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"If you think the human mind is a wonderful thing, there is an infinite interest in cultivating it." Marilynne Robinson speaks with Bill Moyers about her novel Lila (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2014), and her thoughts on faith, democracy, and creativity. Robinson discusses her new book of essays, The Givenness of Things (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"The mind is a much more generous resource than we're in the habit of considering it to be." The Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist speaks about accessing imagination through writing and her teaching experiences at the Iowa Writers' Workshop. Robinson discusses her new book of essays, The Givenness of Things (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"When he dreams, he's always fourteen. He's always back in Mexico." John Irving describes the two parts of his new novel, Avenue of Mysteries (Simon & Schuster, 2015), which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"When he dreams, he's always fourteen. He's always back in Mexico." John Irving describes the two parts of his new novel, Avenue of Mysteries (Simon & Schuster, 2015), which is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Salman Rushdie kicks off Frankfurt Book Fair; Marlon James wins Man Booker prize; National Book Award shortlists announced; and other news.
Yusef Komunyakaa reads "The Great Migration" at New York City's Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with the exhibition, "One-Way Ticket: Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series and Other Visions of the Great Movement North." Komunyakaa's new poetry collection, The Emperor of Water Clocks (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"I find that I'm looking for violence in the poems that I read." For the P.O.P. Series, Camille Rankine reads her poem "Little Children, My Apologies" and speaks about the types of poems she admires. Rankine's debut poetry collection, Incorrect Merciful Impulses (Copper Canyon Press, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
"At the ocean's edge, which feels like a kind of conclusion to the clumsy whisper of names we read onto the land—we are left with no words for the choppy shove of the waves..." Jeffrey Thomson's debut memoir, Fragile (Red Mountain Press, 2015), is featured in Page One in the November/December issue of Poets & Writers Magazine.
Last week, the 2015 Nobel Prize recipients were announced, awarding a writer, scientific researchers, and peace advocates from around the world whose areas of work range from molecular cell DNA repair to political mediation in Tunisia. Write a short story in which your main character finds himself invited to the Nobel Prize award ceremonies in Stockholm, Sweden. What preconceived notions might he have about the festivities and winners? Is he star-struck, mildly impressed, or ambivalent? Does he have dubious plans beyond celebrating with the recipients and guests?
In the ten essays comprising this collection, Jane Hirshfield explores a wide range of elements that give poetry its transformative power. From examinations of work by poets including Bashō, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Czeslaw Miłosz, to investigations of paradox and surprise in poetry, Hirshfield demonstrates the ability of poetry to gift its readers with "new possibilities of perceiving."
