Maya Angelou gets her dot on Jackson portrait. June 22, 2010: The AP reports: Poet Maya Angelou is inviting fans of Michael Jackson to be represented in a pointillism portrait of the late singer, who died almost a year ago. Angelou's has been placed in the heart of the portrait. by Poetry News

Object lessons of recent American poetry June 22, 2010: Stephen Burt posits a "turn among poets to reference, to concrete, real things" in the Boston Review: Almost all literary movements and moments expire in a crowd of imitators: what Hoagland called, disparagingly, “the skittery poem of our moment” may be about to slip into just that crowd. Yet Hoagland’s nominee for its replacement—what [...] by Harriet Staff

The future of poetry? June 22, 2010: Stephen Moss, erstwhile candidate for the Oxford poetry professor job, lays out his plan for the future of verse at The Guardian: People see poetry as the means of expressing powerful emotions, but often that will rein in the imagination, and produce a one-dimensional statement rather than a representation of the world in words. by Poetry News

What do poets have to say about the World Cup? June 21, 2010: What do poets have to say about the World Cup? A lot, it turns out. As you'll see from reading Rosie Schaap's survey of, ahem, "Footy Verse". As “the world’s game,” perhaps no other sport has been written about by amateur and professional poets of so many nations. A commercial for the Museum of Soccer in São Paulo declares that “if [...] by Poetry Foundation

A sure cure for poetry-community claustrophobia June 21, 2010: Last week, scores of poets from 40 different countries gathered in Rotterdam to celebrate the 41st annual Poetry International Festival. Didn't make it to Rotterdam? No worries--visit the festival blog to see what you missed. by Poetry Foundation

Matt Harvey serves first verse at Wimbledon June 21, 2010: The official Wimbledon poet Matt Harvey has served the first of his daily tourney poems. Here's a peek at "thwok": thwok a game in the life bounce bounce bounce bounce thwackety wackety zingety ping hittety backety pingety zang wack, thwok, thwack, pok thwikety, thwekity, thwokity, thwakity cover the court with alarming [...] by Poetry News

Was Emily Dickinson epileptic? June 21, 2010: James Longenbach reviews Lives Like Loaded Guns, Lyndall Gordon's account of Emily Dickininson's family's feuds and the poet's possible epilepsy, in The Nation: The great virtue of Gordon's biography is that it makes Dickinson the person—sister, friend, seducer, adversary—seem as scary as her poems by Harriet Staff

Poems for Dad June 19, 2010: Becca Klaver has put together a great list of poems from the archive, as well as a list of articles, podcasts, and Harriet posts that reflect on all things fatherly (and, yes, it includes Plath's "Daddy"). Also check out this look back on the literary critic Hugh Kenner by his son Rob. by Poetry Foundation

Geoffrey Hill is the Oxford Poetry Prof June 18, 2010: After reporting earlier in the day about the last-minute shenanigans in the Oxford poetry professor race, Dave Itzkoff brings the circus to a close: The 2010 race for Oxford University’s professor of poetry had it all: newfangled rules to allow online voting, an 11th-hour withdrawal by its only female candidate, a furious final round of [...] by Poetry News

The Guardian’s essential poets June 18, 2010: Sarah Crown at the Guardian lists the essential contemporary UK poets, causing commenters to cry crap and present perplexing logic puzzles: Oh Sarah Crown, what a dull and unimaginative list! These poets are fairly well-known and well-read within the poetry world already, so how could it possibly be essential to read them? by Poetry News