Keep Whitman (and Others) in California Classrooms September 22, 2011: Sigh. Ok. A tweet from The Academy of American Poets pointed us to a column in L.A. Weekly that illuminates a group of folks in California, called SB 48, who want to repeal a state law that allows students to learn about important historical figures who happened to be gay. From the column: In California, a group called "Stop SB 48" [...] by Harriet Staff

Jon Cotner walks Brooklyn’s Bedford Avenue in a lust for the local September 21, 2011: How about some walking and slideshows with your poetry? It's all over at the BMW Guggenheim Lab ("A mobile laboratory traveling around the world to inspire innovative ideas for urban life"). In "Local Worlds: A Bedford Avenue Slideshow," Jon Cotner and Claire Hamilton walked a three-mile stretch of Bedford Avenue (Brooklyn's longest street), [...] by Harriet Staff

Ploughshares reviews the new Coeur de Lion, by Ariana Reines September 21, 2011: Ariana Reines's Coeur de lion has just been reprinted by Fence Books--good thinkin, as the original mal-o-mar edition has been sold out for a while. Also exciting: this lion-heart is a return to the pocket book! And it's just been reviewed for Ploughshares. Scott Stanfield writes: Unlike The Cow—which wore the full armor of the [...] by Harriet Staff

Jim Behrle, Ron Silliman, minor league baseball, and monkeys riding border collies September 21, 2011: Read all about it here in a little thing we like to call "Yo-Yos with Celery." A taste: Ron: I am quite amazed by who reads my blog. And the kind of readership it gets. I get, for example, a lot of readers who are strictly into haiku. There is a whole haiku community in North America that normally is not treated seriously, but in fact [...] by Harriet Staff

We’ll take Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein September 21, 2011: We can't be the only ones who started out in poetry with Shel Silverstein's The Giving Tree, Where the Sidewalk Ends, or A Light in the Attic under our arms. Sigh. Those were the days! And now they're back! Sadly, Silverstein himself died in 1999 at age 68, but a new book, entitled Every Thing On It, has just been released by his family. [...] by Harriet Staff

In-flight entertainment gets literary September 21, 2011: Look forward to more than fourteen grams of vacuum-packed "snack mix" on your next cross-country flight--meet Airplane Reading, the new online journal from poet Mark Yakich and United-Airlines-employee-turned-English-scholar Christopher Schaberg: We started this site to treat “airplane reading” seriously. Beyond throwaway entertainment [...] by Harriet Staff

What do Billy Collins, Punxsutawney Phil, and the New Zealand Dr. Who Fan Club have in common? September 20, 2011: Absolutely nothing, but now you’ve got something in common with Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan: his straight-shooting “On Poems That Have Nothing to Do With Their Titles,” cries out on behalf of anyone who’s been hoodwinked by a headline: We are uncouth. As is most of America. We are not highly literate; we are middlebrow and low-minded. But [...] by Harriet Staff

New for NY Art Book Fair: Etel Adnan for agnès b’s “Point d’Ironie” September 20, 2011: Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair is coming up soon, and one of the more surprising objets d'art to watch out for might be designer agnès b.'s periodical "Point d'Ironie"; the newest issue, no. 52, has been designed by poet Etel Adnan (an image from the issue is above). More about the project from agnès b.'s website: The Point [...] by Harriet Staff

These pagan poets: Edgar Garcia on Robert Duncan, H.D. and Ezra Pound September 20, 2011: Edgar Garcia gives Robert Duncan and Ezra Pound a thorough treatment for MAKE Magazine in his double review, "Twentieth-Century Heresies: A Review of 'The H.D. Book' and 'New Selected Poems and Translations'". Duncan's long-awaited book on H.D. still resists the literary establishment, writes Garcia, and though it's comparable in scale and [...] by Harriet Staff

No Tell Motel, We Hardly Knew Ye, Too September 20, 2011: According to this post by Reb Livingston, No Tell Motel the magazine is closing its doors. The press, however, may stay around, following a hiatus. From the post: Anyone who edits a publication knows the amount of time and energy required to start and maintain a literary magazine. After 7 years of channeling much of my time and energy [...] by Harriet Staff