Karen Solie wins Trillium Book Award June 24, 2010: The Toronto Star reports that Griffin Poetry Prize-winner Karen Solie is having a banner year. The Saskatchewan-bred, Toronto-based poet has added Ontario’s $10,000 Trillium Book Award for Poetry to the $75,000 she earned earlier this month as the Canadian winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize. She won both awards for Pigeon, her third [...] by Poetry News

New Poetry Pairings at the New York Times June 24, 2010: The Poetry Foundation and American Life in Poetry have started a partnership with the New York Times Learning Network. Each week, they'll pair a poem with content from the paper. This week's Poetry Pairing features Alicia Ostriker and Krista Tippet--host of public radio's "Speaking of Faith". by Poetry Foundation

The origin of Afrikaans from poet Antjie Krog June 24, 2010: In The Poetry Channel's new podcast, prominent South African poet Antjie Krog condenses 100 years of South African history and the poetic tradition of Afrikaans to 15 minutes. Using illustrative poems (her own and others) she explores the origins of Afrikaans, from its adoption as the language of slaves through to its use as the ‘language of [...] by Poetry News

Rhode Island almost got a state poem June 24, 2010: Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri vetoed legislation naming a former state poet laureate's poem as the official state poem. His reasoning: the lack of competition. His rhyme? You be the judge. With a state tree, a state flower, a state bird and a state song, Sen. Leo Blais, R-Coventry, thought Rhode Island would benefit from having a state [...] by Poetry News

Dickinson outted as “wild” heterosexual June 24, 2010: Poet, novelist, and literary critic Daniela Gioseffi claims in her "biographical novel" that Emily Dickinson's famous "Wild Nights, Wild Nights" was written about "a man by the name of William Smith Clark, a botanist and geologist." Via the Brooklyn Heights Blog. The result of Gioseffi’s research is a “biographical novel” about Dickinson, [...] by Poetry News

It’s more than a bloody lawn June 23, 2010: Wimbledon poet laureate Matt Harvey has been thinking about those grass courts and writing about it. Here's an excerpt from his latest verse. Read the rest at the Poetry Trust website, where you can also listen to Harvey read the poem. more than a lawn it's a lawn - just a lawn but it's more than a lawn it's a dance floor, a war zone, [...] by Poetry News

Greg Hewett becomes H.D. June 23, 2010: Greg Hewett's blogging about H.D. on the Best American Poetry blog this week: In high school I became H.D.  Or at least her spirit inhabited mine as I read her out-loud to myself, sprawled on the black beanbag chair in my room, heels dug into the deep, orange shag carpeting as the lines poured through me.  Like her, I was interested in [...] by Poetry News

Paris Review names new poetry editor June 23, 2010: Robyn Creswell has been named the new poetry editor at The Paris Review. “I'm thrilled to join The Paris Review as poetry editor,” Robyn writes. “The Review is one of the most vital organs of American literary culture, and its poetry section has always been a place where emerging as well as established poets have their say. It's exciting [...] by Harriet Staff

James Franco has the soul of a poet June 23, 2010: At least according to Kaleem Aftab, who interviews the Howl-actor/Yale writing student in the Independent: "The fact that Ginsberg became such a public figure is an anomaly. It jut doesn't happen that often that a poet becomes that big. It's the nature of poetry. Compared to fiction people don't read much poetry and compared to movies [...] by Harriet Staff

“This is not a book about AIDS” June 22, 2010: Kevin Prufer compares D.A. Powell to Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Cincinnatti Review: Powell does not aim to be merely a confessional poet; rather, beyond the framework of this narrative is a larger identification at work—not one between lover and betrayer but between lover and a natural landscape that cannot help but become a sort of [...] by Harriet Staff