News Archive

Writer makes pilgrimage to swimming pool that Theodore Roethke drowned in.

"Wait a minute. You mean God is God?"—Hollywood executive trying to get his mind around a movie version of Paradise Lost.

In Nicaragua: A government tug of war for poetry manuscripts: These pages are gold!

Pioneering poet of the Fluxus movement Emmett Williams dies at 81.

"With little or no punctuation, they burst and frazzle down the page. They tend to read as if they were written by a man who's just stuck his finger in an electrical outlet."—Peter Campion on the lines of CK Williams.

Poet moves to Pensacola, and locals get all giddy about it.

The smarties at Slate dig into Auden, trying to figure out which version of his voice they like best.

Communist flip-flop: Vietnamese poets write verses calling for freedom, are subsequently sent to re-education camps, then fifty years later are given awards.

Reviewer of Freida Hughes's new book hopes she's OK after a childhood with such flipped-out parents.

White man's burden: Wordsworth and Coleridge became convinced they could write the greatest poem ever written.

Annotated Cat in the Hat released. Seuss once compared the year long writing of it to "being lost with a witch in a tunnel of love."

Did Blake invent London, or did London invent Blake?

The MacDowell colony, where you can wander around inside your head until you either 1) have a vision or 2) wish for an US magazine and a cheeseburger.

Yusef Komunyakaa/Anthony Davis opera debuts in Omaha. A Native American story based in 1879, the event is sponsored by ConAgra foods, makers of tainted Peter Pan peanut butter.

The notebooks of Robert Frost, in which the legendary formalist lets loose a little. But don't expect to read about you-know-what.

"In the United Arab Emirates, poetry—along with falconry and horsemanship—is the pinnacle of manly achievement."—Rachel Aspden in the New Statesman.

Sick poet plans his suicide, hopes his obit won't be written by a hack.

Teacher gives lesson on the power of bad words. Subsequently, gets in trouble for using bad words.

D.C. Poet Rod Smith might be the king of deadpan.

8th grader delivers harsh truth: "You never make any money with poetry anyways, so why not just give it away? Poetry is near poverty in the dictionary."

Ten contemporary artists interpret Dickinson.

Troy Jollimore wins National Book Critics Circle Award for poetry. Refrain from using quips about how "jolly" this must make him, he has surely heard them all.

In Iraq: poets recite verses at bombed site in a gesture toward revival.

He doesn’t just collect robots: Albert Goldbarth’s latest book asks, “Will the Real Shakespeare Please Stand Up?”

“Those poems were among the ones that mattered most to me in my life to write”: A Q&A with Eavan Boland.

Unpublished William Carlos Williams poem—inspired by a wrong diagnosis—finds a home.

Pi enthusiast Mike Keith constructs “piem,” riffing on Eliot and Poe with strict pi-based rigor. (We still haven’t figured it out.)

Actor Daniel Craig has played Ted Hughes. Now he plays Milton’s Satan. You do the math.

Did somebody say “brand-enhancing commodity?”

“The girl whose boyfriend starts writing her love poems should be on her guard”: Auden on “creative” writing.

He tagged you—you’re out / I said you are out, wiseguy / Dirt kicked on home plate: Japanese have been writing baseball haiku for over a century.

Patti Smith enters Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, doesn’t curse.

If I should fall from grace with my dentist: Pogues’ leader Shane MacGowan on Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Physician, rhyme thyself: taking the temperature of doctor-poem anthology.

“Heaven knows how marvelous you are in your strategy”: Korean diplomat sends slightly cryptic 7th-century poem to woo U.S. negotiators; no word on whether they understood it.

From open-mike to Microsoft awardee: Mayhem Poets snag $100K and free rent.

Poetry debate continues, this time in the pages of the Huffington Post. Maybe Bill Maher will weigh in next?

Book review sections don't get ads. But why not?

Blunt judgments: Auden as “useful idiot?”

The friendship and the falling out: New book on Wordsworth and Coleridge.

Ludacris and Russell Simmons “score” National Poetry Month honors

Plath, vandalized graves, pharmaceuticals: Frieda Hughes talks.

Yale's John Hollander named the Nutmeg State's poet laureate.

Author photo of the day: Neruda Prize goes to Cuban poet Fina Garcia Marruz.

I like how they spell annex with an extra -e at the end: John Clare's home to become "Heritage Centre."

Not a metaphor but a fist: Mixing Plath and K-horror in a striking anthology of three Korean women poets.

First Jackson poetry prize goes to Elizabeth Alexander. Poets and Writers-sponsored prize is awarded to poets of distinguished accomplishment who have yet to achieve "major national acclaim."

Charter schools in Los Angeles in hot water for reciting poem about Emmett Till to African American school kids.

Rae Armantrout: the queen of mistrust. Hey, what do you mean "queen?" What do you mean "mistrust?"

Be like Thomas Hardy: cut your heart out before you're cremated and bury it between your wives.

Man opens restaurant, writes poems about the place, uses them as advertisements.

Oh, and have you looked at Harriett? If you haven't you'd better, before she starts to look at you.

Memories cut loose by language: writing and reading poems at an old folks' home.

NYC Street named after Puerto Rican Poet Julia de Burgos.

A voice so deep and commanding, you feel like he should be the boss of everything: Derek Walcott talks to NPR.

If you write a book with a camel in the title, does it automatically make you thirsty? See Bestsellers.

Venice, CA: poet dies in jail, widow awarded settlement.

Tough but evenhanded Bookforum poetry roundup by our very own Emily Warn.

Whoa Nelly—Newshour launches massive Middle East poetry series. Did we mention that it's sponsored by The Poetry Foundation?

"You must make a choice: Pleasure your reader with life or scare him/her with death."—Charles Mudede on John Ashbery.

This guy deserves a plaque: Poet Gary Soto donates 300K to his Fresno alma mater.

Visit Iceland! See a bunch of rocks a poet collected! Or don't!

Have you been to see Harriett? She is quite a piece of work.

"This is a poetry that calls into question all our stereotypes about the inevitable divide between Islam and Judaism, Arab and Jew."—Marjorie Perloff on Peter Cole's new anthology The Dream of the Poem.

Poet Tagore is like a saint in Korea for his nationalistic poem "The Lamp of the East." But did he really write all those things they say he did?

Students ask to see poetry teacher's book, teacher says OK. Parents complain book is dirty, teacher is fired. What the...?

Game over? Not for this video-game bard.

Buffalo's Carl Dennis vs. barflies' Charles Bukowski—who will win???

Call your travel agent: Shetland Isles holiday inspires allegorical award-winning poems.

300 star Gerard Butler is a Burns fan.

"Paul Kelly lies dead, and who held the knife? It was you . . . we all saw you take his life": Postered poem purports to finger U.K. murder perp.

Hoop reams: Orlando Magic's J.J. Redick turns to poetry for understanding.

On fame: Rilke vs. Brecht—who will win???

Gilgamesh historian calls Saddam Hussein and Philip Roth "both children of Abraham" and of Hemingway.

Putting out poems with gasoline: Paul Muldoon.

Thomson twins: Reading NBCC award winner Troy Jollimore.

Poetry: A germ-info delivery system for kids.

"I am roguish—I am flighty—I am inbred—I am lowly": Dana Gioia digs cowboy poetry.

"Under water grottos, caverns / Filled with apes / That eat figs": The early line breaks of Barack Obama.

Giovanni falls! Oliver rises! Goldbarth's at #16—with a bullet! Catch all the excitement of the PoFo's bestseller list.

It's memoir week over at Slate, where Meghan O'Rourke and Dan Chiasson talk about what we mean by an "autobiographical" poem.

Opening the case on the early Auster: Previously uncollected poems read like notes on Wittgenstein.

Ex-scriptwriter teaches juvenile delinquents how to write poetry by tearing up the old contracts.

What? Really?! Holy Cow! Press turns 30.

Jimmy Santiago Baca's criminal past won't keep him from leading a workshop.

Harriet's here—and quite loveable. Check out our new poetry blog.

"The lines roll along in a wonderfully American way": Judging the early poems of Obama.

A two-handed read: Wayne Koestenbaum's approach to Mallarmé.

Oprah gives the nod to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. But if she wants to do something really radical, she should pick a poetry book.

Harriet the spry: Read about the great e-less poet, approaching Whitman, McSweeney's chain-poetry, and more.

Unified field: Ethanol r&d company Brion changes its name to Poet.

Situations have ended bad, relationships have all been sad—Total Eclipse has Verlaine and Rimbaud.

Imagine American Idol . . . in Abu Dhabi . . . with poems instead of songs. Have we blown your mind yet?