Poems of sorrow and grieving for Japan March 18, 2011: If poetry is good in the ways that we hope it is, then the despair generated by the ongoing crisis in Japan may be at least partially counteracted by poetry’s power to crystallize and to connect. Poetry can serve as a link between our individual despair and a more universal sorrow, between our personal, inarticulate confusion and a more eloquent [...] by Poetry Foundation

Poetry best sellers, March 6-13, 2011 March 18, 2011: Whitethorn, Utah poet Jacqueline Osheron’s sixth collection of poetry, debuts on this week’s contemporary best seller list at number 8, just ahead of Charles Bukowski’s Pleasures of the Damned and just behind Billy Collins’s The Trouble with Poetry. Also debuting on this week’s list is Khaled Mattawa’s Tocqueville (number 16), which [...] by Harriet Staff

Brazil commissions poetry blog, minus the poets March 17, 2011: Forbes' Kenneth Rapoza writes about the Brazilian government's controversial commissioning of a "million dollar" poetry blog. The R$1.3 million ($783,000 USD) isn't going to a poet or literary organization. The recipient is singer Maria Bethânia, who will use the platform to interpret poetry in song through a daily series of videos. There's no [...] by Poetry News

“Poet,” the fashionable look for Spring 2011 March 17, 2011: (Photograph of Terrance Hayes by David Armstrong from the NYT style magazine) Could it really be? Or is it just that poetry (and poets) have become such curiosities in American culture that those outside of poetry circles don't know what else to do with them but put them on display (and put giant paper wigs on them)? In the past week [...] by Poetry News

Eat your art out March 17, 2011: Linda Holmes, writing for NPR, reports on a study done by the NEA which found that lower attendance to high cultural activities was related to a diminishing number of “omnivores”—people who are "are involved in both 'highbrow' and middle- or lowbrow activities." Holmes argues that this is part of a larger tendency of isolation between people [...] by Poetry News

Finnegans Wake: The Movie March 17, 2011: Check out Mary Ellen Bute's 1967 filmic adaptation of Joyce's Finnegans Wake, now up on Ubu. From the site: A half-forgotten, half-legendary pioneer in American abstract and animated filmmaking, Mary Ellen Bute, late in her career as an artist, created this adaptation of James Joyce, her only feature. In the transformation from Joyce's [...] by Harriet Staff

Yusef Komunyakaa: American March 17, 2011: Paul Corman-Roberts, over at The Rumpus, argues that Yusef Komunyakaa is our most “American” and Whitmanesque poet. He points to Komunyakka’s emphasis on traveling and journey, which resonates with the expanse of American geography and psychology: Komunyakaa’s profound connection to the Whitman dialectic makes him perhaps the most [...] by Harriet Staff

Garrison Keillor to leave Prairie Home Companion March 17, 2011: The long-time radio host plans to leave his show in 2013, right after he finds his replacement. The news comes from, of all places, AARP: "When I was younger, I was all in favor of it, and now that I'm at that age, I'm not sure," he explained. "I sure don't want to make a fool of myself and be singing romantic duets with 25-year-old women [...] by Poetry News

Tone-deaf to sequencing? Try some Zappa March 16, 2011: John Wylam writes on his blog about the connections between sequencing music and sequencing poetry in a manuscript: if there is no justification for where a poem goes within a collection then maybe it should be left out entirely. Poor sequencing produces such a strong reaction that Wylam speaks of more than one occasion when he would  have liked [...] by Harriet Staff

Publishing online not just for “refugees” and “rejects” March 16, 2011: In an article about "big publishing's rejects and refugees," The New York Observer looks at how two poets from vastly different generations both arrived at the decision to pursue online self-publishing instead of more traditional routes. Bill Knott had already worked with FSG for years before his frustration with the process—its marketing, its [...] by Harriet Staff