Kenneth Goldsmith

The Tortoise And The Hare: Dale Smith and Kenneth Goldsmith Parse Slow and Fast Poetries

Dale Smith: As a poet I’m invested in the history of poetics, its long lore, and its entanglements with philosophy, rhetoric, politics, and other modes of thought and conversation. For me, how we relate to history — our various understandings of it — is essential.

Kenneth Goldsmith: Any notion of history has been leveled by the internet. Now, it’s all fodder for the remix and recreation of works of art: free-floating toolboxes and strategies unmoored from context or historicity.

Read the whole conversation here

08.10.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (28)

Travis Nichols

Poetry Done Right

(Do your homework here.)

06.12.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (83)

Travis Nichols

Derek Walcott Drops Out

The big poetry news this week (besides the bizarre “poetry jam” over at the White House) is Derek Walcott’s withdrawal from the Oxford poetry race due to an anonymous letter-writing campaign detailing sexual harassment claims against him.

The campaign brought to light allegations from the Nobel-laureate’s time at Harvard. According to the New York Times:

The charges of sexual harassment date back nearly 30 years and were detailed in the book ‘The Lecherous Professor: Sexual Harassment on Campus,’ by Billie Wright Dziech and Linda Weiner — excerpts of which were sent in the anonymous packages. They describe how, in 1982, Mr. Walcott was accused of saying a number of provocative things to a woman who was a student in his poetry workshop at Harvard, including ‘Would you make love to me if I asked you?’

When she rebuffed him, the student said, he gave her a C grade.

Concluding in 1982 that the complaint had merit, Harvard reprimanded Mr. Walcott and changed the student’s grade from C to ‘Pass.’”

05.13.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (72)

Travis Nichols

Robin Blaser (1925-2009)

Robin Blaser, the poet of The Holy Forest, has died.  The Globe and Mail has an appreciation here, and The Quill and Quire has theirs here.

Further tributes from:

Charles Bernstein

Possum Ego

Damn the Caesars

Chris Vitiello

Stan Persky

John Sakkis

Please post any new information in the comments, and I will follow up with anything further as it comes in.

05.08.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (4)

Travis Nichols

Opt In or Opt Out?

The NYT reported yesterday that the Justice Department is looking into the anti-trust implications of the Google Books Settlement.

This is the latest twist in an ongoing saga–one which leaves many savvy publishers and copyright experts (let alone writers) more than a little confused.

Some background: In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers filed a class action suit against Google, accusing the online company violated copyright when it scanned millions of books (many under copyright)  for use in the Book Search program.

04.29.09 PERMALINK | NO COMMENTS

Travis Nichols

Jim Behrle, Zadie Smith, Sexy Robots, and the Chicago Poetry Tour

Jim Behrle (pictured above) has launched Baby Trotsky a Twitter literary magazine featuring, of course, 140 character poems and short (short!) stories.  Who knows if it will be as successful as Twitter’s LOLcat haiku, or Anon Poetry (or even the PoFo’s own Poetry News), but Mr. Behrle is nothing if not devoted to his projects, so we can all hope.  Send your submissions now, before it gets overrun by disgruntled canwehaveourballback rejects.

In other Zadie Smith news, Coudal Partners, a Chicago design firm, features a very cool “poetry meme” on their very cool website.

04.22.09 PERMALINK | COMMENTS (3)