SPD Ka-Razy Sidewalk Sale: August 27 August 17, 2011: On Saturday, August 27, Small Press Distribution will host its annual sidewalk sale -- but this time she's bigger than ever, and in conjunction with bookseller Jeff Maser. Looks like "the mildly hurt and lovable must-go books" will start $1, with nothing over $10. One day only, not online, and in the back lot of SPD. If you can't make it to [...] by Harriet Staff

Male Poets Pose in Coleridge’s Study for The Naked Muse Calendar August 17, 2011: How about this one for a fundraiser? "14 nude male poets, 13 female photographers, 14 poems contributed by UK female poets. Creating together for a cure to diabetes type one." The Guardian points us to the new project, dreamed up by Wild Women Press co-founder and poet Victoria Bennett, who is turning over graves in the Lake District: "We [...] by Harriet Staff

Do Poets Ever Invoke Hiroshima? August 17, 2011: "If the great Hiroshima novel remains unwritten, a number of major poets have written brilliantly on nuclear concerns, and they have invoked Hiroshima far more often than the novelists," writes Greg Mitchell in "Writers and The Bomb (Part II): Poets to the Rescue" for The Nation today. In Part I of the series, Mitchell explained how fiction has [...] by Harriet Staff

Hell hath no fury like a Modernist in a housing development August 17, 2011: Sparks are flying in Somerset this week to keep T.S. Eliot’s final resting place from becoming a waste land. The New York Times reports: “Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,/Are removed, destroyed, restored…” T.S. Eliot wrote in “East Coker,” a poem in his famed collection “Four Quartets.” Now a proposal to do the [...] by Harriet Staff

Kalup Linzy’s Four Saints in Three Acts August 17, 2011: The BART debacle isn't the only thing worth talking bout in San Francisco lately. There's The Steins Collect show at SFMOMA, and at the nearby Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the much-anticipated Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson opera Four Saints in Three Acts opens on Thursday night. Performance and video artist Kalup Linzy is modernizing [...] by Harriet Staff

Adam Robinson interviews Woodland Pattern August 16, 2011: A little while ago, we encouraged all Harriet readers to drop by Woodland Pattern in Milwaukee, the famed bookstore and community center that has been in dire straits recently, due to "federal budget cutting, the general economic condition and now the current Wisconsin State Budget all but eliminating the Wisconsin Arts Board and cutting [...] by Harriet Staff

Stop kissing babies and start reading poetry August 16, 2011: Bill Keller of the New York Times wants to bring a little literacy to your legislators. In a recent column, he suggests that members of Congress take another look at American verse for fresh, new insight on how to better avail the voting public: I’m not suggesting that poetry will guide our legislators to wisdom any more than prayer has. Just [...] by Harriet Staff

The Phantom Poetry Project August 16, 2011: New Zealander Jim Wilson and his merry band of helpers have installed poems ("Phantom Bill Stickers") on phone poles and walls in cities all over the world, having recently phantomed the US from Portland, OR to New York City. Jan Gardner checked in with the Head Phantom for a mini-feature over at Boston.com. A snippet: “People are [...] by Harriet Staff

“Factionalism” In American Poetry August 16, 2011: Johannes Goransson, over at Montevidayo, has lobbed quite the slow, perfectly placed meatball for poets and blog reactionaries with the following: I see a lot of criticism of what apparently a lot of people see as a problem of “factionalism” in American poetry. There are too many groups – “tribes,” “camps,” “movements,” [...] by Harriet Staff

These New American Poets Are The Best Until 2012 August 16, 2011: As we all know, there can only be 50 Best New Poets in America per year. Don't hate the players, hate the FDA for creating that lousy poetry food pyramid in the first place. And so we have this year's announcement of the Best New Poets, as selected by D.A. Powell. To winnow this winnowing even winnowier, the folks over at Flavorwire have [...] by Harriet Staff