“The barking web of image and word”: Jane Alison on Anne Carson’s NOX December 20, 2011: The Millions' "A Year in Reading" series is a nice antidote to the many lists that proliferate this time of year. Instead of throwing out ten titles with little reflection, a single reader/writer narrows in on just one or two books, in some depth, that defined their year. For instance: author Jane Alison writes beautifully about Anne Carson's [...] by Harriet Staff

Art, the Amorous Disease: Joyelle McSweeney Reviews CAConrad and Chelsey Minnis December 16, 2011: Joyelle McSweeney has written a piece for Jacket2 on Chelsey Minnis's Poemland and CAConrad's Book of Frank, both out from Wave Books. This double-great review is all about art and its receptacles: In Minnis’s Poemland, value is always something which empties itself out; the mink is pawned, the money-gift is squandered. Yet that trashing, [...] by Harriet Staff

History repeats itself? Helen Vendler’s 1973 review of America a Prophecy December 15, 2011: Charles Bernstein has posted a fascinating historical document at Jacket2: Helen Vendler's 1973 review of an anthology called America a Prophesy: A New Reading of American Poetry from Pre-Columbian Times to the Present. Her piece, now almost forty years old, sounds -- at least in parts -- strikingly similar to her recent trashing of The Penguin [...] by Harriet Staff

The Rumpus muses on Kenneth Patchen December 6, 2011: Over at The Rumpus, Carolyn Zaikowski has a long meditation on the necessity of Kenneth Patchen, a poet variously categorized as proletariat, experimental, proto-Beat, and visual. She writes: He holds up the strange compass when most of us disavow it. The compass has burned our hands; at least, we think it will. We don’t know what to do. So [...] by Harriet Staff

In blinding sunlight: We Are Pharaoh December 5, 2011: Bethany Prosseda reviews Robert Fernandez's first book of poems, We Are Pharaoh (Canarium 2011), over at HTMLGIANT. Prosseda employs "the root" as a framework for Fernandez's lyric--the root has a dual ability to create unity and generate upheaval: "'A tangling of fruits and vases' where 'the shade is verboten.' In this act of tracing, and 'if [...] by Harriet Staff

“it becomes clear Johnston dreamed these words while riding on his horse.”: Aaron Belz Reviews Devin Johnston December 5, 2011: Aaron Belz reviews Devin Johnston's new collection Traveler for Cardus. . . . Johnston's purpose is to explore this tension between the subjective and the objective, to keep these two realms of experience in balance. This is a very old-fashioned purpose, at least as old as Plato and much explored in early 19th century philosophy. Judging by [...] by Harriet Staff

Matthew Dickman Gets Seasonal with Jen Bervin’s The Silver Book November 30, 2011: Matthew Dickman cozies up with Jen Bervin's The Silver Book (Ugly Duckling Presse) over at Tin House, for "who better to turn to for medicine than both a visual and literary artist." Dickman continues: This beautiful long poem begins: date the paper—it’s your early work— date the spaces—it’s late— write—be late [...] by Harriet Staff

A Crisis in Worldwide Literary Criticism… November 29, 2011: The Melville House blog points us to an interesting article, published on Saturday, from Spain's El País newspaper. The article, in its original Spanish, "pronounced a state of crisis in worldwide literary criticism," with Winston Manrique Saboga interviewing some folks who would know: literary editor of The Guardian Claire Armitstead; essayist, [...] by Harriet Staff

The Boston Globe draws hopeful breath from Tomaž Šalamun and Anselm Berrigan November 28, 2011: The Boston Globe did everyone a favor over the weekend and reviewed two new books in relation to each other, those being Tomaž Šalamun's The Blue Tower (translated by Michael Biggins) and former Harriet-eer Anselm Berrigan's Notes from Irrelevance. "...[I]f politicians inspire only forlorn sighs, let their better halves, poets, draw hopeful [...] by Harriet Staff

Jordan Davis Reviews Bill Luoma’s Some Math for Constant Critic November 17, 2011: A new review up at Constant Critic is newsworthy: Jordan Davis takes on Bill Luoma's new book Some Math, just published this fall by Kenning Editions (beautiful book, we might add!). Davis places us quickly in mid-nineties New York, noting that "in the mid-nineties D.C. was part of New York." He says: "[O]f all the stoned geniuses circulating [...] by Harriet Staff