Michael Robbins Reviews Paige Ackerson-Kiely’s My Love Is a Dead Arctic Explorer June 5, 2013: Michael Robbins wrote about Paige Ackerson-Kiely's new book, My Love Is a Dead Arctic Explorer (Ahsahta Press 2012), for the Chicago Tribune, beginning with the blanket, "Most poetry published is mediocre at best, and often plain awful" (could be, could be!), but moving to "Ackerson-Kiely is setting the woods on fire." More: Here's the [...] by Harriet Staff

Michael Robbins’s Freedom of Speech Smackdown on LARB May 28, 2013: Michael Robbins describes his experience writing an alternative inaugural poem for Yahoo! News on the eve of Barack Obama's second term in this piece published on the Los Angeles Review of Books site. When Robbins sent his inaugural poem to Yahoo! News, editorial's responses said more about the state of politics in the United States than a [...] by Harriet Staff

Michael Robbins Reviews Lyn Hejinian for the Chicago Tribune March 25, 2013: Over at the Chicago Tribune, Michael Robbins reviews Lyn Hejinian's My Life and My Life in the Nineties, recently reprinted together by Welseyan University Press, as we mentioned the other day. After "being a bit unfair" to Pete Inman and repeatedly referring to Language Poetry as boring, though producing "some terrific poets—Ted Greenwald, [...] by Harriet Staff

Reading List: February 2013 February 27, 2013: [caption id="attachment_62019" align="alignright" width="500"] A young Joan Mitchell reading. Courtesy of the Joan Mitchell Foundation.[/caption] The Reading List is a new feature of the Editors’ Blog this year. Each month we ask Poetry’s recent contributors to share a book—or several—that they’ve been poring over. Here are some [...] by Lindsay Garbutt

Michael Robbins’s Drone Poem for President Obama January 21, 2013: As poets craft their own poems at this inaugural moment, we'd like to steer you over to Michael Robbins's Tumblr. Apparently, his poem was so on target that it missed the mark for some unnamed news organization. Here's what Robbins says: So a certain news organization has informed me they cannot publish the inaugural poem for Obama they [...] by Harriet Staff

‘A Major Poet in a Minor Range,’ Michael Robbins Reviews Louise Glück’s Poems 1962-2012 December 11, 2012: Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, Michael Robbins reviews Louise Glück's Poems 1962-2012, observing that "Glück is as important and influential a poet as we have in America, a tagline whose strangeness deepens the more one reads her." And indeed Robbins draws out the strangeness in Glück's lifework, the good and the bad. Now [...] by Harriet Staff

Michael Robbins Reviews John Ashbery’s New Book, Quick Question December 10, 2012: Michael Robbins has reviewed John Ashbery's new book, Quick Question, for the Chicago Tribune. It's "a lot like the last new book," Robbins writes. Well: Lots of poets write the same book over and over, of course, especially as they age. Why complain about Ashbery's sameness when it's so unlikely? In all my years as a [...] by Harriet Staff

Goodreads Awards Announced December 6, 2012: Mary Oliver took the poetry crown, with Michael Robbins and Rebecca Lindenberg taking second and third. See the vote breakdown here. by Harriet Staff

Apparently the Best Poet We Have Is Frederick Seidel September 5, 2012: The Chicago Tribune, in its "Life Lessons" section, has published a feature on the poet Frederick Seidel, entitled "Frederick Seidel's Sordid Glory." Huh. Michael Robbins leads with shocking news: The clearest sign that American poetry is in disarray is that the best poet we have is Frederick Seidel. I say this approvingly, for one [...] by Harriet Staff

Michael Robbins on Failure and Fame July 10, 2012: Following the buzz about Alien vs. Predator, Michael Robbins corresponded with Ameni Rozsa for the Los Angeles Review of Books. After dodging a request to provide a simple explanation of his work, Robbins discusses seeing his poetry in The New Yorker and how he thinks he made it there in the first place. But he also remembers being young, in [...] by Harriet Staff