Salvador and St. John July 31, 2010: Salvador Dalí’s "Christ of St. John of the Cross" is now an iconic image, but little is know about the 16th century sketch by the Carmelite friar and poet that inspired the painting. In this analysis at the Telegraph, Christopher Howse explains how St John of the Cross’s poetry embodies his philosophy on the relationship between God and [...] by Poetry News

Silliman turns off comments July 31, 2010: Ron Silliman posted a note on his blog today saying that he is turning off comments. An excerpt: I have of course read some comments that suggest that poets who feel bruised by such behavior need not to be so fragile. But I think everyone has every right to feel exactly what they feel, and that participating in poetry doesn’t have to mean [...] by Poetry News

How do you solve a problem like poetry criticism? July 30, 2010: That's what Brian Henry wants to know over on the Best American Poetry blog. Henry cites Matthew Zapruder’s piece on the nature of poetry criticism, which sparked over 220 comments over in our articles section, as just one example of the way poetry criticism - and criticism of said criticism - tends to hit a raw nerve. The real problem, [...] by Harriet Staff

Shreveport mayoral candidate campaigns in poetry July 30, 2010: Will the "slam" help him govern in prose? by Poetry News

The 6th annual Printers’ Ball is TONIGHT! July 30, 2010: Tonight, at the Ludington Building of Columbia College in Chicago, the sixth annual Printers' Ball will host over 250 literary organizations from around the world in a celebration of print and digital publishing. PRINT by Poetry Foundation

Letras Latinas at Cave Canem July 30, 2010: Poets Francisco Aragón and Brenda Cárdenas began dialoguing in an airport shuttle on the way to the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg, and they haven’t stopped since. In an e-conversation in the Letras Latinas Blog, they debrief their experiences at CantoMundo, a retreat for Latino/a writers, and Cave Canem, a workshop for [...] by Poetry News

The Boston poetry tea party July 30, 2010: This weekend 88 poets will gather in Cambridge as the Boston's poetry marathon returns after a half-decade hiatus, once again headed by vocal poet/organizer/rabble-rouser Jim Behrle. The idea is the same as it was back in 2004: each poet gets exactly 8 minutes, but the marathon's got a new name this year, one that reflects the program's desire to [...] by Poetry News

Should “Pale Fire” stand alone? July 29, 2010: By publishing the 999-line poem “Pale Fire” separate from the sprawling footnotes that make up Nabokov’s 1962 novel, editor Mo Cohen and artist Jean Holabird are setting the stage for the next big controversy/debate/yelling match among Nabokov critics and fanatics. At least, so says Ron Rosenbaum at Slate. Detailing the form and history of [...] by Harriet Staff

Poetry best sellers for the week of July 18, 2010 July 29, 2010: David Kirby made a compelling argument for poetry’s pointlessness in his New York Times review of Maxine Kumin’s “deeply satisfying” new and selected poems, Where I Live. His argument seems to have struck a chord as Where I Live has surged to the top of the contemporary best seller list this week, knocking poet laureate W.S. Merwin out of [...] by Harriet Staff

The comment box wars July 29, 2010: Blogger and poet Jessica Smith has a major issue with Ron Silliman’s comprehensive poetry blog. Not with Silliman or the poets he writes about - she praises him for offering critical commentary on poetry - but rather with the comments after his praiseworthy posts. Smith posits that comment boxes have become verbal battlefields: “If you [...] by Harriet Staff