George Whitman, 1913 – 2011 December 15, 2011: George Whitman, the owner of Shakespeare & Company, a legendary English language bookshop on the Left Bank in Paris, died yesterday at the age of 98. From his recent obituary in the New York Times: More than a distributor of books, Mr. Whitman saw himself as patron of a literary haven, above all in the lean years after World War II, and the [...] by Harriet Staff

Christopher Logue, 1926 – 2011 December 5, 2011: Christopher Logue, the British poet best known for his modernist re-working of Homer's Illiad, died at home in London on December 2nd. He was 85. Logue grew up in Portsmouth, Hampshire. After a stint in the military, where he served as a soldier in the Black Watch and spent 16 months in an army prison, he turned to a variety of jobs to support [...] by Harriet Staff

Ruth Stone, 1915-2011 November 28, 2011: National Book Award winning poet Ruth Stone has passed away at 96. From the New York Times: A quietly respected poet who wrote in rural solitude, Ms. Stone became something of a public figure when news of her award was announced in November 2002 and press accounts drew attention to her unusual life story of struggle and belated acclaim, [...] by Harriet Staff

With Great Respect: Theodore Enslin, 1925-2011 November 23, 2011: We learned late last night that Theodore Enslin -- "one of our greatest poets working quietly outside the noisy mainstream," as Matthew Henriksen put it -- has left us. Enslin, a prolific poet identified with Cid Corman, Charles Olson, and particularly the Objectivist tradition, was born in Pennsylvania in 1925 and became a resident of Maine [...] by Harriet Staff

Czech poet Ivan Martin Jirous, 1944 – 2011 November 14, 2011: Ivan Martin Jirous -- a Czech poet and the artistic director of The Plastic People of the Universe, an avant-garde rock group banned by the country's Communist regime -- died in Prague last Thursday at the age of 67. Better known by his nickname "Magor," which roughly translates as "loony" and derives from "phantasmagoria," Jirous trained as [...] by Harriet Staff

Taha Muhammad Ali, 1931-2011 October 4, 2011: Renowned Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali died on Sunday at the age of 80, reports Ma'an News Agency. Ali's poems "followed the experiences of Palestinians living in Israel, and Palestinian refugees around the world. They were translated into several languages, including English and Hebrew. Muhammad Ali grew in international acclaim after an [...] by Harriet Staff

Emanuel Litvinoff, 1915-2011 September 30, 2011: The Guardian and The Telegraph both report that poet and novelist Emanuel Litvinoff passed away on September 24. Litvinoff, born in 1915 in Whitechapel, East London, might be best remembered for a "devastating public attack" on TS Eliot. The Telegraph describes the moment: During the 1920s, at a time of high literary anti-Semitism, [...] by Harriet Staff

Founder of Project Gutenberg dies at 64 September 8, 2011: Michael S. Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg and early proponent of the e-book, died at his home in Champaign-Urbana earlier this week: Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told [...] by Harriet Staff

Samuel Menashe, 1925-2011. August 23, 2011: We are sad to learn that Poetry contributor and recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Neglected Masters Award, Samuel Menashe, died peacefully in his sleep on the night of August 22, 2011.  Sam was a longtime friend to so many of us, who will miss the phone calls, faxes, and handwritten letters though which he liked to share his latest [...] by Don Share

Scott Wannberg, Fixture of Los Angeles Poetry Scene, Passes Away August 22, 2011: Jacket Copy reports that Los Angeles poet Scott Wannberg, called by a friend the "the John Lennon of small press poetry," has passed away at the age of 58 at his home in Oregon. An anchor of the poetry scene in Los Angeles in the eighties and nineties, Wannberg endured health problems for some time; and moved to Oregon in 2008, unable to keep up [...] by Harriet Staff