More holiday specials, SPD and Octopus Books edition December 14, 2011: Get over to Small Press Distribution now and take part in their Red Book Sale! All of these (red) books are 40% off! Also, Octopus Books has a special this Friday. The deets: Octopus Books has reprinted our sold out 2009 limited edition hand-bound hardback of CD Wright’s 40 Watts as a perfect-bound foil stamped paperback. It is now [...] by Harriet Staff

“The T.S. Eliot prize cleans the money,” says Gillian Clarke December 14, 2011: Gillian Clarke, one of three judges for this year's T.S. Eliot prize, has weighed in on the recent controversy surrounding the award, which is now funded by a financial institution called Aurum. She writes: My desk is scattered with paper: notes, drafts of poems, letters, Christmas cards, lists, cheques, a paying-in book, some Mexican pesos, [...] by Harriet Staff

Samuel Johnson’s Struggles with Tourrete’s December 13, 2011: Emily Smith, over at Cambridge's Varsity, offers her first entry in an eight-part feature on writers and their illnesses, beginning with Samuel Johnson, who suffered from Tourrete's. Given he found fame by compiling the first comprehensive English dictionary, it might seem ironic that Johnson almost certainly suffered from Tourette’s [...] by Harriet Staff

Completely Earthy: Unique Collaboration from Anne Waldman and Noah Saterstrom Features 45-Foot Oil Painting Frieze December 13, 2011: Anne Waldman and visual artist Noah Saterstrom have teamed up to create "Soldiering," which is partly a FORTY-FIVE-FOOT OIL PAINTING FRIEZE. You read it right. It was painted by Saterstrom and accompanied by a poem by Waldman. This baby is currently exhibited at the Poetry Center in Tucson and the exhibition will be traveling for the next few [...] by Harriet Staff

Anna Moschovakis on Translating the Imparfait Adjective December 13, 2011: After attending a Bridge translation reading series event with Anna Moschovakis and Lydia Davis, Translationista Susan Bernofsky was inspired to delve further into the subjects covered there: Davis spoke in detail about her revision process, which sometimes continues even after a book sees print if her editors allow her to make changes [...] by Harriet Staff

Simon Armitage on reviving two old Arthurian epics December 13, 2011: The Guardian has a long piece on Simon Armitage, exploring how he went from "probation officer-poet" working in prisons and composing poetry on the side to full-time writer and reinterpreter of Arthurian tales. His two recent collections, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Death of King Arthur, both cast back several hundred years to source [...] by Harriet Staff

Welsh Rugby Team Has a Writer In Residence December 13, 2011: True story. And his name is Owen Sheers. According to this article from WalesOnline: THEIR play has often been described as poetry in motion, and they’ve been responsible for their fair share of on-field drama over the years. But now the Welsh rugby side can boast a poetic side off the field too – after appointing the world’s first [...] by Harriet Staff

Typewriters that do more than type December 13, 2011: Poets love typewriters. Or at least Lawrence Ferlinghetti does: and I am waiting for some strains of unpremeditated art to shake my typewriter. And Bernadette Mayer: i speak via electric typewriter. And Allen Ginsberg, the most effusive of them all: The typewriter is holy the poem is holy the voice is holy the hearers are [...] by Harriet Staff

ALBERT’S POEM December 13, 2011: Albert’s poem starts off elegantly: The whole of it is winged,  . . . and honestly if the poem continued on as elegantly I would likely put it down. But instead it dips away: …this science of speaking about large things in pocket size you do it by letting likeness creep in, makes me resemble you the  [...] by Eileen Myles

The case of the mysterious 500 year old poem found in West Virginia December 13, 2011: Elaine Treharne, on faculty at Florida State, found quite a treasure in the West Virginia University Library Rare Books Room: a poem by Elizabeth Dacre, over 500 years old, with quite the story behind it. The entire piece can be found here, but here's a taste: The mystery began more than 500 years ago in England. But it surfaced in recent [...] by Harriet Staff