Poetry and Narrative in Performance, part II October 31, 2009: (note: this is part II of a 1996 letter from the late Doug Oliver on his book Poetry and Narrative in Performance) So we can say: “The ‘neutral’ or ‘unmarked’ tune is that which the words would assume for an average voice in a given dialect when no special emphasis is given to the line, providing there were absolute agreement between [...] by Anselm Berrigan

Indie Publishing: Two Questions and More Answers October 31, 2009: Regarding my previous post on indie publishing, Glen has commented, "In some ways I feel like there’s too much poetry being published right now and not enough filtering, so it’s interesting to hear from people who feel the opposite." To this, I've responded that his question "leads to the question of filtering, the criteria for filtering, and [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Nabokov trundles back up the lane October 30, 2009: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that writers living under rocks are doing unusually well these days. David Foster Wallace’s Pale King, William Styron’s The Suicide Run, Jung’s The Red Book, Kurt Vonnegut’s Look at the Birdie, and several other posthumous publications are appearing in print for the first [...] by Abigail Deutsch

Poetry and Narrative in Performance, part I October 30, 2009: I remembered recently the existence of a letter my stepfather, the British poet and novelist Douglas Oliver, wrote me thirteen years ago to explain, on my request, the series of experiments he conducted in his study of prosody and voicing, Poetry and Narrative in Performance. The book was published in 1989, and I think the recordings that he [...] by Anselm Berrigan

Saturnalia Didactic October 28, 2009: Thought I'd throw this on the fire. (more...) by Edwin Torres

Poetry Marathon at the Serpentine Gallery, London October 28, 2009: Philip Larkin* Poetry contributor Caroline Bergvall attended the 50-some poet, 36-hour poetry marathon at the Serpentine Gallery in London on October 17–18. Her dispatch follows: I’m writing in from London where I’ve recently been part of a highly ambitious poetry event. The internationally reputed Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park has [...] by Fred Sasaki

Indie Publishing: Two Questions and Several Answers October 27, 2009: Thank you to Eileen Tabios, Francisco Aragón, Reb Livingston, and Rusty Morrison, for answering a couple of very broad questions regarding indie publishing for me. Below are their responses. Question: Why did you start your small press/why did you become an independent publisher? What need was not being met by the existing presses? [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Janet October 27, 2009: by Melissa Friedling

Poetry Noir October 27, 2009: This year I'm teaching a new class called Literature and Film. Since I'm always thinking of ways to use poetry in the classroom, we started the year by screening Run Lola Run while we read Oedipus the King (the brilliant Robert Fagles translation replete with devastatingly ironic line breaks). In our film noir unit, we read some terrific noir [...] by John S. O'Connor

Steel Nests, pt. II October 26, 2009: Some further thoughts coming out of Alison Collins’ series of nests: The show began with one hundred nests, but I think there were closer to eighty by the time the show closed. Collins was, as I understand it, giving them away here or there, perhaps selling a few. There were neither prices nor even a catalog of any kind at the [...] by Anselm Berrigan