Thank you, National Poetry Month bloggers! May 2, 2011: Another National Poetry Month has come and gone, and we'd like to take this second day of May to send out a big thank you to all of our Harriet bloggers for the past month. Thank you, Anselm Berrigan, A.E. Stallings, Alan Gilbert, Ada Limon, Amber Tamblyn, Ange Mlinko, Barbara Jane Reyes, Bhanu Kapil, Christian Bök, Daisy Fried, Eileen Myles, [...] by Poetry Foundation

May Day May 1, 2011: I was going to write a post this month on Alfred Temba Qabula, the great South African worker-poet whose Collected Writings I’ve been trying to get published here in the States for several years; I was going to tell people to read the Poetic Labor Project blog; I was going to say more on Tillie Olsen's "I Want You Women Up North To Know" [...] by Mark Nowak

The Longest Walk: “Memwars” of No One in Particular May 1, 2011: Katrina made landfall August 29, 2005, Rita followed on September 23rd. Roughly 9 months later, I’m boogying down the road to a devastated New Orleans in a tore-down little econo car in the passenger’s seat next to Mr. Congdon. Tim doesn’t look the way I imagined. His sandy hair is unusually thin, his ruddy complexion rather flushed, his [...] by Wanda Coleman

EILEEN’S POEM May 1, 2011: Wrapping it up on the plane and even if I’m doubling up and Harriet can’t use this piece – is double dipping ok on the last day of poet’s month – I’m thinking about the recent poem of mine which is a book. Maybe it’ll become a poem too though. I lost a computer a couple of years ago – it is documented in the Harriet archive of [...] by Eileen Myles

Unhappily Nappy? May 1, 2011: After the publication of my first book with Black Sparrow Press, publisher John Martin sent me a letter from a famous Objectivist poet who lauded my work and offered his literary support. However, he asked Martin if I were a prostitute. Because, if I were, then the work presented in Mad Dog Black Lady was truly amazing. Well—Martin had warned me [...] by Wanda Coleman

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

two more cents on The Change May 1, 2011: Tony Hoagland’s poem, The Change, (pasted at the end of this post), seems designed to shock, and while it does that, it doesn’t do much more than that. It has successfully ruffled the feathers of the contemporary poetry world and has resulted in much passionate discussion and many blog posts. Unfortunately, the discussion has been less about [...] by Jeffrey McDaniel

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

Pandora’s gift (2) April 30, 2011: I think I remember accurately the last time I bought, or otherwise sought out, a book of brand new poetry based on a critic's printed poetry criticism (not a chat or a live event, but something I read). It wasn't last week: it might have been late last year. How often do you seek out the books that printed criticism recommends? If the answer is [...] by Stephen Burt

Someone Else’s Anthology: A Cautionary Tale April 30, 2011: I still can’t believe I went for the okey doke, given that I didn’t have a minute to waste effing around. Translation is not my poetry bag, but occasionally, I need some fun. And being in yet another anthology with the nation’s most reputable contemporary poets is always a draw. (I’m in over a hundred-and-fifty of them, poetry, fiction and [...] by Wanda Coleman