New Bat City June 21, 2008: The latest issue of Bat City Review is in stores. Edited by graduate students from the UT Austin program, the magazine features beautiful artwork and high-quality fiction. But the reason I bought it, and the reason I recommend it, is the outstanding quality of the poetry. Larissa Szporluk (more...) by D.A. Powell

Banal Probe June 17, 2008: The Blogosphere is, as they say in stand-up comedy, a tough room: so many audience members seem to have shown up just to heckle. It’s strange how people lob remarks from the void—I wonder, often, how those same people might behave at parties. Of course, a healthy dose of criticism is good and necessary. And it may even be useful to call out [...] by D.A. Powell

Call For Donations June 13, 2008: Etheridge Knight When I was an undergraduate, serving as editor of Sonoma State University’s literary magazine, I called my favorite living poet and asked him if he could be the “featured poet” in our next annual issue. Etheridge Knight was flattered, but also frank. “Will you pay me?” he asked. He explained that he’d been diagnosed [...] by D.A. Powell

Conceptual Poetics: A Practicum June 11, 2008: I love this idea of valueless, unoriginal poetry based on junk. I’ve been trying to write poems, and now it turns out that I could have just been assembling them. I mean, I’ve done some avant-gardist things in my time (let us call them, for lack of a better term, “poems"), but I think I spent way too much time worrying about making [...] by D.A. Powell

Bella Luna June 5, 2008: Last night, re-reading Lina Wertmuller’s screenplay for Seven Beauties. I only made it as far as the scene where Pasqualino (Giancarlo Giannini) kills his sister’s pimp before I decided I needed to read something less brutal. So I picked up the latest issue of Luna, volume 8, and settled into bed. (more...) by D.A. Powell

Poetry and Hollywood June 3, 2008: Major Jackson’s post about poetry birthdays prompted me to pull out my copy of A Book of Days for the Literary Year, put out in 1984 by the Book-of-the-Month Club, this being Allen Ginsberg’s birthday. This was also the day in 1964 when T.S. Eliot wrote to Groucho Marx: “The picture of you in the newspaper saying that, amongst other [...] by D.A. Powell

Chinquapins, Elderberries, Dandelion Jam June 1, 2008: In California I often hear the term “slow food.” But in Tennessee, I imagine such a term would be redundant. From grits to ribs to greens, Tennesseans simmer and smoke and stew their cuisine. Vegetables are often still grown on small farms and picked by hand: lima beans, butter beans, collards, sweet corn, melons, cabbage, peaches. Hogs are [...] by D.A. Powell

Best New Poets, Most Confusing Deadline June 1, 2008: I have an undergraduate student this year whose work is playful, lyrical and surprisingly tender, given its edgy nature. So I thought I would nominate him for the Best New Poets Anthology. Apparently, it's not as easy as one would hope. (more...) by D.A. Powell

Meet the New Colossus—Same as the Old Colossus May 31, 2008: I have to confess, I love the Parthenon. Not the original (though I might indeed love it, if I ever get a chance to see it) but the reproduction. (more...) by D.A. Powell

FREE POETRY May 29, 2008: to a good home.... Received in the mail several copies of Free Poetry, a series of chapbooks edited by Boise State University’s Martin Corless-Smith. The books aren’t copyrighted, and they are distributed gratis. They can be reproduced and shared with any and all readers. (more...) by D.A. Powell