Yvonne Rainer to Publish Book of Poems May 25, 2011: The extraordinary modern dancer, choreographer, artist and filmmaker Yvonne Rainer, most recently the author of the memoir, Feelings are Facts: a Life (published by MIT Press in 2006), can now add poet to her hyphenates. Badlands Unlimited, a press started in 2010 with a focus on limited-edition books, e-books, and artist works, will be [...] by Harriet Staff

The Poetics of Elevator Repair Service May 24, 2011: If you haven’t heard of Elevator Repair Service, get your backpack on. A New York–based experimental theater ensemble that has performed all over the world, ERS originally “worked with found texts or improvised, anything that wasn’t literature!” as director John Collins told The Independent in 2010. These days, they’re known for their [...] by Harriet Staff

The Maestro: David Meltzer, Part I May 24, 2011: Michael McClure invited Andrew Joron and me to a reading in the Berkeley Hills, as we wanted to consult him in the course of editing the (forthcoming) Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia. Contact was made, a meeting was set up, and McClure would provide much valuable information regarding Lamantia’s activities in the late ’50s. His [...] by Garrett Caples

Ginsberg/Glass Vehicle Hydrogen Jukebox to Play the Fort Worth Opera Festival May 24, 2011: Hydrogen Jukebox, a chamber orchestra piece featuring the music of Philip Glass and the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, will open today at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. It is directed and choreographed by Lawrence Edelson. Glass had this to say about the project: In 1988...I happened to run into Allen Ginsberg at St. Mark's bookshop in New York and [...] by Harriet Staff

“This is a Poem, Not an Act of Terrorism”: LSU Student Arrested for Imitating a Johannes Goransson Poem May 24, 2011: James Bellard, a student in Lara Glenum's poetry class at LSU, was arrested for writing an imitation of a Johannes Goransson poem. The imitation, an assignment from the class, was deemed a "disturbing letter" by the authorities, who were alerted to it when it rolled out of the library printer Bellard grew too impatient to wait on. In addition to [...] by Harriet Staff

Terrence Malick: “Hollywood’s poet returns” May 24, 2011: Claiming that "Hollywood's poet returns," The Telegraph discusses reclusive director Terrence Malick, who just won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his film The Tree of Life. "A story about transcendence that divided critics, who were alternately transported and turned off by its religious themes and elliptical storytelling, it is the [...] by Harriet Staff

Berrigan and Myles Rock the Music Hall of Williamsburg May 23, 2011: New York Press had a little chat with Eileen Myles last week about her then-upcoming appearance at the Music Hall of Williamsburg with none other than Sonic Youth frontman and poetry fanatic Thurston Moore, whose new album, Demolished Thoughts, has just released. Moore asked both Myles and Edmund Berrigan's band I Feel Tractor to open the show [...] by Harriet Staff

Context, Baby: The Power of Metaphor May 23, 2011: A fascinating study by Paul Thibodeau and Lera Boroditsky, from Stanford University, explores the power of metaphor through five experiments "designed to tease apart the 'why' and 'when' of metaphor's power." 482 students were asked to read two identical reports of crime in the city of Addison, only the description of the crimes was switched in [...] by Harriet Staff

After 30 Years, a New Edith Sitwell Biography May 23, 2011: Poet and biographer Richard Greene, who teaches at the University of Toronto and won a Governor General's Literary Award in 2010, has written a new biography of Dame Edith Sitwell (1887-1964), reports the Montreal Gazette. Long overdue (the last bio of Sitwell was A Unicorn Among Lions, published in 1981), Edith Sitwell: Avant Garde Poet, [...] by Harriet Staff

The World of 10,000 Things: Dean Young’s Recovery from Heart Transplant May 23, 2011: (Photo by Richard P. Gabriel) Dean Young has a new book out and, thankfully, a new heart. After battling a degenerative heart condition for over a decade, which took a major turn for the worst this past year, Young received a new heart from a twenty-two year old donor in April, just a few days before the release of Fall Higher. Young took [...] by Harriet Staff