Whatchu Reading…? April 25, 2011:   The MFA writing workshop is only part critical feedback, and those enrolled in the Rutgers-Newark program know that I’m big on citizenship--on reading poetry books and reporting back with recommendations and reviews, on sharing the book-love online. Poets have to talk about the work of other poets. It’s like that in the literary [...] by Rigoberto González

Talking with the Taxman about Poetry April 25, 2011: Is it worth doing stuff that you don’t get paid for? Earlier this year, I was emailing a friend who had just attended a really entertaining magazine release party that I — and eight or so people — had read at, and I closed my message with “I hope I'll get to hear you read sometime — keep me posted on any events you'll be [...] by Kathleen Rooney

Cooper writes a poem April 25, 2011: WHY I AM NOT A TODDLER By Cooper Bennett Burt I am not a toddler, I am a baby. Why? I think I would rather be a toddler, but I am not. Well, for instance, Nathan is starting a drawing. I drop in. "Sit down and have a snack," he says. I snack; we snack. I look up. He has pirates in it. "Yes, it needed pirates there." "Oh." I go and [...] by Stephen Burt

Response Burger: A Story of Rejection April 25, 2011: When I first moved to New York to go to NYU graduate school, I wrote a lot about laundry lines and sadness. I was a typical graduate student. Poor. Hungover. And staring out the window a lot, saucer-eyed and scared. I wanted to make great poems and I wanted to make my rent. I wanted to fall in love, and also (sometimes seemingly more than any of [...] by Ada Limón

It’s Easter? Cue the strings, pass the Kleenex and fetch my pen. April 24, 2011: I'm an insanely musical person, with an astounding memory for songs no one in their right mind should retain. Yep, I've got a clutch on the standards, from Gene Pitney to Wilson Pickett, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers to Badfinger, "Strange, I Know" to "Muskrat Love." I don't only recognize both Top 40 smashes and dusty obscure little ditties, [...] by Patricia Smith

“Tell the truth but tell it slant” is code. For “poetry.” April 24, 2011: In the New York Times Book Review this week, there is a letter taking issue with anti-intellectualism in a review about poetry. The review was by David Kirby, the book was David Orr's Beautiful and Pointless, and the letter-writer, Allan Benn (his signature included his credentials: professor of English at East Stroudsburg University) chided, [...] by Ange Mlinko

Poets’ Strike (version 2.0) April 24, 2011: A few days ago, Eileen Myles posted – first through Facebook and then here on Harriet – a general call for a poets’ strike on International Workers Day (May Day). I have to confess that, while I love the trajectory of Eileen’s idea, I have my doubts. About a decade ago, I founded a small Marxist organization in the CLR [...] by Mark Nowak

The Digital Flood: You’d Better Start Swimmin’ or You’ll Sink Like A Stone April 24, 2011: Stephen Burt is drowning in the digital deluge. He's up to his eyeballs in information and he can't take it anymore. It's just too much. Too many blogs, too many Facebook pages, too much discussion, too many Tweets: "I'm sorry," he says. "I just can't do it. I don't have the energy. Maybe I never did." Burt's complaint is a common one; after all, [...] by Kenneth Goldsmith

Writing “I remembers” with the Fourth Graders at Garfield Elementary School April 23, 2011: At Naropa, one of my colleagues is the sparkly-eyed Australian emigrée Lisa Birman.  Hope I got the accent on the right e.  The other day, facing an upcoming visit to my son's school in Loveland, Colorado, I called her for help.  Ronaldo Wilson, bibliomancy, and analogies to contemporary architectural theory I can do; ages nine to eleven, [...] by Bhanu Kapil

Lucky Fish April 23, 2011: Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s third book, recently released by Tupelo Press (which also published Miracle Fruit and At the Drive-In Volcano) affirms her reputation as one of the master miners of the curios fact in science, history, nature and culture. With unparalleled ease, she’s able to weave each intriguing detail into a nuanced, [...] by Rigoberto González