Tom Roberge on Siri Hustvedt on Susan Howe on Emily Dickinson October 24, 2011: New Directions has a gorgeous new website, and shiny new blog, too. Today, they've posted a piece reproduced from introductory remarks by Siri Hustvedt (she who makes French readers happy) about Susan Howe's My Emily Dickinson, which Hustvedt read from at Community Bookstore's 40th anniversary in September. Tom Roberge writes of the event: [...] by Harriet Staff

The Week We Got Rained On October 23, 2011: Verily, we experienced some particularly foul weather this week en route from Harriet’s corporate HQ to our neighborhood huevos rancheros connection. But poets don’t limit themselves to the literal, and neither do we. Figurative-language buffs have long known that precipitation can serve as a flexible metaphor, invoking joy, sorrow, frogs, [...] by Harriet Staff

Poets in Six Questions October 21, 2011: In anticipation of the Poets Forum (happening NOW in New York City), BOMBLOG is featuring brief interviews with poets, asking the same six questions of each. The interviews touch on the writing process, reading habits, how to deal with the great timesuck that is the internet, and more. So far, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Cate Marvin, Matthew [...] by Harriet Staff

HuffPo looks at Poetry Center digital archives October 21, 2011: Thomas Gladysz over at the Huffington Post digs up some books by Philip Levine, remembers Levine reading in San Francisco years ago, and then misses his voice. This leads him to San Francisco's Poetry Center and the American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University, which recently launched a digital archive of their poetry recordings on [...] by Harriet Staff

Marie Howe on Fresh Air October 20, 2011: On Fresh Air today! Poet Marie Howe speaks with Terry Gross about grieving her brother's death, growing up in a Catholic family of nine, kissing girls, reading the Bible, and poetry's engagement with the sacred present. From the interview: "Poetry holds the knowledge that we are alive and that we know we're going to die," says Howe. "The most [...] by Harriet Staff

Help Belladona Help Tonya Foster October 20, 2011: Poet, former Harriet blogger, and Belladonna author Tonya Foster needs medical help, and Belladonna has set up an emergency care fund for her: We are raising funds to help Tonya Foster, our dear friend and Belladonna* author, who is seriously ill. If you are able to contribute, we would greatly appreciate it! Please note that although [...] by Harriet Staff

Letters of Note: Bukowski on Censorship October 20, 2011: Letters of Note -- a real epistolary treasure chest -- has unearthed a 1985 letter from Charles Bukowski to the Public Library in Nijmegen, after they removed Tales of Ordinary Madness from their shelves, declaring the book "very sadistic, occasionally fascist, and discriminatory against certain groups (including homosexuals)." Not surprisingly, [...] by Harriet Staff

Celebrate Rimbaud’s Birthday with Patti Smith’s “Camera Solo” October 20, 2011: Happy birthday to Arthur Rimbaud! He would have been...let's see...born on October 20, 1854; he would be 157 today. Um, that's of course not taking into consideration various biological/ecological/actual factors. Also in today's poetry news is Patti Smith's newest art and photography installation--just up at Electric Lady Studios in New York. [...] by Harriet Staff

Tweet Week with Sommer Browning! October 20, 2011: The folks over at indie publishers Birds LLC announce Tweet Week with Sommer Browning, author of Either Way I'm Celebrating and if you participate in Tweet Week you get said book for half off. Sommer is funny. This will be good. The deets: Starting Monday Oct 24th Birds, LLC will celebrate Sommer Browning's EITHER WAY I'M [...] by Harriet Staff

T.S. Eliot Prize Shortlist Announced October 20, 2011: Which we got from this announcement at the New Statesman: The shortlist for the TS Eliot Prize for poetry was announced today. The judges, Gillian Clarke, Stephen Knight and Dennis O'Driscoll, chose six collections to accompany the four Poetry Book Society choices to make up the ten collections on the shortlist: John Burnside, Black Cat [...] by Harriet Staff