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Barnes & Noble announced its Nook revenues would not meet expectations; J. Robert Lennon explains why some writers strive to be rock star musicians; Ploughshares advises how to get out of the slush pile; and other news.
Manal Al Sheikh says it is dangerous for her to be a writer in her hometown of Nineveh, Iraq, so the exiled poet tries to inspire her readers online from Stavanger, Norway. This short film, directed by Roxana Vilk and aired on Al Jazeera English, explores the Middle East through its contemporary poets as they struggle to lead, to interpret, and to inspire.
The DOJ has approved the merger of Random House and Penguin; fourteen poets reveal their favorite love poems for Valentine’s Day; Library Lournal takes the pulse of today’s erotic fiction; and other news.
The Poetry Society of America (PSA) has announced that poet Robert Bly will receive the 2013 Frost Medal, an award presented annually for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.
The PSA’s most prestigious award, the Frost Medal was established in 1930. Originally called the “Gold Medal,” the award’s early recipients included Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Wallace Stevens, and Marianne Moore. In 1984, to pay tribute to Robert Frost's longstanding association with the organization, including his tenure as honorary president from 1940-1963, the award was renamed in his honor; subsequent winners have included Gwendolyn Brooks, Adrienne Rich, John Ashbery, Sonia Sanchez, and in 2012, Marilyn Nelson. Winners receive a cash prize of $2,500.
Born in western Minnesota in 1926, Robert Bly attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and later founded the literary magazine The Fifties (later The Sixties and The Seventies), which published poetry in translation. Bly published his first book of poetry, Silence in the Snowy Fields (Wesleyan), in 1962, and received a National Book Award in 1968 for The Light Around the Body (Harper & Row). He has since published over thirty books of poetry, translation, and essays, including most recently the poetry collection Talking Into the Ear of a Donkey (Norton, 2011). A forthcoming collection, Stealing Sugar from the Castle: the Selected Poems of Robert Bly, will be published in September by Norton.
Bly will be honored, along with the twelve recipients of the annual PSA awards, at a ceremony on Friday, April 5, at the National Arts Club in New York City. Bly will also give a reading.
The Poetry Society of America, the nation's oldest poetry organization, was founded in 1910. Its mission is “to build a larger and more diverse audience for poetry, to encourage a deeper appreciation of the vitality and breadth of poetry in the cultural conversation, and to place poetry at the crossroads of American life.” For more information about the PSA and the annual awards, visit the website.
Local poets in Parachinar, a remote village in Pakistan that is bordered by the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, in an area that has been torn apart for years by secretarian violence, hold an annual poetry festival with hopes that poetry can bring together diverse communities for peace.
Poets Brenda Hillman and Robert Haas are risking arrest today in protest of the Keystone XL extension pipeline; Kera Bolonik reports that a letter written by T. S. Eliot in 1957 has been discovered; Kate Bolick looks at the life and work of Edna St. Vincent Millay; and other news.
Former Marine Anthony Swofford, author of the memoirs Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles (Scribner, 2010) and Hotels, Hospitals, and Jails (Twelve 2012), is one of six writers featured in Rochelle Spencer's "Books and Babies," an article in the new issue of the magazine that takes a look at the challenges of being a parent and an author. In this video, Swofford talks about his experience serving in and writing about the military as well as some misconstrued facts about combat veterans returning home from war.
Write a scene for a story with two characters. One character has kept a secret from the other, and the other has recently discovered it, but not yet revealed her discovery. Have the characters engaged in an activity—shovelling out from a snowstorm, preparing for a party, looking for a lost ring. Use the dialogue and the action to express the tension between the two, without having them directly discuss the secret.
Little, Brown will publish Donna Tartt's much-anticipated third novel, The Goldfinch, on October 22, 2013; Chilean authorities have ordered the exhumation of Pablo Neruda to investigate the poet’s death; novelist Sam Lipsyte discusses the awkwardness of writing about sex; and other news.
Send a line of poetry to a friend via text message or e-mail and ask her to compose a line in response. Collaborate on drafting a poem in this way, building it line by line until you both agree that it's reached its end. Using the final product as a draft, revise the poem and have your friend do the same. Compare your final drafts.
