The Week We Made New Friends

As much as we enjoy curling up with an anthology in sweet solitude, we at Harriet HQ realize that life is not worth much without good people in it. This week, we introduced some of the individuals who make the verse scene such a fascinating… scene.

We hung out with the cool kids and parsed their literary aesthetic.

We were introduced to a few fine Fellows through the Poetry Society of America and the NEA’s translation arm.

Channeling the force of online video, we fantasized about kicking it with Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, and Smith.

Through audio, we listened as Ralph Fiennes channeled Nabokov.

Vicariously absorbing an anecdote, we pretended we were cool with Steven Tyler and D.M.C.

We eavesdropped as Anne Carson rapped with the website Suicide Girls about channeling Sophocles. And we took notes as Natalie Diaz got spiritual.

Oh! We welcomed Joanne Kryger to her temporary gig on Team Poetry. Welcome!

It’s always a shame when you’re friends with people who don’t like each other. But sometimes their arguments are so amusing that we can’t bring ourselves to intervene.

Having seemingly regained a semblance of relative stability, actor, raconteur, and all-around oversharer Charlie Sheen contacted the poetry sphere wondering if he could return. Having read read his previous work, we have some idea of what to expect.

To be fair, Sheen isn’t the only poet who can go off on a rant occasionally.

We poured one out for the late Helmi Salem. Friend, you will be missed.