Wisława Szymborska Translation Wins ‘Found in Translation’ Award June 14, 2011: Clare Cavanagh and Stanisław Barańczak's translation of Szymborska's book Here won the "Found in Translation Award" from the Polish Cultural Institutes in London and New York. The citation says that Cavanagh and Barańczak worked on the translations of Szymborska’s poetry at a time when she had been known only to a narrow circle of poets [...] by Harriet Staff

Get Yer Sous les Pavés June 14, 2011: Sous les Pavés, a bimonthly newsletter published and edited by poet Micah Robbins, has steadily accumulated much chatter (off- and online) -- it's politically charged, in a rare and rarer format, distributed for free to subscribers, its contents from issue to issue often in dialogue, and featuring not only poetry but correspondence, reviews, [...] by Harriet Staff

Delighted Obstinacy: Steve Evans on Gertrude Stein June 13, 2011: Always grateful for a Steve Evans essay. In an extended post as part of The Steins Collect show at SFMOMA, the critic and professor writes today for Open Space about Gertrude Stein--expressing the poet's feeling that the nature of existence is not repetition, but insistence; and deftly introducing the reader to her writing studio as salon in [...] by Harriet Staff

Statue of Pushkin Rides Lightning, In Egypt June 13, 2011: To commemorate "Russia Day" in Egypt, a statue of the Russian-by-way-of-Cameroon poet Pushkin, sculpted by Grigory Pototsky, was unveiled yesterday. According to his interview, Pototsky believes Pushkin is beyond nationality, which makes him a curious choice to help spread culture uniquely Russian: According to Grigory Pototsky, Pushkin, [...] by Harriet Staff

Leslie Scalapino Plays to Be Performed at PICA Time-Based Art Festival June 13, 2011: Worlds collide: Songwriter, composer, and professor Sarah Dougher is in the lineup at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time-Based Art Festival this fall, and she'll be presenting Fin de Siècle, her musical interpretation of a set of three experimental poem-plays by renowned poet Leslie Scalapino (whose plays are collected in the 2008 [...] by Harriet Staff

I Think That I Shall Never See June 13, 2011: As most literate folks know by now, Leonard Stern, co-creator of Mad Libs, has died. For many of us, Mad Libs was a first introduction to the considerable pleasures of wordplay. The most apt obituary I've come across is one with a Mad Lib lead-off at the Washington Post. Well, I thought I'd honor Stern's memory with the above poetry Mad [...] by Don Share

Bahraini Poet Sentenced to One Year in Prison June 13, 2011: Twenty-year-old Ayat al-Qurmezi, who was on trial last week in Bahrain for reading a poem critical of her government, has been sentenced to a year in prison, The Guardian reports, though she has already been in holding since her arrest in March, and claims she has been beaten. The poem, as we mentioned, included the lines, "We are the people who [...] by Harriet Staff

Five Questions for Dodie Bellamy at HTMLGIANT June 11, 2011: "Poets have often seized the discarded." Dodie Bellamy answers some very thoughtful questions over at HTMLGIANT about experimental writing. There are lots of, or in this case, five ways in. Christopher Higgs has got a great schedule for this interview series, having already talked with the likes of Brian Evenson and Miranda Mellis, with [...] by Harriet Staff

Wow: Lydia Davis on John Ashbery’s Translation of Rimbaud’s Illuminations June 10, 2011: Lucky us! Lydia Davis reviews Rimbaud's Illuminations, newly translated by John Ashbery and in a lovely edition published by W.W. Norton, for the New York Times' Sunday Book Review. In a brief introduction to the young poet, who quit writing at 21 and lived on, adventuring, for only 16 more years: "[H]e is one of those exceptional meteoric [...] by Harriet Staff

Old Possum’s widow will not stand for illiteracy June 10, 2011: Valerie Eliot, widow of T.S. Eliot, made a donation to the Evening Standard's Get London Reading campaign, while taking time to speak on the importance of literacy and education, while reflecting on her marriage. She said: "When I heard that about 20 per cent of London pupils leave secondary school without being able to read or write with [...] by Harriet Staff