A newly released two-DVD set, One Tough Mother, combines the films made of Charles Bukowski’s last two readings—in Vancouver in 1979 and in Redondo Beach, California, in 1980. The author of more than sixty books, Bukowski died of leukemia on March 9, 1994.

Poet and musician Jim Carroll was putting the finishing touches on a novel when he passed away on September 11, 2009. Next week Viking will publish that novel, The Petting Zoo. This is the music video of The Jim Carroll Band’s “People Who Died,” which appeared on the soundtrack of the 1995 film version of his autobiography, The Basketball Diaries, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.