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In this Books Are Magic event, Ada Calhoun reads from her memoir Also a Poet: Frank O’Hara, My Father, and Me (Grove Press, 2022) and discusses her writing process, New York City, and parenting with Emma Straub.
“And some time make the time to drive out west / Into County Clare, along the Flaggy Shore, / In September or October,” writes Seamus Heaney in his poem “Postscript,” which describes in detail an Irish county that the speaker recommends the addressee visit. The poem uses deep observation to create an all-encompassing description of this craggy coastline’s geographic features and fauna along the Wild Atlantic Way. “The surface of a slate-grey lake is lit / By the earthed lightning of a flock of swans,” writes Heaney. This week, think back to a natural landscape that has made a lasting impression on you and write a poem addressed to a loved one that describes this unique terrain’s lasting beauty.
“Let your sense of language dawn of its own accord.” —Will Alexander, author of Divine Blue Light: For John Coltrane
“For a time I believed / myself in love with Orpheus, which only meant I loved // what I could make if I were free from what happened to my body.” In this reading from the 2022 Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam, Safia Elhillo reads “Orpheus” from her poetry collection Girls That Never Die (One World, 2022). For more from Elhillo, read her installment of our Ten Questions series.
Resist the urge to buy more stuff this Black Friday, and invest the money you save in your writing: Apply to Poetry International’s annual C.P. Cavafy Poetry Prize, which comes with an award of $1,000 and publication in the magazine.
Using only the online submission system, submit up to three poems of any length with a $15 entry fee ($3 for each additional poem) by December 1. All entries are considered for publication. The editors will judge. Visit the website for complete guidelines.
Sylvie Baumgartel of Santa Fe won the 2021 C.P. Cavafy Prize for her poem “Stealth Bomber.” Poetry International editor in chief and contest judge Sandra Alcosser described what stood out to her about the poem: “Each line shines and cuts as the poet creates a conceit that moves between the military-industrial complex and equally complex family relationships."
Based at San Diego State University, Poetry International has been in circulation for more than twenty-five years and is among the most revered poetry magazines in the world. Each annual print issue includes poems in English and in translation. Contributors have included Kim Addonizio, Kwame Dawes, Seamus Heaney, Nicole Sealey, Tomas Tranströmer, Derek Walcott, and many others. Poetry International aims to publish work that is “strong and compelling and that highlights our shared humanity while inviting us into the diverse realities of people across the globe.”
“People talk about epigenetic trauma all the time. People don’t talk about epigenetic joy. There can’t be one and not the other.” In this event hosted by the DC Public Library and Loyalty Bookstores, Ross Gay reads from and discusses his new essay collection, Inciting Joy (Algonquin Books, 2022), with Clint Smith. A Q&A with Gay by Aimee Nezhukumatathil is featured in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
In this video, finalists for the 2022 National Book Award in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translated literature, and young people’s literature read excerpts from their honored works. The event, hosted by writer Saraciea J. Fennell, is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation and the NYU Creative Writing Program.
“I write for my people. I write because we children of the lash-scarred, rope-choked, bullet-ridden, desecrated are still here standing. I write for the field holler, the shout, the growl, the singer, the signer, and the signified,” says Imani Perry in her moving acceptance speech for the 2022 National Book Award in nonfiction for her book South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (Ecco, 2022). In her powerful message, Perry repeats the refrain “I write” as she lists the many reasons that lead her to the page. Inspired by Perry’s acceptance speech, write a poem that lists what drives you to write, including the people, languages, and beliefs that move you.
In this episode of Public Access Poetry, a cable television show produced for two seasons during 1977 and 1978, Eileen Myles and Alice Notley read a selection of their work. The full archive of half-hour episodes featuring poets from the downtown New York City poetry scene can be found on PennSound, an archival project affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania.
