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David Foster Wallace by Nick Maniatis
Fiction doesn’t come up much here on Harriet, but I’m guessing most Harriet readers look at it now and then. That’s a bad segue to the sad news that David Foster Wallace killed himself on Friday. His wife discovered his hanged body. Ugh. Wallace didn’t write poems, as far as I know, but he wrote some great essays on tennis, the film industry, and cruise ships, and also wrote a pretty amazing novel about pot and tennis. I’ve been playing tennis off an on since I was seven, sometimes in the same club circuit Wallace played in, and have yet to read anyone write on the game play of elite players—in any sport—with anywhere near the intensity, abandon, and precision he did (you should read his essay in the New York Times magazine on Roger Federer)^[1]. Plus, Infinite Jest pissed people off, and was beautifully written. How many writers can say they did one of those things with their work, let alone both? RIP, DFW.
^[1] You may read the piece here. Bear in mind that after the piece was published, Federer went on a cold streak, for him, before participating in what some^[2] have called the greatest tennis match ever played, and then, just last week, he won the U.S. Open, handily, with a display of baseline and net work that Wallace thinks about in his article in a way that, reading the piece post-U.S. Open, opens Federer’s game up in ways I hadn’t thought possible (hyperbole noted by the author).
^[2] John McEnroe goes on at length about Federer and the match in question here. I wish Wallace had the chance to sit down with Johnny Mac, thus bringing the best tennis writer together with the the most articulate tennis player of his generation, and probably ever.

09.14.08 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3)

Nick Twemlow

Early October Surprise

The Republican Party is going to accuse me of attempting to steal John McCain’s thunder today with an early October Surprise, and if I had posted this last week instead of today, ditto for the Democrats. So be it. I am happy to announce the latest round of Harriet writers, and if the media decides to run with this story, well, sorry RNC.
I’m back as Harriet editor from summer hiatus, and I’d like to first thank Alan Gilbert, Mark Nowak, D.A. Powell, Lucia Perillo, and Reginald Shepherd for a marvelous three-month run of posts. You will all be missed, though I hope we will continue to hear from you, especially as election season gets underway.
Which brings me to this fall’s lineup, which features poets from all over the map, including the UK. Please welcome Lavinia Greenlaw, from across the Atlantic; Forrest Gander in Rhode Island; Alaska’s very own Olena Kalytiak Davis; Javier Huerta in Berkeley, CA; a little further down the coast, Wanda Coleman in Los Angeles; and in October, Cathy Park Hong will join us from New York. Welcome to all of you.

09.04.08 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (6)

Nick Twemlow

I’ve never had a sad cup of coffee

Artist Robert Rauschenberg died Monday night at the age of 82. Obituaries can be found all over the place, so instead of adding another, here’s a few interesting links that connect Rauschenberg to poetry. If you have more, please post them in the comments section.

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05.13.08 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2)

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Wednesday

The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists. Day one featured Poetry Foundation staff picks. Day two, recommendations from Poetry magazine contributors. Day three, a range of selections from our current Harriet bloggers. Happy New Year!

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12.19.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Tuesday

The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists, beginning with recommendations from staff of the Poetry Foundation. Today, you’ll find selections from several Poetry magazine contributors. We’ll conclude with the current Harriet writers weighing-in on their favorites for 2007 (and in some cases, from years past). Happy New Year!

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12.18.07 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Nick Twemlow

Three days of year-end lists: Monday

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The National Book Critics Circle is doing it. So is Third Factory with Attention Span 2007. The New York Times even found a way to include a few poetry titles in theirs.
What are we talking about? End-of-year book lists. This week on Harriet, we’re rolling out three such lists, beginning with recommendations from staff of the Poetry Foundation. Following that, we’ll post picks from several Poetry magazine contributors, including Charles Bernstein and Afaa Michael Weaver. We’ll conclude with the current Harriet contributors weighing-in on their favorites for 2007 (and in some cases, from years past). Happy New Year!

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12.17.07 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (2)

Nick Twemlow

Brand Upon the Brain!

We’ve just posted Jessica Fisher’s Q&A with filmmaker Guy Maddin. His latest, Brand Upon the Brain! started a limited run in New York on Wednesday (John Ashbery performs live as the narrator this Sunday); catch it in Chicago the following weekend (Crispin Glover narrates); and Los Angeles after that (celeb narrators TBA). A few stills from the film follow the jump.