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"The writer's job is to get naked—to hide nothing." Southern Gothic novelist Harry Crews, who passed away Wednesday in Gainesville, Florida, at the age of seventy-six, wrote seventeen novels, including Feast of Snakes and The Knockout Artist. He taught fiction writing workshops at the University of Florida from 1968 until his retirement in 1997.
Commissioned by America: Now and Here, an organization founded by Eric Fischl to promote conversation about contemporary America through the arts, the forty-five-minute film "Crossing State Lines: An American Renga" is based on the book of the same name, curated by Bob Holman and Carol Muske-Dukes and published by FSG last April, that features fifty-four poets from across the country in conversation.
While essentially a promo for the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world, this clip does offer a valuable look at the jobs of a few of the many people who work at Random House, from editorial and design through production, marketing, sales, and distribution.
This brief documentary by Kristin Moe follows Kendall Merriam, the Johnny Appleseed of poetry in Rockland, Maine. The video was produced at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine.
In Ferlinghetti: A Rebirth of Wonder, which opens tonight in New York City, director Christopher Felver reveals the poet's true role as a catalyst for numerous literary careers and for the Beat movement itself. The documentary features one-on-one interviews with Ferlinghetti as well as appearances by Allen Ginsberg, Dennis Hopper, Dave Eggers, and others. For more opening dates, visit the First Run Features website.
Judith Chernaik founded Poetry on the Underground for the London Underground public metro system in 1986. This seven-minute documentary explores the project's evolution through poetry readings and an interview with Chernaik, who says the Underground is the perfect place to promote poetry because "you're in a strange place, and it's nice to have the comfort of language which is human and humane."
"I breathe in infinite curiosity and I write because I must." This short documentary by Jake Cushnir shows poet Gabe Kittle as he writes poems on his Royal typewriter at a Boston subway station.
"The Review is based on the idea that highly skillful, intelligent people can write about any subject." Directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, this documentary, which airs September 29 on HBO, traces the fifty-year history of the New York Review of Books.
