: DISPATCHES Saturday Part 3 Very early on in the life of Calabash, we decided that it would be a good idea to partner with organizations and entities that had something to do with authors. We had thought about deeding out some curating and programming to some individuals, but it seemed to make better sense to think of book agencies, publishers, [...] by Kwame Dawes

CALABASH—IMAGINE—Festival Dispatches May 26, 2008: Saturday Part Two The sky is clean of clouds. Standing on the stage, the sea stretches out towards the horizon, a sheet of turquoise with the interruption of surf a hundred yards out where the reef breaks the waves. Treasure Beach’s coastline is rocky, with the occasional scraggly tree—these biblical structures of gnarled branches and sparse [...] by Kwame Dawes

Lost in Translation May 26, 2008: I was visiting a creative writing class last week, and students were asking questions about craft, process, etc. A young woman raised her hand: “where do your words come from? Do you spend a long time figuring out what words you’ll use? Because they always seem so precise.” Her question was both simple and complex, and I perhaps gave the [...] by D.A. Powell

Khóc May 25, 2008: khóc (v) to cry or weep. khóc âm thầm (v) to cry or weep almost silently, (fig) in secret. khóc dạ đề (n) the infant proclivity for crying at night. khóc dai (v) to cry for an impossibly long time, stubbornly, with determination. khóc dở mếu dở (fig of sp) to half cry, half wear a twisted face, i.e., to be miserable. khóc [...] by Linh Dinh

Tiene Dolor? May 25, 2008: Pain is my constant companion. This has largely been the case for over a year, with all my emergency room visits, operations, and hospital stays. But since my abdominal perforation and the month-long hospitalization and three surgeries it entailed, pain has never left me. Pain that would have seemed unbearable two years ago now often seems merely [...] by Reginald Shepherd

CALABSH 2008–IMAGINE-Walcott May 25, 2008: CALABASH 2008--IMAGINE SATURDAY 1 The hardest thing to do is to find time to Blog at Calabash. All day the audience, true owners of this festival, will accost to ask questions, make suggestions, express gratitude. I can’t bring myself to do stock answers, even when the questions are the same: “Kwame, Kwame, [fishing into a worn satchel] I [...] by Kwame Dawes

CALABSH 2008–IMAGINE May 24, 2008: Calabash 2008 – Friday May 23rd At 7:30 PM, under a cluster of white tents and in the presence over eight hundred people sitting patiently on white plastic chairs, with the constant moaning of the sea in the background and the distant thump of a the bass coming from sound systems kicking up their Labor Day night sessions on the south-western [...] by Kwame Dawes

David Trinidad is Doing Tim Dlugos May 23, 2008: I don’t mean for that to sound as provocative as it does. Trinidad is in the midst of editing Dlugos’s Collected Poems. Dlugos is still under-read, in part because contemporary poetry is still just catching up to his Pop-Art poems, his eclectic palette of cultural references and tones. I did hear Joan Larkin singing Dlugos’s praises to [...] by D.A. Powell