All Talk January 20, 2011: Allen Mozek’s For the Birds blog features a review of David Antin’s Selected Poems 1963-1973. This work tracks the development of Antin’s talk-poems, which are improvised talks site-specific to the performance time and space. Mozek characterizes these improvisation in terms of the movement of thought itself: Poet David Antin's career [...] by Harriet Staff

Poetry as the Original Internet January 20, 2011: Emily Parker, in The New Republic, reviews Robert Danton’s Poetry and the Police, which takes account of how poems spread “virally” through eighteenth century Paris. The book apparently begins with the police’s failed attempt to arrest the author of a poem which referred to Louis XV as a “monster.” Though the original author was not [...] by Poetry News

O, Canada! January 20, 2011: North of Invention, a festival of Canadian poetry, kicks off today in Philadelphia and will move to NYC this weekend: North of Invention presents 10 Canadian poets working at the cutting edge of contemporary poetic practice, bringing them first to the Kelly Writers House, then to Poets House in New York City for two days of readings, [...] by Poetry News

Keep your intangible pants on: Poetry is still poetry, even when it goes electric January 19, 2011: Kristen Hoggatt posts the question of Format vs. Function on The Smart Set blog. When a reader asks whether she would recommend the Kindle or the Nook for reading poetry in the interest of environmental friendliness, her response is purely pragmatic: Aside from the Nook offering Llama, Llama Red Pajama in color, it didn't provide the same range of [...] by Harriet Staff

Dante’s Inferno in MS Paint January 19, 2011: For when even CliffsNotes is too strenuous a challenge, Brandon Matheson has created an abbreviated, animated version of Dante's Inferno. In just under four minutes, you can visit every circle of Hell; hang out with some flaming tombs; meet Plato, Socrates, Virgil (and his gold vanity grillz); and even get into an ancient mythological dispute: [...] by Harriet Staff

A Meeting with Oneself January 19, 2011: Poetry magazine recently exchanged e-mails with January cover artist Genevieve Simms, about her work. She says, Illustration from its beginnings has always been tied to a text. I find with my personal work I am often interested in finding ways to use illustration in place of text entirely. For example, I may have forgotten the words to a [...] by Fred Sasaki

Norman Corwin’s Words Without Music brought poetry to the air January 19, 2011: Radio World has a fascinating survey of the career of radio legend Norman Corwin. His first broadcast on CBS inauspiciously followed Orson Welles's War of the Worlds, heard by what he imagines to be a very small audience considering most listeners had probably run screaming from their houses by the time he went on air. Over the next year he [...] by Poetry News

TIP: How to approach potential employers at AWP January 19, 2011: by Harriet Staff

Duncan’s Romanticism January 19, 2011: Jerome Rothenberg's Poems and Poetics blog has posted an article by Michael Palmer, first published in 1997, reminiscing on his relationship with Robert Duncan's poetry. He begins by suggesting that Duncan's work is firmly rooted in a Romantic tradition, and in opposition to the both the formalist work dominant at the time, and to the supposed [...] by Harriet Staff

Another Long and Distinguished Tradition January 19, 2011: Ricky Gervais' hosting of the Golden Globes may or may not have landed him in hot water, depending on whom you ask or if you care. But the Lapham's Quarterly blog focused on something even more interesting than the temper tantrums of Hollywood moguls, as if that were possible. In a segment called Deja Vu, which brings "a historical perspective to [...] by Poetry News