May 2008
New poems by Spencer Reece, Jane Hirshfield, Seth Abramson, Liz Waldner, Sandra M. Gilbert, Cathy Park Hong, and others; notebook by Eavan Boland; exchange between Cate Marvin and Joshua Mehigan, and more!
The Poetry Foundation Syndicate offers free content about poetry to newspapers and online publications. Its book reviews, profiles, interviews, and poetry columnists will engage a general readership in poetry. New releases, approximately 750 words each, will be posted here weekly. Sign up here.
05.06.08: CLOSE--BUT NOT TOO CLOSE--OBSERVATION
Amy Beeder is a poet whose bio note provides a suitably salty background as "a political asylum specialist" and "a human rights observer in Haiti and Surinam." Closely observed and linguistically rich, Burn the Field has rough spots but constitutes an impressive debut for a writer who reveres the heft, texture, and taste of words. In the sonnet "Cabezòn," for instance, the lumpy, clumpy phrases at first delineate mere grotesquerie. The "Bighead" is:
Amy Beeder is a poet whose bio note provides a suitably salty background as "a political asylum specialist" and "a human rights observer in Haiti and Surinam." Closely observed and linguistically rich, Burn the Field has rough spots but constitutes an impressive debut for a writer who reveres the heft, texture, and taste of words. In the sonnet "Cabezòn," for instance, the lumpy, clumpy phrases at first delineate mere grotesquerie. The "Bighead" is:
Gerald Stern: Still Burning
Gerald Stern is as much the poet warrior now as when he stunned the poetry world thirty years ago with his book Lucky Life. In that book he first staked out a place for himself and readers that he has continued to make, a place that in his words is "overlooked or ignored or disdained, a place no one else wanted." This short documentary film, illustrated with materials from Stern's own archive, features some of Stern's best known poems. It also includes commentary by poets Ross Gay, Edward Hirsch, Anne Marie Macari, Heather McHugh, and Thomas Lux, each with a unique perspective on Stern as artist and friend. Still Burning is a short film by REMproductions (the Media group of the Lempert Family Foundation) produced in association with the Poetry Foundation.
American Life in Poetry provides newspapers and online publications with a free weekly column featuring contemporary American poems selected and introduced by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. Nationally syndicated to 4 million readers in more than 60 publications every week, the column is published by Poetry Foundation Media Services with administrative support provided by the English Department of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/
An exploration of the role of poetry in society and profiles of contemporary poets featured on the highly acclaimed nightly PBS news program. A partnership between the Poetry Foundation and the NewsHour, the poetry series includes short-form profiles on living American poets and long-form segments on current debates and issues in poetry.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/
Recently on the News Hour: Charles Simic, Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, reads "Sunday Papers," "Evening Walk" and "My Turn to Confess" near his home in New Hampshire. Click here for more.
Garrison Keillor recounts the literary highlights of this day in history and reads a poem or two in this beloved radio program. Heard by more than 2 million listeners on more than 300 public radio stations and XM Satellite Radio every day, production and distribution of the program is sponsored by the Poetry Foundation.
http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/
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