The Poetry magazine podcast wins an Ellie March 16, 2011: The Poetry podcast, a monthly conversation about the magazine with the editors, has just won a National Magazine Award for Digital Media. The American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism give out the awards, called the Ellies in honor of the Alexander Calder stabile "Elephant" presented to [...] by Poetry Foundation

Freedom isn’t free, and all that March 16, 2011: Lincoln Michel, writing for The Faster Times, is skeptical of the potential for e-books to generate royalties for authors. He argues that the price of e-books will likely drop, and so will the wages of writers. But the bulk of his argument is aimed at those who want to distinguish between what's good for authors and publishers (making money), and [...] by Harriet Staff

LA Stories March 16, 2011: For those of you in sunny LA, Les Figues press is hosting audio tours of the Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions space. The tours were written collaboratively and are downloadable from the Les Figues site. Just pop ‘em into your iPod and drop on by: The Explanation as Composition audio tours offer six narrative experiences of the LACE [...] by Poetry News

More on “The Change” March 16, 2011: Tree Swenson, the director of the Academy of American Poets, has written a short note about “The Change” controversy, introducing all of the primary materials, which have been missing from the debate so far. Now you can download Hoagland’s “The Change” as read by Nick Flynn; Rankine's essay on the poem; Hoagland’s email response; and [...] by Poetry News

Writer & gang interventionist Luis J. Rodriguez March 15, 2011: Luis J. Rodriguez is a poet, memoirist, and a founder of Chicago's Guild Complex, among other organizations. He's also a community activist who works to keep kids out of gangs. Rodriguez reads next Wednesday, March 16, at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. Below, he takes the time to answer a few questions for us. What line or poem do you find [...] by Poetry Foundation

The Making of This: Part I March 15, 2011: Or: on writing text for K.J. Holmes’s “This is Where We Are (or take arms against a sea of troubles).” Performed at The Chocolate Factory, L.I.C NY, March 9-12, 2011 Performed by: Jodi Bender, Keith Biesack, K.J. Holmes, Marin Sander-Holzman, Kathy Westwater, Devika Wickremesinghe. Music performed by: Doug MacKenzie, David Moss [...] by Julie Carr

To serve poets: The cookbooks of Ronald Johnson March 15, 2011: Samuel Amadon wants you to remember Ronald Johnson for more than just his great poetry. Writing for the Gulf Coast blog, Amadon is appreciative of what Johnson's Simple Fare (1989) taught him about scrambled eggs, but it's his commentary on each recipe and the way that they "feel gathered out of his experience" that sets his books apart. These [...] by Poetry News

Brian Spears revisits his own exile in first collection of poems March 15, 2011: Knight Arts' Neil de la Flor interviews Brian Spears about his first poetry collection, A Witness in Exile. Spears is the poetry editor of The Rumpus and teaches literature and creative writing at Florida Atlantic University, but he spent the first half of his life as a Jehovah's Witness. In his mid-twenties, he became exiled from his faith and [...] by Harriet Staff

American poetry puts myself above all else March 15, 2011: Jay Parini, for the Guardian Books blog, has made a list of “The 10 best American poems:” For whatever reason, I woke up today with a list of the 10 greatest American poems in my head that had been accumulating through the night. Every list is subjective, and of course the use of "greatest" even more so—but these are not just [...] by Poetry News

Timothy Donnelly on history, Romanticism, and form March 15, 2011: Poet Timothy Donnelly is interviewed for Guernica, where he talks about history, romanticism, and form. After an introductory question, the interviewer jumps right into a “what-is-the-poet’s-role?” question, giving Donnelly a chance to articulate the relationship between poet and society, though he carefully dodges prescription: I think [...] by Harriet Staff