The poetics of shameless self promotion November 16, 2010: Have you ever felt embarrassed about pushing your own work? About discussing it in public or even posting a link to a publication on Facebook? British poet Tony Lopez has published a new essay entitled “Poetics and Institutional Embarrassment,” which explores the way the contemporary poetry scene, and in particular the academy, punishes what [...] by Harriet Staff

Torres on Torres November 16, 2010: Poet, performer and visual artist Edwin Torres is interviewed in the new issue of Rain Taxi. Torres is the rarest of all poets: a writer who straddles multiple scenes (slam, avant-garde, performance) without contradiction. He discusses his eclectic taste and style in relation to his desire to do away with intentionality, and implicitly suggests [...] by Harriet Staff

Yale the Younger no longer Glücked November 16, 2010: The Yale Herald would like you to know about its prestigious poetry prize that Louise Glück is no longer judging: There might be a revolution going on in American poetry, but like most things that happen in American poetry, nobody really knows about it. It won’t make CNN, and definitely not Newsweek, but this spring, after the publication of [...] by Poetry News

You’re not rude, you’re just a close reader November 16, 2010: The face of someone you once met long ago at a party may have been supplanted by the latest issue of Poetry. Science: Doing its part to give you high-brow excuses for social faux pas. [MRI brain scans] scans firstly confirmed which regions of the brain  are associated with reading: as expected, the visual word form area,  which is known to [...] by Poetry News

Rap doesn’t define hip hop, but should its anthology? November 15, 2010: In a form like hip hop, where stylistic differentiation, competition, and the pursuit of precision advance the craft at such a rapid pace that whole genres and sub-genres will emerge and evolve into something else before the end of this post, there will never be a definitive or undisputed record. What's not in dispute, according to Kevin Young in [...] by Harriet Staff

The Animated “Ursonate” November 15, 2010: On Harriet back in 2007, Kenneth Goldsmith called Kurt Schwitters' "Ursonate" "the greatest sound poem of the 20th century" and posted nine audio versions by sound artists. Turns out "Ursonate" has been inspiring animators and new media artists as well. Here are eight text-based visual interpretations ranging from Golan Levin and Jaap Blonk's [...] by Poetry News

File under: Hot tub time machine malfunction November 15, 2010: Let's all take a look at John Cusack on set as Edgar Allan Poe. by Poetry News

Not all conceptual poems are created equal November 15, 2010: Phil Buehler’s All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy is a novel which attempts to recreate and continue the manuscript pages of Jack Torrance’s writing in The Shining (which consist entirely of the phrase “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”). In a review of Buehler’s book, Derek Beaulieu praises the concept and the attempt, [...] by Harriet Staff

Repurposing publication November 15, 2010: When Tan Lin’s terrific Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking came out earlier this year, he and editor Danny Snelson organized a sort of happening in which various translations and variations were produced on-site by the participants. Afterward they were edited and published on lulu.com, and are downloadable for [...] by Poetry News

File under: ugh November 15, 2010: Are you disappointed because your MFA will never lead to financial success? Well, here comes “controversial” New York Times best-selling author James Frey, with a business opportunity that simply can’t be passed up. You remember James Frey, right? He’s the guy who got in trouble with Oprah because he fabricated part of his memoir, [...] by Harriet Staff