Turkish Publishing Houses Give Big to Gezi Park Library June 7, 2013: The Melville House blog points us to the fact that over 15 Turkish publishers have contributed books to a "free, donated public library, open to everyone," reminiscent of the Occupy People's Library: According to the Turkish English language newspaper, Hurriyet Daily News, a local publisher, Sel Publishing House, is calling on other [...] by Harriet Staff

John Ashbery’s ‘The Skaters’ Now in a Critical and Genetic Digital Edition June 7, 2013: [caption id="attachment_68732" align="alignright" width="500"] Original typescript to "The Skaters," page 1.[/caption] There are many people to thank for bringing out this landmark edition of Ashbery's seminal poem "The Skaters" from his 1966 title Rivers and Mountains. We caught wind of it yesterday through Jacket2. What's in the package? [...] by Harriet Staff

The Punk Stacks at City Lights June 7, 2013: If you thought City Lights was all about poetry, we're reminded today of the store's connection to punk. City Lights has a long history of engagement with the punk rock scene, you may know already that V.Vale started the insurrectionary Search and Destroy fanzine with financial help from Ferlinghetti and Ginsberg. Ruby Ray who took many of [...] by Harriet Staff

Evie Shockley on the Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry June 7, 2013: Evie Shockley contributed this fantastic analysis of the Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry, published in 2011, edited by Rita Dove, to the Boston Review. Mostly, Shockley spends a stupendously thorough amount of time in her write-up dissecting Marjorie Perloff and Helen Vendler's responses to this anthology and laying out [...] by Harriet Staff

Summer Crush Party Tonight! June 7, 2013: You are going to this wild party, non? If ouais, then (as the French would say) sorry Charlie, you missed the discounted online tickets and gotta buy your billet at the door for vingt palourdes (twenty clams). The door! Horrors. What are we talking about, you ask? We dunno, our crush is a piece of snow building an anti-app made of amber. [...] by Harriet Staff

Poets Read in Solidarity with Political Activist Jerry Koch June 6, 2013: If you're in New York on June 13, get yourself to Greenpoint for a surely solid reading to benefit legal activist Jerry Koch, who is currently serving time for refusing to testify in response to a federal grand jury summons. More info from organizers Josef Kaplan and Aaron Winslow: Dear friends, Hope to see you on June 13th for a [...] by Harriet Staff

A New Slap in the Face June 6, 2013: Folks all over the interwebs are getting their lists together for summer reads. If you make your way over to Insert/Blanc Press now, you can be sure to reserve your copy of A Slap in the Face: Four Russian Futurist Manifestos in time for some heady beach reading. This is the first in their "Manifestohs" series, edited by David Shook, and it [...] by Harriet Staff

Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘One Art’ Scores a -2.50305521472 June 6, 2013: Turns out, in the literary death match between Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Bishop, it's Plath all the way! Or, that's to say, Plath's poem "Edge" (which scored a 1.42302654867) is closer to the "professional" end of the spectrum according to the Poetry Assessor, an application created by an Australian team of computational linguists to quantify [...] by Harriet Staff

i-Promise Joanna: California Poet Laureate Launches Anti-Bullying Effort June 6, 2013: Juan Felipe Herrera teaches poetry at the University of California, Riverside and since 2012, has served as California's poet laureate. This spring, he joined forced with one-hundred fifth grade students from Moreno Valley’s Towngate Elementary School to launch i-Promise Joanna, an anti-bullying awareness project, and an official Poet [...] by Harriet Staff

A Case of the Wrong Blake June 6, 2013: The Library Spider sent us this hot tip: apparently a number of schools are teaching a poem written by American author, Nancy Willard, but telling students that the poem was written by William Blake! How did this happen? Teachers searching the Internet for examples of poetry to use in their instruction are finding a poem entitled [...] by Harriet Staff