Geoffrey Hill’s construction and deconstruction May 17, 2010: The Philadelphia Inquirer reviews the Selected Poems of Geoffrey Hill, just out from Yale: Welcome to the wonderfully plangent yet stately, formal world of Geoffrey Hill's Selected Poems. Spanning five-plus decades, its contents comprise a generous compendium of definitive verse culled from a dozen now-classic volumes, including For the [...] by Harriet Staff

Is there life after the workshop? May 17, 2010: The Huffington Post talks with John McNally about the Iowa Writers' Workshop: I thought McNally, because he has experienced the Iowa Writers' Workshop firsthand--and lived to tell the funniest tale ever written about it--would be an ideal subject to interview about a lot of concerns in the writing and publishing industries, such as the [...] by Harriet Staff

“But his finest work (thus far, anyway) was written early . . .” May 17, 2010: David Orr explores Robert Hass's Apple Trees at Olema in the New York Times Book Review: The publication of a volume of selected ­poems is an appropriate occasion to appraise a poet’s career, and an equally appropriate occasion to wonder why we use the word “career” in connection with poetry at all. Many readers would agree with Randall [...] by Harriet Staff

Boston poetry’s new stars May 17, 2010: The Boston Globe profiles a new generation of Beantown bards: Poets of a certain age — as in, eligible to collect Social Security — dominate the literary scene around town. Now a younger generation is demanding to be heard. The leader of the pack, Daniel E. Pritchard, 27, founder of the online literary review Critical Flame, explained in [...] by Poetry News

Self-published poet outsells everyone May 17, 2010: (image via Kimura Kobo) Asia One News reports on this "highly motivated" 98-year old literary phenom: JAPAN, UTSUNOMIYA, May 14, 2010 - Selling an unprecedented 40,000 copies, a 98-year-old woman's self-published poetry anthology is the latest--and unlikely--literary hit. "Take it Easy, Don't Try Too Hard," "Everyone's Dreams are [...] by Harriet Staff

Emily “Daisy” Dickinson May 17, 2010: The Financial Times explores Emily Dickinson's garden: Flowers do not only grow in gardens and in nature. They also blossom in writers’ minds. Quite often writers combine impossible varieties, ignoring the botanical calendar and opting only for evocative names. Occasionally poets really know what they are describing and greatly increase the [...] by Poetry News

Chinese Search Engine Poetry May 17, 2010: Ruiyan Xu describes how the internet's changing landscape is affecting the poetry inherent in the Chinese language: BAIDU.COM, the popular search engine often called the Chinese Google, got its name from a poem written during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The poem is about a man searching for a woman at a busy festival, about the search for [...] by Poetry News

James Schuyler profiles Frank O’Hara May 15, 2010: This Recording unearths an appreciation: I first met Frank O'Hara at a party at John Myers' after a Larry Rivers opening: de Kooning and Nell Blaine were there, arguing about whether it is deleterious for an artist to do commercial work. I was most impressed by the company I was suddenly keeping. A very young-looking man came up and [...] by Harriet Staff

Poetry in the sewers May 14, 2010: The New York Times's green blog takes a look at NYC's "Water Resources and Poetry Contest": Where do New York City’s budding poets find inspiration? If you are Jeffrey Weiner, a sixth grader at Horace Mann School in the Bronx, in one of the city’s sewage treatment plants handling more than 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater a day. by Harriet Staff

Life Sentences May 14, 2010: The Chicago Tribune highlights Kevin Coval's anthology of poetry from incarcerated youth: Perhaps embodying the essence of the written word — to give a voice to the voiceless — the poetry of about 30 Illinois men and women sentenced to life without parole as youth will be shared in a new book. Selections from "Until I Am Free: Voices of [...] by Harriet Staff