St. Mark’s Church turned into a fake bank for Capital One ad September 30, 2011: St. Mark's Church, well-known home of The Poetry Project (as well as Danspace and Incubator Arts), has been turned into a bank for an ad with Jerry Stiller. As Gothamist says, "May this be as close to being a bank as the St. Mark's Church ever gets!" As if New York didn't already have enough bland bank branches on every corner, now they [...] by Harriet Staff

The Washington Blade celebrates Kay Ryan’s MacArthur win September 30, 2011: The Washington Blade talks further about Kay Ryan's newest honor; the poet is of course one of the recipients of a $500,000 2011 MacArthur "Genius Grant." Writes the Blade: Why am I so excited about this? Because the “genius” award honors the work of not only a great poet, but an openly lesbian poet, who has brought poetry to people in all [...] by Harriet Staff

Publisher Bloomsbury to digitally revive titles by Edith Sitwell, Cecil Day-Lewis, and hundreds more September 30, 2011: Harry Potter's publisher--Bloomsbury--will be reviving hundreds of out-of-print titles for a new digital imprint called Bloomsbury Reader, reports The Guardian, including works by poets Edith Sitwell, her younger brother Sacheverell, and Cecil Day-Lewis (yes, father of Daniel). Some Sitwell family members had this to say: William [...] by Harriet Staff

Iraqi poet in St. Louis victim of alleged hate crime September 30, 2011: According to this article on the KMOV website, and this one on The Blaze, Iraqi poet Alaa Alsaegh was the victim of an alleged hate crime in St. Louis. Two assailants allegedly carved the Star of David into his back. The attack, which took place on August 14, was, again allegedly, in response to a poem Alsaegh wrote in support of Jewish people in [...] by Harriet Staff

Emanuel Litvinoff, 1915-2011 September 30, 2011: The Guardian and The Telegraph both report that poet and novelist Emanuel Litvinoff passed away on September 24. Litvinoff, born in 1915 in Whitechapel, East London, might be best remembered for a "devastating public attack" on TS Eliot. The Telegraph describes the moment: During the 1920s, at a time of high literary anti-Semitism, [...] by Corina Copp

Help Flying Object Help @Poets Occupy Wall Street! September 30, 2011: If you go to South Hadley poetry/art supercenter Flying Object between now and October 2nd you can treat yourself to a $5 book from a selected (and long) list, while everything else is 15% off. "50% of all proceeds will go towards buying pizza for the good people occupying wall street." The list includes books from Heather Christle, Timothy [...] by Harriet Staff

Remembering Samuel Menashe September 29, 2011: The Villager says farewell to poet Samuel Menashe, who died last month in New York City: For more than 50 years, Menashe lived in a small three-room railroad flat on the fifth floor of a Thompson St. walk-up with a bathtub in the kitchen. “When we’d run into him in the street he’d often recite a poem — they were all short,” [...] by Harriet Staff

The New Yorker visits the protest library of Occupy Wall Street September 29, 2011: The New Yorker's Book Bench covers the library shaping up at Occupy Wall Street, mostly due to poet Betsy Fagin, author of Poverty Rush (3 Sad Tigers Press, 2011), the science seemed so solid (dusie kollektiv, 2011), and other works. Fagin, also a librarian in Brooklyn, "came to the protest [a few days ago] for the first time and found a short [...] by Harriet Staff

Nobel Prize in Literature wagers: Adonis to win, Thomas Pynchon fourth in line, Bob Dylan at 100/1 odds September 29, 2011: Adonis, recent winner of the Goethe Prize (and described by the Goethe jury as "the most important Arab poet of our time") is now the front-runner for the Nobel Prize in Literature, reports the Los Angeles Times' Jacket Copy. Their info comes from Ladbrokes, the British wagering house, which takes odds on possible Nobel literature laureates [...] by Harriet Staff

CA Conrad shares his experience from Occupy Wall Street September 29, 2011: Poet CAConrad, among others, traveled from Philadelphia to be with those at Occupy Wall Street; he shares his experience with the Huffington Post, writing: I went to NYC for the Creative Time Summit, which is thousands of socially and politically engaged artists sharing their work. The summit started on the sixth day of the Wall Street [...] by Harriet Staff