Trading Poems for Booze October 17, 2011: According to this article from the Times Colonist, Canadian poet and editor of Arc magazine Shane Rhodes has been writing product placements for alcohol companies into his poems. And it's paying off. In booze, at least. Not all writers are drinkers. But a lot were — and are. Take Hemingway, Faulkner and Fitzgerald. Or Raymond Carver [...] by Harriet Staff

George Keats Built a Sawmill in Kentucky October 17, 2011: Christopher Benfey's New York Times review of Denise Gigante's book, The Keats Brothers, offers a glimpse into the relationship between John and George Keats. Benfey illuminates how Gigante's book shows that John and George, while not quite Goofus and Gallant, were quite opposite in their life paths. From the review: Suppose you [...] by Harriet Staff

The Week We Stirred the Pot October 14, 2011: It’s always a bull market for controversy. This week, if you were buying, Harriet was selling. As Mayor Bloomberg cranked the thermostat on the amorphous, ubiquitously debated Occupy Wall Street protest, Susan “Translationista” Bernofsky set out to translate Occupied Wall Street Journal, the movement’s official press organ, into Spanish [...] by Harriet Staff

If you’re a writer, and you support the Occupy Movement, sign here October 14, 2011: Bookforum and The Rumpus have both pointed us to Occupy Writers, a list of writers who support the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Movement around the world (and for a list of cities taking part, check out Occupy Together's interactive map and meeting site). Joshua Cohen, Judith Butler, Samuel R. Delaney, Matthew Dickman, Timothy Donnelly, Brian [...] by Harriet Staff

The first ever Professor of Children’s Poetry? October 14, 2011: Morag Styles was recently appointed Professor of Children's Poetry at the University of Cambridge and she may be the only person in the whole world with that title, which may suggest something about the status of children's poetry within the academy. In a recent essay, Styles argues that children's poetry should be taken seriously. Yes, it's often [...] by Harriet Staff

Bitter fortune: Herta Müller connects the dissidence of Liao Yiwu & Boris Pasternak October 14, 2011: Nobel winner Herta Müller spoke about Chinese dissident author Liao Yiwu's new book Testimonials at the book release in Berlin in August (Yiwu "was ecstatic," wrote The New York Times, when he made it to Germany in July after "being denied an exit visa 17 times, yanked off planes and trains by the police and threatened with yet more prison [...] by Harriet Staff

Uncreative fuss at the Harvard Crimson October 14, 2011: There's a minor hullabaloo a'brewing over at the Harvard Crimson, following the publication of an op-ed piece ("In Someone Else's Words") by student Isabel Kaplan. In it, Kaplan dismisses "unoriginal poetry" and "uncreative writing" -- as practiced by Kenneth Goldsmith and others of the conceptual ilk -- as mere plagiarism. Further, she argues [...] by Harriet Staff

Saturated with the Stevensian Echo: Dean Rader’s Appreciation of Wallace Stevens October 14, 2011: Dean Rader, over at the Memorious blog, takes his turn in their "Big Loves" segment. Here he sings the praises of Wallace Stevens, through the lens of his poem "The Man On The Dump". He states: To this day, I don’t think I’ve had an experience quite like reading that poem. It was similar to the first time I saw Raising Arizona—I [...] by Harriet Staff

birthday boy ee cummings goes to moscow October 14, 2011: You would be 107 today, had you not died. Let's celebrate with Carla Blumenkranz excellent essay about your trip to Russia, from our archives: It seems possible that Cummings went to Russia, in the early years of Stalinism, precisely to feel alive again in another, more enormous room. He had spent the decade since his first book becoming a [...] by Harriet Staff

Nairobi’s thriving literary scene October 14, 2011: A recent article in Kenya's Daily Nation celebrates the rise of a new literary scene in Nairobi, a city just now emerging from the long, culture-squelching shadow of former President Daniel arap Moi. Rasna Warah writes: Those of you who are old enough will remember that under Moi, many books were banned, and with the departure of Ngugi wa [...] by Harriet Staff