Bitch on Sappho May 17, 2011: For their Feministory series, Bitch magazine has pulled together a dossier of sorts on the lyric poet Sappho, about whom very little is actually known despite the respect her work receives both now and during her lifetime (about 615 to 550 BC). What is known is that she taught at a school for unmarried women, Plato referred to her as the 10th [...] by Harriet Staff

Marjorie Perloff reviews Christian Hawkey’s Ventrakl for Los Angeles Review of Books May 17, 2011: Marjorie Perloff reviews Christian Hawkey’s Ventrakl (UDP 2010) for the Los Angeles Review of Books, rightly noting that poet Georg Trakl (1887-1914) was felt by many to be the Austrian answer to Rimbaud, and later considered within the Modernist trajectory as a kind of Deep Image poet (he is also regarded as the preeminent Austrian [...] by Harriet Staff

Turkish publisher of William Burroughs’s The Soft Machine faces jail time and obscenity charges May 17, 2011: Irfan Sanci, a winner of the International Publishers Association's Freedom to Publish prize, is facing up to nine years of jail time in Turkey for publishing 2,500 copies of William Burroughs’s novel The Soft Machine, reports The Guardian. He and his translator are facing obscenity charges, some stating that the novel "hurts people's moral [...] by Harriet Staff

Brakhage and McClure correspondence published May 17, 2011: New Directions has pointed us to a new publication that will please fans of friend to poets and legendary filmmaker Stan Brakhage and Beat-era poet Michael McClure—Big Bridge has published their letters. Brakhage was a dutiful correspondent with many people, as evidenced in a recent issue of the Chicago Review, where letters appear between the [...] by Harriet Staff

All the Sad Young Literary Rappers: Earl Sweatshirt’s Poetic Roots May 17, 2011: A few months ago, Bethlehem Shoals wrote an article for us about the Los Angeles hip-hop collective Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All (OFWGKTA), drawing parallels between their often shocking and offensive lyrics and literature that made use of similar tactics ("brutality and levity," in Shoals' words). While many agreed that there was more [...] by Harriet Staff

Work, or The Man Who Shot Frank O’Hara May 17, 2011: it is how life as lived—is lived—. —Richard O. Moore, “Over the Shoulder” The other day Cedar Sigo and I went to Mill Valley to visit Richard O. Moore (pictured), who last year at age 90 released his first book, a selected poems called Writing the Silences (University of California). Among the poets identified by Michael [...] by Garrett Caples

Javier Sicilia: poet to activist May 16, 2011: The New York Times continues to report on Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet, novelist and essayist who is now the unlikely hero of the movement to drastically alter the Calderón government’s crackdown on organized crime, which has left nearly 40,000 people dead in four years of drug cartel violence (one of whom was Sicilia’s son, killed in [...] by Harriet Staff

Seattle’s Pilot Books to close May 16, 2011: Seattlest and Pilot Books acknowledge the sad fact of the bookstore's closing, with a blog post from Pilot that announced their last hurrah, a party and reading for the store ("not a wake") that took place last night in Seattle. Readers were treated to 50% off every book in the place. For one of the country's few shops that counts small-press, [...] by Harriet Staff

Mark your calendars! UDP Art Auction and Party on May 24 May 16, 2011: If you didn't win the Elizabeth Zechel painting or Ish Klein's fuzzy sculptural animals at the Lungfull auction (darnit), you have another chance to try your bidding hand at this year's aptly titled Ugly Duckling Presse Art Auction and Party. The UDP Art Auction and Party, co-sponsored by The Brooklyn Rail, will raise much-needed monies [...] by Harriet Staff

First a parrot… now an iguana? May 13, 2011: In my last post, I mentioned Carolyn Forché's parrot. This time, as you can see, I'm featuring another poet/pet combination.  Here's Ruth Lilly Prize winner and Poetry contributor David Ferry, having an intense tête-à-tête with an iguana. The photo was taken by the poet's son; David says: "I think Stephen sees that my characteristic [...] by Don Share