Ange Mlinko’s everyday oblique July 20, 2010: Poet and critic Ange Mlinko, who has spent the past year in Beruit, writes in The Nation about  Barry J. Blake's new book Secret Language: Codes, Tricks, Spies, Thieves, and Symbols through the lens of her experience amongst the codes and symbols of the Middle East: Even today, religious practices may inform our first experience of codes. [...] by Harriet Staff

Unacceptance at the Paris Review July 20, 2010: The Paris Review recently changed poetry editors - from Dan Chiasson and Meghan O'Rourke to Robyn Creswell - and it appears that some poets accepted by the former have been found to be unacceptable by the latter.  Is this an unheard of slight, or a run-of-the-mill literary magazine episode?  Daniel Nester over at We Who Are About to Die gives it [...] by Harriet Staff

Phantom noise, real war July 20, 2010: In Phantom Noise, poet and Iraq War veteran Brian Turner chronicles the broader context of war by juxtaposing the brutality of battle with the comforts of civilian life. Turner explores the American soldier’s changing relationship with death, and why contemporary war lingers long after a safe homecoming.  Josh Cook at The Millions praised the [...] by Harriet Staff

Paging Dr. Keats July 20, 2010: Though John Keats will always be remembered first and foremost as a poet, a new biography examines his extensive background in medicine and the influence of the healing arts upon his work. In John Keats: A Literary Life, Bob White explores why Keats abruptly traded his understanding of the body for an exploration of the soul. Keats apprenticed [...] by Poetry News

The Sarah Palin poetry mother lode II: ShakesPalin in Twitterverse July 20, 2010: The wacky wordsmith from Wasilla is at it again!  Back for another epic showdown, it’s Palin vs. the English language, and it seems our favorite Alaskan underdog has quite a few verbal tricks up her sleeve. Yesterday, Palin’s use of the nonexistent word “refudiate” in a tweet - and her justification for it that "Shakespeare liked to [...] by Poetry News

At least Twilight used “Fire & Ice” July 19, 2010: :( A student poetry workshop to be held at a Robert Frost museum in Vermont has ended as "The Program Not Taken," after only one person enrolled . . . by Poetry News

The beats are back in town July 19, 2010: It’s official: a full-fledged beat renaissance is now underway. Archivist Bill Morgan is out with two new beatnik books, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg: The Letters (a collection of correspondences) and The Typewriter Is Holy  (an overview of beat history). San Francisco Chronicle critic Steve Silberman found the latter mediocre, but lauds [...] by Harriet Staff

My frenemy Philip Larkin July 19, 2010: When Financial Times columnist Susie Boyt first read Philip Larkin, she found his hoity-toity poems insulting; they were insensitive and trivialized her working-class roots. She broke it off with his books back then, but today, 25 years after his death and many Larkin collections later, Boyt is sweet on this revered poet. It sort of sounds like an [...] by Poetry News

Rae Armantrout’s scumbling pinky July 19, 2010: Remember when C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to hang out at the Arm & Trout pub in Oxford? Good times. Anyways, Rae Armantrout - whose  Pulitzer prize-winning collection Versed runs the gamut from thoughts on the undead to the erotic -  is known as San Diego’s most explosive poet.   In an interview with the Voice of San Diego, [...] by Harriet Staff

Award-winning poetry of blinks July 19, 2010: Adam Bojelian is wowing the poetry world, one blink at a time. The 10-year-old, who suffers from cerebral palsy and other health issues, communicates his verse by blinking. Though it may take him an entire day to write one line of a poem, he preserved to write the following verse, for which he won a Brit Writers’ Award (judges weren’t aware of [...] by Poetry News