my poetry books April 11, 2011: I think Rocky says this about Adrian: She's got gaps. I got gaps. Together we fill gaps. Or something like that. Happy National Poetry Month, Harriet Readers! I would like to celebrate this month by taking an inventory of the contemporary poetry books I have in my home. I didn't realize how intimate this list would be. But here it goes. I used to [...] by Javier Huerta

Nature is a Haunted House—but Art—a House that tries to be haunted April 8, 2011: Inspired by Daisy Fried’s “Questions I Don’t Understand,” I have decided to write the first (and probably only) installment of a series I will call “Metaphors I Don’t Understand.” Sometimes, when I meet new people, they ask a bunch of questions, including “What do you do?” and “Are you married?” and “Got any [...] by Kathleen Rooney

Goddess Booty Voodoo is What I Do April 7, 2011: Thank you PATRICIA SMITH FOR YOUR LOVE, for having ears that swivel towards the decades, for giving MY POETRY CONTEST a proper hello. Yes it's true, the contest page is blazing with age glitter, including a "headshot" of me not unlike Suzanne Somers' poetry book cover from the 80's, looking like I ate the truth and am now a little constipated by [...] by Amber Tamblyn

Timely 3: What I learn(ed) from Matt Rohrer April 6, 2011: When I emailed a bunch of poets asking them to respond to my timely/timeless question Matt Rohrer was the first to respond. He wrote: "Well I guess I wish they could be both. Is that possible? I want to think that there is a way to be timely that is actually what being "timeless" means. To write "news that stays news". When I think of the [...] by Rachel Zucker

On Brandy Nālani McDougall’s The Salt-Wind, Ka Makani P’akai April 5, 2011: I first arrived at Brandy Nālani McDougall’s poems in Effigies: An Anthology of New Indigenous Writing, Pacific Rim 2009 (Salt Publishing), edited by Allison Adelle Hedge Coke. Not a conventional “anthology,” this aesthetically diverse volume consists of four chapbook-length selections of poems by four poets — dg nanouk okpik, Cathy [...] by Barbara Jane Reyes

Lucy Pevensie and the Magic Facebook April 4, 2011: When I was a kid, I used to reread C. S. Lewis' Narnia books over and over, especially when I was down in the dumps or feeling blue, in much the same way I escape to Jane Austen now. I have been thinking lately about a scene that lodged itself in my brain long ago from The Voyage of the Dawntreader (maybe my favorite). In it, I remember Lucy is [...] by A.E. Stallings

Roberto Bolaño steals this book March 28, 2011: The New York Review of Books features an essay from the collection Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches (1998–2003) by Roberto Bolaño and translated by Natasha Wimmer. Bolaño describes the books he stole as a teenager in Mexico City, tempted first by the impossibility of stealing from an all-glass bookstore without being caught. [...] by Harriet Staff

To serve poets: The cookbooks of Ronald Johnson March 15, 2011: Samuel Amadon wants you to remember Ronald Johnson for more than just his great poetry. Writing for the Gulf Coast blog, Amadon is appreciative of what Johnson's Simple Fare (1989) taught him about scrambled eggs, but it's his commentary on each recipe and the way that they "feel gathered out of his experience" that sets his books apart. These [...] by Harriet Staff

Renowned Urdu poet publishes first English-language collection at 86 March 11, 2011: The Oxford Mail interviews Akbar Alikhan, better known as Akbar Hyderabadi to readers of Urdu poetry. Alikhan moved to Oxford from Hyderabad in 1955 to study architecture, but never stopped writing the poetry that connected him to India. He said: “I did not make a switch to poetry from architecture; poetry has always been a divining force in my [...] by Harriet Staff

The death of marginalia February 21, 2011: The New York Times is running an article today on the future, if there is one, of marginalia. The article suggests that writing in books might become a thing of the past as people do more of their reading electronically, which creates new dilemmas for archivists: “People will always find a way to annotate electronically,” said G. Thomas [...] by Harriet Staff