The One Big Organism That Is Publication Studio June 17, 2011: Remember Portland-based Clear Cut Press? They published a series of books, art-object-like, to generate "a long-term conversation that makes a community of readers (and therefore a market) that isn't reached through the national book review organs or most bookstores," as told to Selah Saterstrom in 2006. Now-cult titles like Robert Glück's [...] by Harriet Staff

Holy Psilocybin! NYPL Purchases Timothy Leary Papers June 17, 2011: The New York Public Library has purchased the papers of Timothy Leary, reports The New York Times. Among the 335 boxes of papers, videotapes, photographs and more is correspondence from "Ginsberg, Aldous Huxley, William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, Charles Mingus, Maynard Ferguson, Arthur Koestler, G. Gordon Liddy and even Cary Grant—an [...] by Harriet Staff

Collected Ceravolo? June 17, 2011: According to the Wesleyan Connection, a new $50,000 NEA grant for Wesleyan University Press (congrats!) will generate their new poetry program, which will publish, perhaps, a collected Joseph Ceravolo and a new book by Rae Armantrout. While it's all exciting, we must say--for fans of Ceravolo, who have been waiting decades for this, it's [...] by Harriet Staff

Interview with the Itinerant Poetry Librarian June 16, 2011: What is the Itinerant Poetry Library? Sarah Ream, librarian, sez: The Itinerant Poetry Library (TIPL) is a non static, special collections public library of poetry. For free, for everyone, and for everywhere, or at least, everywhere we can get to. From May 2006 until September 2009 the library operated continuously and was, quite [...] by Harriet Staff

Wilde Boy Alex Dimitrov June 16, 2011: BOMBLOG has a terrific interview today with Alex Dimitrov, founder of The Wilde Boys: A Queer Poetry Salon, an elegant, monthly-ish gathering of mostly queer poets, students, scholars, and writers that often takes place in various apartments around New York City (invite only). Not simply an elite cocktail party, or even modern workshop, the [...] by Harriet Staff

Jay-Z: Rap Is Poetry June 16, 2011: Rap is poetry? Rap is poetry. Yes! FreddyO and The Boombox both point to Jay-Z talking--in a previously unreleased video used to promote his book, Decoded--about the great and conscious writing in rap. The rapper and mogul says: ... You never hear rappers being compared for like the greatest writers of all time. You hear Bob Dylan. So is [...] by Harriet Staff

Bloomsday Atwitter June 16, 2011: The New York Times ArtsBeat points us to Twitter today for a happy Bloomsday, where readers of Joyce's Ulysses can be found typing out the opus steadily all day: “—Warily walking went Bloom, unconquered hero. Jingle a tinkle jaunted. Not yet. At four. What is he doing at the Ormond? Let’s hear the time.” The words may not be exactly [...] by Harriet Staff

James Franco’s Hart Crane Biopic to Open at Los Angeles Film Festival June 16, 2011: The Jewish Journal reports (though we heard rumor) that James Franco's film about poet Hart Crane, The Broken Tower, is due to premiere at the Los Angeles Film Festival, which runs from June 16 to June 26. Franco has been invested in the picture in more ways than one, as he is wont, having been inspired by Crane as a character while reading [...] by Harriet Staff

New Book of Ingeborg Bachmann Radio Scripts Causes Controversy June 16, 2011: The other day, in a small reflection about our writing spaces, HTMLGIANT posted a truly resonant photo of writer Friederike Mayröcker (born 1924) in her writing studio. Not much was mentioned in the comments regarding the fact of her being positioned thusly -- an obscure choice of subjects, perhaps. But it sure got us thinking about the [...] by Harriet Staff

The Art of Doing Other Shit: Harry Smith, Brian Lucas June 15, 2011: I remember, not exactly when, but the feeling of when I first realized the Harry Smith behind the Anthology of American Folk Music (1952) was also the Harry Smith who made Early Abstractions (1964) and other avant-garde films. Then I remember having the feeling again when I went to the James Cohen Gallery in NY in 2002 to see a show of his [...] by Garrett Caples