Discovering the taste of truffles October 20, 2010: When former poet laureate Robert Pinksy dropped by a Seattle high school to lecture on the power of poems, Seattle Pi blogger E. Magunsum was a little skeptical. He'd always found poetry slightly divisive and akin to "weirdly cooked vegetables." Pinsky talked about the civic importance of poetry and why he fell head over heals for the art: Pinsky [...] by Poetry News

Speculating on Shakespeare’s sexuality, again October 20, 2010: With every season comes a new Shakespeare scandal, and this autumn it seems the debate over the Bard's sexuality has been rekindled by Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets: A New Commentary by the poet Don Paterson. Paterson makes no question about his stance on the subject, evidenced by this excerpt from the introduction to his book, reports Robert [...] by Harriet Staff

The Atlantic explains why you should read poetry October 20, 2010: Adam Roberts writes and teaches poetry, yet he still easily identifies with staunch poetry haters who practically break out in hives at the sight of a poem. The party line goes something like this: Yeah, poetry sucks! It's confusing, it's pretentious, it's precious, it's frivolous and disconnected and has nothing to do with my life. Right on. So [...] by Harriet Staff

The e-reader showdown, round one: iPad vs. Kindle October 20, 2010: Apple has not hesitated to tout the "runaway success" of the iPad since its launch in April, and with almost 7.5 million sold, why not? So where does this leave that trusty pioneer of e-readers, Amazon's Kindle? When the folks at Jacket Copy asked Amazon to show them their numbers, they received this cryptic response: "For competitive reasons, we [...] by Harriet Staff

What is a Beat without a movie? October 20, 2010: Lest any deceased poet feel left out, there's not one but two Beat movies making the rounds at the London Film Festival. "Howl" still echoes across the blogosphere, and Charles Thomson has decided the Huffington Post needed yet another rehash of the film. He offers few new insights about Franco, Ginsberg, or the poem, and this about sums up his [...] by Poetry News

Rockin’ out with Yeats October 20, 2010: Scottish rocker Mike Scott of the Waterboys fame has always been known for his eclectic musical tastes, but his latest project surpasses expectations. His most recent album, "An Appointment with Mr Yeats," sets the words of Ireland's premier poet to music. Rock'n'roll music, to be exact. Or softish rock'n'roll music to be more exact. So how [...] by Poetry News

Planeta prize plagiarism? October 20, 2010: Camilo José Cela, the late Spanish Nobel prize-winning poet and novelist, is posthumously in hot water for a plagiarism case that was recently reopened after decades, reports the New Yorker: The case centers on Cela’s 1994 novel “La Cruz de San Andrés,” which won the Premio Planeta (Planeta Prize), an award given each year by the [...] by Poetry News

Between the lines of “Last Letter” October 20, 2010: Former British children's laureate Michael Rosen deconstructs the recently-published Ted Hughes poem "Last Letter," which recounts the days before Sylvia Path's death. What exactly should readers glean from this artifact, questions Rosen,  and can it be read for its poetic merit and not its relation to the famous poetic couple? From the New [...] by Harriet Staff

Putting the MF in MFA October 19, 2010: Instead of, say, complaining about the existence of MFAs in comment-boxes and dreary rants, Rachel Zolf decided to playfully critique the system, in the name of creating art. She’s composing her MFA thesis, for the New School, from writing donated to her by others. The results are posted on her blog, The Tolerance Project, where she also [...] by Harriet Staff

Shut up already, Shakespeare October 19, 2010: Jeff Thompson has written a piece of music based on Shakespeare’s sonnets. But instead of writing music to accompany the words (which, let’s face it, would have been a bit of an arrogant move), he’s written music for the spaces between the words (much less arrogant, way more weird): The sonnet is essentially a grid of 10 beats/14 lines [...] by Poetry News