“Everyone is their own blindspot” when it comes to picking new talent January 21, 2011: Poet and editor Don Paterson talks to The Guardian about why it's necessary to publish and create awards for new poetry like the Picador Prize, awarded to Richard Meier this year. The legwork involved in uncovering these talents is only half the battle. The network of poets is so tight that it doesn't take much for one to get noticed and referred [...] by Poetry News

The Nation of Thomas Sayers Ellis January 21, 2011: Jordan Davis reviews Thomas Sayers Ellis’ new book, Skin, Inc., or The Nation. The review is long, careful and generous. It’s not full of simple praise like most poetry reviews, but composed of actual criticism—Davis actually attempts to grapple with the poems (huzzah!): Skin, Inc. is subtitled "Identity Repair Poems," which is more [...] by Harriet Staff

Robert Frost’s “Dedication” to Kennedy, 50 years later January 21, 2011: The Boston Globe's Alan Wirzbicki has published the full text of Robert Frost's "Dedication," the poem he wrote for John F. Kennedy's 1961 inauguration. Frost never read the poem that day, instead reciting "The Gift Outright" when the combination of sun and snow proved too bright for reading the words on the page. In a ceremony today, Rep. Daniel [...] by Poetry News

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Portrait January 21, 2011: Dan Hoy, on the Montevidayo blog, offers an intriguing if somewhat fuzzy argument about the difference between “regular poets” and “image artists.” Image artists, for Hoy, are those poets who saturate their whole productive output with a singular vision, and attempt to, to some degree, manufacture the subjective reception of their work [...] by Harriet Staff

Homage to Tibor de Nagy January 21, 2011: Holland Cotter took to the Arts section of this morning's New York Times to wax poetic about the gallery that gave us Larry Rivers, Frank O'Hara's first book, and the irrepressible John Bernard Myers: Rivers, for example, introduced Jane Freilicher, a recent convert from abstraction to still life and landscape painting, to the gallery, along [...] by Harriet Staff

Reynolds Price, 1933-2011 January 21, 2011: From the New York Times: Except for three years he spent in Britain as a graduate student at Merton College, Oxford, Mr. Price lived all his life in northeastern North Carolina, and he would work his home ground in 13 novels and dozens of short stories. Inevitably he drew comparisons to William Faulkner, much to his annoyance, since he regarded [...] by Harriet Staff

Man up with manvotional bro-etry January 20, 2011: The Art of Manliness has a message for men who think they're too tough to squeeze in a chapbook between learning to "shave like your grandpa" and "9 ways to start a fire without matches." Real men read poetry. Author Ty Karnitz chalks up contemporary man's insecurity around stanzas to being taught from a young age to resist encounters with [...] by Poetry News

“Life cannot be one continual orgasm” January 20, 2011: And other words of wisdom from John Ashbery, via This Recording: JA: I don't know. I'm wondering why all these people want that ambiguity so much. KK: Have your speculations about ambiguity produced any results as yet? JA: Only this: that ambiguity seems to the same thing as happiness - or pleasant surprise, as you put it. (I am assuming [...] by Harriet Staff

Getting creepy with Edgar Allan Poe January 20, 2011: On the Denver Westword's Show and Tell blog, Jeff Otte has some creative suggestions for celebrating the 202nd birthday of Edgar Allan Poe. It's a day late, but there's never a bad time for, as Otte puts it, celebrating Poe's unusually weird life by "weirding out your friends and co-workers." 5. Creeping In Tell-Tale Heart, perhaps the most [...] by Harriet Staff

Poetry best sellers, January 9-16, 2011 January 20, 2011: New on this week's contemporary best seller list are two long titles: Quilting the Black Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems by Nikki Giovanni (number 26), and Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking by Tan Lin (number 21). The former came out in 2002, but Giovanni has been in the news and on the road recently, [...] by Harriet Staff