A Valediction Forbidding Mourning July 26, 2011: How can we be forbidden to mourn?  The notion seems shocking, yet it is espoused in John Donne's great poem, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning." It might take some acquaintance with Christian theology, the science of alchemy, Donne's penetrating use of conceits and metaphors, and much else besides to explain this mystery, but one is [...] by Don Share

Andrew Kenower is a voice box July 26, 2011: Andrew Kenower, Bay Area poet and co-publisher (with Erin Morrill) of Trafficker Press, has another project up his sleeve (and this is not to mention his band)! If you haven't come across it yet, please take a look around A Voice Box, Kenower's storehouse for "Bay Area recordings of the recent past." Included there, as you'll see, is a [...] by Harriet Staff

Need guides to literary cities? July 26, 2011: Poets & Writers has launched a series of online guides to literary cities! Portland, L.A., Boston and Chicago are first up. We're biased, so we'll focus on Chicago for now. Writes Zach Dodson: Thinking of literary places in Chicago invites nostalgia. For this roundup I was tempted to fall back on some old clichés, to ride Stuart Dybek’s [...] by Harriet Staff

Broetry, brah. July 25, 2011: As if the phrase "Bromance"—brought about in large part by Judd Apatow movies—weren't enough, we can now add "Broetry" to the lexicon. This term comes from the mind, and collection, of "Broet Laureate" Brian McGackin. McGackin spoke with Guy Raz at NPR's All Things Considered about the fictional evolution of broetry ("broetry originated [...] by Harriet Staff

John Cusack as Poe at Comic-Con July 25, 2011: Jacket Copy looks at the literary highlights of Comic-Con, which took place over the weekend in San Diego. Our favorite Poe[t] was there! We'll go ahead and make this the second post today wherein we mention "Say Anything" -- how apro-poe. Sorry. John Cusack talked about playing Edgar Allan Poe in "The Raven." The 2012 film, named after [...] by Harriet Staff

Controversy over Ottawan poet John McCrae’s sexual orientation July 25, 2011: Employees at the Bytown Museum in Ottawa have stirred quite the controversy with claims that poet John McCrae was homosexual. According to this Calgary Herald article, they say he wrote his best-known poem, "In Flanders Fields," in mourning for his "boyfriend," fellow fallen soldier Alexis Helmer. The article highlights the dubiousness of these [...] by Harriet Staff

Dear Wayne Koestenbaum, thank you July 25, 2011: Poet, critic, novelist, and professor Wayne Koestenbaum is here to help us. We are so lucky. In "Dear Wayne, I've Been Humiliated," a series of book trailers for Humiliation, forthcoming from Picador in August, Koestenbaum cycles through various circumstances of mortification, recalling YM Magazine's infamous "Say Anything" confessional—if only [...] by Harriet Staff

Murdoch, a.k.a. Macbeth, etc. July 25, 2011: No fear, Shakespeare: Macbeths and Lears and Othellos are still strutting over the world's stage. And they're all embodied, for better or worse, by Rupert Murdoch, opines an opinions writer in today's New York Times. Stephen Marche points out some characteristics of Shakespearean tragedy—from the connection between state and family to the [...] by Harriet Staff

Let’s go get Steined July 22, 2011: Last Sunday, a guard at the San Francisco Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Gertrude Stein exhibit revealed a hazardous irony deficiency when he hassled a lesbian couple for being publicly affectionate. In honor of those women, and her recent surge in popularity thanks to Woody Allen’s unlikely crossover hit Midnight In Paris, it’s Gertrude [...] by Harriet Staff

Dennis Cooper & Violette Leduc & John Ashbery etc. July 22, 2011: In this week's Spotlight, Dennis Cooper resurrects Violette Leduc! A huge influence for poets, she was also, he writes, the “most famous unknown writer in Paris," and wrote La Bâtarde in 1964 to high praise from Cocteau, Sartre, and Genet. Cooper graciously directs us to Deborah Levy writing about Leduc in Dalkey Archive's journal Context [...] by Harriet Staff