VIDA Reveals Gender Bias in Best American Series May 31, 2011: VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, co-founded by poets Erin Belieu and Cate Marvin, has released its new count illustrating gender inequity, this time examining the contents of the Best American anthologies in poetry, fiction, and essays. As the data on their website demonstrates, it seems the guys have it again (respective to the lifetime of a [...] by Harriet Staff

The Maestro: David Meltzer, Part II May 31, 2011: Prior to helping him assemble the collection that became When I Was a Poet, I knew little about David Meltzer or his work. Right before we met, however, I picked up a copy of The Agency Trilogy, a trio of pornographic novels written in 1968 for Essex House, the same outfit in L.A. that published the original edition of Bukowski’s Notes of a [...] by Garrett Caples

Famed Miami Area Poet Will Bell Murdered May 31, 2011: Poet and spoken word artist Will "Da Real One" Bell was shot to death early Sunday morning outside the The Literary Cafe, a place he owned and had grown as a performer and promoter of young writers for years. Bell, whose performances are documented on HBO's Def Poetry Jam among others, was 47. The following, from The Miami Herald gives details of [...] by Harriet Staff

Pinsky on Twitter May 31, 2011: Robert Pinksy checked in at Big Think to extol the merits of social media sites such as Twitter and their significance on contemporary poetry. From the article: “Twitter is a stage,” he says--but it’s part of the contemporary political climate. Poets should concern themselves with “what people are talking about” now, which has [...] by Harriet Staff

R.I.P. Gil Scott-Heron May 31, 2011: Gil Scott-Heron, the poet and political activist who helped lay the groundwork for rap and is best known for the song/poem “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” died on Friday night at the age of 62. Scott-Heron had come back into prominence after being featured on Kanye West's latest album and releasing new work of his own last [...] by Harriet Staff

Lambda Literary Awards Honor Myles, Teare May 31, 2011: The 23rd Annual Lambda Literary Awards took place at the School of Visual Arts Theater in NYC last week, and among the winners were Brian Teare (Pleasure, Ahsahta Press) for gay men's poetry, and Eileen Myles, in lesbian fiction, for Inferno (A Poet's Novel) (OR Books). The full list (there are, in total, 24 categories) of award winners is here. [...] by Harriet Staff

Kristen Gallagher Revisits Tan Lin’s 7CV May 31, 2011: Jacket2 today features a sustained review by Kristen Gallagher of Tan Lin's Seven Controlled Vocabularies and Obituary 2004. The Joy of Cooking (or 7CV, or SCV) (Wesleyan University Press 2010). It's a welcome exploration, even though the book has had plenty of attention (we'd highly recommend this interview with Lin at BOMB), considering [...] by Harriet Staff

Edwin Honig, Poet and Translator, Passes Away May 31, 2011: Edwin Honig, former Brown Professor and author of numerous collections of poetry, plays, criticism, and translations, namely of Fernando Pessoa, passed away last week after a battle with Alzheimer's disease. According to this article from The Providence Journal, Honig once told former Providence Journal columnist Wanda Howard that he was 13 [...] by Harriet Staff

Documentary on Poet Considered “The Godfather of Grunge” Due May 27, 2011: The Pacific Northwest Inlander reports on a forthcoming documentary, I Am Secretly An Important Man, based on the life of the man voted Seattle's best poet in 1989, Steven “Jesse” Bernstein. As the article states, In the documentary I Am Secretly An Important Man, filmmaker Peter Sillen chronicles the life of Steven “Jesse” Bernstein, a [...] by Harriet Staff

Leonora Carrington (1916-2011) May 27, 2011: We are sad to note that surrealist painter, sculptor, poet, and writer Leonora Carrington has died at the age of 94 in her longtime home of Mexico, as the Washington Post reports. Once the lover of German artist Max Ernst, Carrington was also part of a famous wave of artistic and political emigres who arrived in Mexico in the 1930s and [...] by Harriet Staff