Chicago Poetry Tour Premiere June 3, 2009: [caption id="attachment_3371" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Chicago Poetry Tour (poster by Kathleen Judge)"][/caption] If you’re in Chicago this weekend, head to the Printers’ Row Lit Fest, where you can browse tons of books, hear all kinds of authors, and explore the treasures and charms of the Printers Row district. At the [...] by Catherine Halley

Way Less West II: Country Matters June 2, 2009: The odyssey, as such, continues.  The Gallatin River is flooding but not cresting until Saturday, it seems, so we're driving through the cold rain with the sniffles and a cat who is pulling his fur out with his teeth.  The poems seem far away.  No time to stop at the fabled Wright/Roethke/Hugo bar (next time, Rob!),  instead, we've made do [...] by Travis Nichols

The Fallacy of Rejecting Closure June 2, 2009: Gary Hume, Dream, 1991 (From "Door" series) 1. My first camera, which I was given at the age of twelve, was a Japanese made Petri, a simple rangefinder camera that my father had bought at the PX in Okinawa, where he was stationed for three years as an Air Force Lieutenant, from 1954 to 1957. The camera traveled back to the U.S. in the hold [...] by Martin Earl

the litmag whirl June 2, 2009: It is a lucky thing, but also a bit of a melancholy thing, to write about contemporary poetry as I do, as often as I do: having written about living poets-- sometimes at length, and sometimes for the sort of periodicals that have dozens of  footnotes, and sometimes for the sort of periodicals that actually pay you-- since 1994, I now get a lot of [...] by Stephen Burt

Where Are You, General Audience? June 2, 2009: I woke up the morning after the college reunion reading not only slightly hungover on cucumber vodka, but also satisfied and addicted. These few hundred folks might well be the largest audience I've ever read to that didn't consist primarily of poets, writers, and poetry and writing teachers. I had had the rare experience of reading for a [...] by Annie Finch

Way Less West June 1, 2009: The sunset is behind us.  It took some work to put it there, but there it is.   We escaped Seattle only five hours later than we had planned, and so I'm here in Spokane now nearing midnight, staring at two pens. (more...) by Travis Nichols