A rant against the Best American Poetry June 15, 2010: Anis Shivani takes David Lehman and the BAP to task at the Huffington Post: Get ready, Professor Lehman, for a "mean" and "spiteful" review of the low-hanging fruit you've offered me yet again. You preemptively advise critics like me (unwanted thorns from your point of view): "If you have too good a time writing hostile reviews, you'll [...] by Harriet Staff

Lyn Hejinian remembers Leslie Scalapino June 15, 2010: On the Academy of American Poets site, Hejinian explores the connection between suffering and generosity in Scalapino's work: Leslie's generosity to poets (as a teacher, as an editor, as a publisher, and as an audience member at readings) was an expression not only of interest but of her ferocious persistence on behalf of something larger than [...] by Harriet Staff

More squabbling over Oxford poetry post June 15, 2010: The Telegraph reports on the latest twist in Ricky Gervais new show on BBC 2 (jk!), in which Michael Horowitz insults Roger Lewis's taste after Lewis claimed to be inspired by, among other things, "The colour of Elizabeth Taylor's eyes": Mr Horovitz, 75, the renowned Beat poet and founder of the Poetry Olympics, was unimpressed. "Mr [...] by Poetry News

Emory gets Irish poet papers June 14, 2010: The AJC reports that Atlanta's Emory University has landed another great archive: Emory University officials announced Monday that Irish poet Eamon Grennan has placed his paper's with the institution's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library. The collection includes drafts, notebooks, lectures, academic papers, electronic records and [...] by Poetry News

“The fact is, only Tony Hoagland could have saved Britney and the Burj.” June 14, 2010: Tony Hoagland, from the Ploughshares blog Darcie Dennigan writes a "metaphorical" review of Tony Hoagland's new book, Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty. Tony took up residence in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa—then the tallest building in the world. It was designed and engineered by Chicagoans. It was slave-labor-built by South [...] by Harriet Staff

Blurbs seal the deal June 14, 2010: The sales and trade marketing director at UK literary imprint Hodder & Stoughton, James Spackman, tells the The Bookseller Cover Design Conference that they're missing out if they don't concentrate on blurbs: Spackman discussed research from Book Marketing Limited which found that the blurb makes 62% of consumers buy a particular book. He [...] by Harriet Staff

“We have a cast of poetry whores . . . “ June 14, 2010: The Best American Poetry blog reports that the fabled Poetry Brothel (sneak peak video above) is coming to Chicago on July 10th. by Poetry News

Anne Carson’s best book? June 14, 2010: Ben Ratliff in the New York Times Book Review thinks so: Anne Carson’s new book comes in a box the color of a rainy day, with a sliver of a family snapshot on the front. Inside is a Xerox-quality reproduction of a notebook, made after the death of her brother, including text and photographs and letters, pasted-in inkjet printouts, [...] by Harriet Staff

Have the UK’s standardized lit tests been dumbed down? June 14, 2010: The Telegraph seems to think so: The new boards such as AQA and Edexel, which set the syllabuses for both GSCE and A-level, are markedly biased towards a narrow range of modern authors, especially when it comes to poetry. The hugely influential AQA GCSE Anthology, which students use in place of individual poets’ collections, has [...] by Poetry News

Mabel Loomis Todd’s “showgirl flair” June 14, 2010: Mabel Loomis Todd, mistress of Emily's brother Austin Dickinson While perpetuating some of the goofy myths about Emily Dickinson, the Seattle Times gushes over a new book cataloging the Dickinson family feuds: With most biographies, death marks the end of the story; in Lyndall Gordon's mesmerizing "Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson [...] by Harriet Staff