Barnes & Noble Gets a New Poetry Column April 28, 2010: I'm delighted to report the launch of a new poetry column, "STANZA", on the Barnes and Noble Review.  It'll be written by Tess Taylor, who recently published Twice-Told Tales about Laurie Sheck's novel "A Monster's Notes" and Dan Beachy-Quick's "Whaler's Dictionary" for the Poetry Foundation site. According to Taylor, she'll "be looking at five [...] by Catherine Halley

Dispatch from the 2010 Key West Literary Seminar January 9, 2010: Greetings from the 28th annual Key West Literary Seminar, which is dedicated to poetry this year and honors Richard Wilbur. I'm filing this post from a mobile device that tried to auto-correct the words "Key West" into "awestruck." It's as if my smartphone knows how I feel about being in the midst of so many gifted poets. My status update on [...] by Catherine Halley

Do Non-Poets Buy Poetry Books? August 10, 2009: Do you know any non-poets who buy poetry books? If so, what books do they buy? Anthologies? Books by particular poets? What influences their decision to buy those books? I ask because there was an interesting discussion going on about this over at WOMPO--the Women's Poetry Listserve. by Catherine Halley

The Printers’ Ball: July 31, 2009 July 28, 2009: Get ready for the fifth annual Printers' Ball, the completely free, open-to-the-public print festival taking place this coming weekend. What is The Printers' Ball, you ask? Officially, The Printers’ Ball is "one of the largest celebrations of print culture in the country," which in my fantasy includes people wandering around wearing [...] by Catherine Halley

Poem I Love: “For Julia, In the Deep Water” by John N. Morris July 9, 2009: The first real live poem I ever remember hearing aloud is "For Julia, In the Deep Water" by John N. Morris. It's about my friend Julia. Her dad was a poet, which was weird when you were a kid. If memory serves, Dr. Morris came to school and read this poem to our sixth grade class. The poem was first published in the New Yorker in 1976 and later in [...] by Catherine Halley

Poem I Love: “You, Therefore” by Reginald Shepherd June 25, 2009: I knew Reginald ages ago in Iowa City. As my mother'd say (hi Mom!), he was quite a character. In this poem and in others, I admire his use of assonance, alliteration, internal near rhyme and...botany. In his first book, Some Are Drowning, doesn't he use the names of flowers to describe Kaposi's sarcoma blossoming on someone's skin? You, [...] by Catherine Halley

Found on Flickr: Poetry, Texas June 22, 2009: [caption id="attachment_3586" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Photo of Abandoned House in Poetry, Texas by Noel Kerns"][/caption] Look at this beautiful thing--there's a place called Poetry, Texas. Anyone ever been? Noel Kerns has. One of my coworkers just reminded me that Poetry, Texas is included in a slide show of poetry in the [...] by Catherine Halley

Poem, Category, Relationships, Gay June 12, 2009: As you might know, it's gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender month here in the good old U.S. of A.  In the hope of promoting some quality queer poetry and some quality queer poems here on the poetryfoundation.org, we've got a section of our Poetry Tool dedicated to "gay" poems, whatever that means. Let's say we decide to include poems based on [...] by Catherine Halley

Poem I Love: Jane Miller’s “Miami Heart” June 9, 2009: I once heard Jane Miller recite this poem in a large amphitheater in the Midwest where I swear she read the whole thing in one breath. I love the pace of the poem--how it speeds up, slows down, and finally ends in a rich silence--and what I take to be its clever allusion to Denise Levertov's "O Taste and See" and Wordsworth's "The World is Too [...] by Catherine Halley

Chicago Poetry Tour Premiere June 3, 2009: [caption id="attachment_3371" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Chicago Poetry Tour (poster by Kathleen Judge)"][/caption] If you’re in Chicago this weekend, head to the Printers’ Row Lit Fest, where you can browse tons of books, hear all kinds of authors, and explore the treasures and charms of the Printers Row district. At the [...] by Catherine Halley