Lannan Awards, Tips for Making an Author Website, and More
Essayist Megan Stielstra on finding community; a profile of Roxane Gay; why Leonardo da Vinci wrote backwards; and other news.
Genre: Poetry
Dear Abstraction
In a series of poems titled “American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin,” Terrance Hayes seemingly addresses an abstraction: How can one have both a past and future assassin? Would this assassin be a person, or would it be a system, a history, a feeling? Hayes embraces the ambiguity, and writes his poems as if he were speaking to an individual: “I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison, / Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.” Is there a force in your own life that is asking to be addressed? Try writing your own sonnet that confronts this force—however abstract—and speaks to it as if it were a person.
Dolores Kendrick Has Died, Vanity Fair’s New Editor, and More
Major publishers report uptick in sales for third quarter of 2017; Louise Erdrich on her new novel and motherhood; Susan Sontag’s fiction; and other news.
From the Stacks With Khadijah Queen
Caption:
Khadijah Queen reads “Monologue for an Onion” by Suji Kwock Kim for the University of Arizona Poetry Center’s From the Stacks series, which invites poets to share favorites from their renowned poetry library. Queen’s fifth book, I’m So Fine: A List of Famous Men & What I Had On (YesYes Books, 2017), is a collection of narrative writing and was a finalist for the National Poetry Series.
Genre:
Flannery O’Connor’s College Journal, Amazon’s Hundred Best Books of 2017, and More
Charles Simic and Katha Pollitt on the past year; Reginald Dwayne Betts sworn into Connecticut bar; the myths behind J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy; and other news.
Poetry Across the Nations, Digital Dante, and More
Poet wins Minneapolis City Council seat; John Kulka named editorial director of the Library of America; wildlife sculptures made from recycled books; and other news.
Publishing a Book in Trump’s First Year, the Contradictions of Philip Roth, and More
The proliferation of bestseller lists; writers speak out against pirated e-books; a profile of Emily Wilson, the first woman to translate the Odyssey; and other news.
Body Movin’
“I did not yet consider myself a poet, but I could not forget the sensual power of her words,” writes Tina Carlson, in “5 Over 50” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, about the experience of watching Lucille Clifton read her poem “homage to my hips” in the 1980s. Browse through other poems about the body, from Walt Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric” to Jane Hirshfield’s “A Hand,” and write a poem that focuses on the human body, perhaps incorporating themes of celebration, awe, history, intimacy, or health. How might you play with diction and repetition, line breaks, and rhythm and sounds to reflect the sensual power of the body?
Peg Alford Pursell
Caption:
In this video, Peg Alford Pursell introduces the stories from her debut collection, Show Her a Flower, a Bird, a Shadow (ELJ Editions, 2017), for the Stories on Stage Davis series, which combines literature and theater. Pursell is featured in “5 Over 50” in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
National Novel Writing Month, Zadie Smith on New York City, and More
Jonathan Franzen on the state of the essay; Roxane Gay to edit anthology on rape culture; a massive library opens in Tianjin, China; and other news.
Pages
