Dying to do so April 27, 2010: Once I went to the graveyard in Worcester, Massachusetts and found Elizabeth Bishop and thanked her for her poems and stood around starting to feel sentimental except for the fact that, despite it’s being a perfectly clear blue-sky day, it began to snow heavy wet snow drops and my driver worried about getting me to Boston on time, so we had to [...] by Camille Dungy

SB 1070 April 26, 2010: I. Dear President Obama, I write to ask that you take immediate action to (1) defend the people of Arizona and (2) reform immigration policy pursuant to your existing authority as President of the United States. (more...) by Javier Huerta

MY FEMINIST ASPECT—A NON-SELF INTERVIEW IN BRIEF April 26, 2010: Dear Ones: Those who read my poems often gravitate to aspects of my work I hadn’t given enough attention. It’s the same process with interviews, depending on the slant of the article or the nature of the publication. In this instance, the focus is feminist. One subject is a newly published essay in which I repeat some of my favorite rhetorical [...] by Wanda Coleman

an exercise on an exercise April 26, 2010: archie is now family-friendly with betty, veronica and kevin…juliana spahr is connecting everyone with lungs, point a to b…dagwood will always hinge his mouth open to fit that impossibly huge sandwich, mutilation culture…mike tyler cannot get arrested, the poet's poet…a tv camera on a waist-belt captures the onslaught of humans against the [...] by Edwin Torres

Place, Time, Consciousness: Three New Political Anthologies April 26, 2010: Rachel Zucker makes a good point re anthologies. They can be frustratingly fragmentary. Having edited or coedited a number of them, my feeling is that each anthology ideally ‘earns’ (that old poetry workshop term!) its right to exist by doing something a book of poems by one person could not do. An individual book of poetry can never speak [...] by Annie Finch

conceptual or literal? April 26, 2010: The Segue Reading Series is New York City’s longest-running platform for avant-garde writing. Started in the mid-’70s, it used to be more commonly known as the Ear Inn series, and was generally the territory of Language poets and their fellow travelers. In the late ’90s, it expanded its roster, and now features a fairly wide range of [...] by Alan Gilbert

Shout Out: Irene Faye Duller, Lunada April 26, 2010: As we near the end of the smorgasbord that has been National Poetry Month, I wanted to say a few things about live readings and performance space.  I am interested in the intermixing of form, language, and disciplines thriving elsewhere, other than academic literary spaces. One such space exists in San Francisco's Mission District. [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Literary Journal Spotlight: Breach April 26, 2010: One journal I'm particularly excited about is Breach. The editor of the current issue, J. Michael Martinez, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the magazine. 1) How did Breach begin? What is the journal's mission? Why did you choose the name "Breach?" Breach began a few years ago when the poet Gabe Gomez and I began to [...] by Craig Santos Perez

Stacy Gnall April 26, 2010: A relatively recent undergrad of mine at Sarah Lawrence, Stacy Gnall just had her first book, Heart First Into The Forest, accepted for publication by Alice James Books. Even as a sophomore in college, Gnall impressed me with her razor-sharp diction and imagery that tingled my senses. Her poems are wild, precise, explosive, grounded, surprising, [...] by Jeffrey McDaniel

“the taste is pleasant, and the insane perfection, mild….” April 26, 2010: (more...) by Anselm Berrigan