A quicky with Thomas Sayers Ellis May 1, 2011: Now that I've got your dirty, dirty attention, I'd like to post a quick comment about last week's Poetry Out Loud competition in Washington D.C. which I judged with several other people, including poet Thomas Sayers Ellis and some guy who runs the Shakespearean Theater.   If saying "some guy" reads a little harsh, then please know I didn't mean [...] by Amber Tamblyn

Only Excite: Babstock, Ball and a few last notes May 1, 2011: All the way through my earlier post about poetry that was not somehow far enough out, I was thinking, examples, examples, this post could use more precise examples. A few names, I gave. Alice Notley, Kenneth Goldsmith, Vanessa Place (whose work is more about making one extremely uncomfortable than “weeping” admittedly, though I know for a fact [...] by Sina Queyras

The Text Festival (Part 2) April 27, 2011: The Text Festival begins on Apr 29 at the Bury Art Gallery, just outside of Manchester. The festival features artworks produced by poets, in an effort to showcase a potential encounter between the use of language in poetic practice and the use of language in visual artistry. (more...) by Christian Bök

POETS’ STRIKE April 21, 2011: I was at the gym a few days ago and I was mulling a piece of writing I was working on about an artist Oscar Tuazon. He’s a sculptor from the northwest who lives in Paris. His sculptures are kind of anti-buildings, often threatening to bring down the building they are designed to fit. His sculptures mock and attack the building in a way. As an [...] by Eileen Myles

The Phoneme Choir at St. Mark’s Poetry Project April 20, 2011: This past Friday at St. Mark's Church I attended choreographer Daria Fain's and poet-designer Robert Kocik's performance of "Re-English," a work they have conceived and directed with their Phoneme Choir. The Phoneme Choir participants on Friday night included many from the chorus' previous performances at Governor's Island--for their Lower [...] by Thom Donovan

The Text Festival (Part 1) April 19, 2011: Tony Trehy (the author of 50 Heads) is curating the Text Festival, an exhibition that opens at the Bury Art Gallery in Manchester (UK) on April 29, during the weekend of the Royal Wedding. (more...) by Christian Bök

Adventures in Parenting: Metaphor, Painting and Narrative for Pre-Schoolers April 19, 2011: (Separated at birth?) My four-year old loves metaphor, although she says she loves simile better than “plain metaphor” because she likes the “like” in a simile. She first became aware of metaphor when in The Berenstain Bears Go Trick or Treating, light “stabs” out of a spooky house in the woods. Ever since she will stop [...] by Daisy Fried

A wall can talk to us April 18, 2011: I’m moving house tomorrow and while it’s a happy occasion, it has happened very fast. I'm leaving the square mile in which I was born and where I've lived for thirty of my years. The other day I was walking home (a word that’s become underlined and italicised, quotation- and question-marked in both thought and speech) pondering the [...] by Lavinia Greenlaw

from Somatic Poetics April 16, 2011: This past summer Patrick F. Durgin of Kenning Editions asked me to compose an essay based on the term "somatics" with regards to recent practices in poetry and art. For the remainder of my posts at Harriet this month I will be focused on the term somatics as it relates to poetics, performance, and cultural politics. Forthcoming are also a series [...] by Thom Donovan

Vulnerability April 13, 2011: The last two spring semesters, I have had an interesting teaching opportunity. I have been teaching Fourth Year Medical Students at the Medical School of the University of South Carolina Creative Writing. We have met on a weekly basis in a very comfortable conference room over in the VA complex off Garners Ferry Road in the late afternoon to read [...] by Kwame Dawes