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National Poetry Month 2009
What, you ask, is that sound rattling your windows today? That wet, slobbery grinding and grunting all around you? I believe, dear hearts, that it is the sound of Charles Bernstein gnashing his teeth.
Why?
Well, today marks the start of America’s 13th annual National Poetry Month, and thus there is much to report:
* The Academy of American Poets is showcasing a number of great programs on their site, including the National Poetry Map, and a calendar of National Poetry Month events.
* Farrar, Straus and Giroux has re-launched their poetry blog, The Best Words in the Best Order, featuring the Frederick Seidel Book Giveaway, and the poetry ring-tone, among other goodies.
* Poets House will host their 17th annual showcase the 4th through the 17th. The opening reception will happen Saturday, April 4, 1pm-4pm. Their press release says “over 2,000 titles share shelf space for one week” at the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library, and it’s free. More info here and here.
* The Poetry Everywhere program has a whole host of new videos up, both on the PBS site, and nearby on the PoFo’s own.
* Anne Carson is spending the month in Iceland.
* Over at Publisher’s Weekly, Craig Morgan Teicher samples some samplers for the cruelest month.
* My new Facebook friend Small Press Distribution is having a big ol’ poetry blow out sale.
* Scholastic is featuring a “Poetry-Making Machine” up on their site.
* And Tao Lin is winning the Cave Canem prize.
(One of these things is an April Fool’s Day joke, but you have to guess which one. Go on, guess! )
Also: Since there is bound to be a deluge of poetry-related events this month, I’ll be posting the daily news feed here on Harriet in the morning, so please feel free to post any events or news items I’m missing in the comments section.
Oh, and that’s the Seattle morning. Lunchtime for you bright-eyed and bushy-tailed citizens of the Eastern Coast.
Posted in Poetry News on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 by Travis Nichols.
Comments (5)
and poemsoutloud.net, doing a month-long robert-pinsky-led audio blog of poets reading their poems, others’ poems, etc.
Thanks for this post, Travis. There are a couple other interesting programs I learned about today.
Random House/Knopf is doing a poem a day program:
http://poem-a-day.knopfdoubleday.com/2009/03/21/half-moon-small-cloud-by-john-updike/
It also happens to be National Donate Life Month.
http://www.organdonor.gov/get_involved/donatelifemonth.htm
–Camille
there’s vispo at a gallery in NYC:
http://artipedia.org/artsnews/exhibitions/2009/04/01/ac-institute-presents-nico-vassilakis-5ive-sequences-april-16-%E2%80%93-may-9-2009-opening-thur-sday-april-16-68pm/
and a reading at the poetry project:
http://poetryproject.org/program-calendar/nico-vassilakis-lawrence-giffin-2.html
Is it just simple coincidence
or maliciously designed irony
that National Poetry Month
begins on April Fools Day?
For as all of us know,
though dread to acknowledge,
poetry is but a fool’s game.
Of what use laurels and honor
to those who lie in the grave?
Gary,
Poetry, by its very nature, resists the notion of “events,” “projects,” and “celebrations.”
Poetry is that which drowses under the hill, beneath the celebration, hearing it with a far off ear.
Thomas