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Poet and founder of UbuWeb, Kenneth Goldsmith, speaks about the "conceptual writing" movement and the art of transcription. "There can be no such thing as writer's block, there's no lack of inspiration—there's always something to transcribe, there's always something to rewrite, there's always something to refrain."
The powerHouse Arena—a self-proclaimed laboratory for creative thought—is a gallery, boutique, bookstore, performance, and events space located in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood. The space is home to the art book publisher, powerHouse Books, and hosts book launch parties, readings and signings, and conversations for a host of voices in contemporary literature. The store carries a curated selection of design and photography books, along with a discriminating selection of nonfiction, lifestyle, illustrated, and New York-themed books.
Spoonbill & Sugartown, Booksellers was established in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg in 1999. The shop specializes in used, rare, and new books on contemporary art, architecture, and various design fields with an emphasis on imported or hard-to-find selections. Thousands of books are hand-picked for clientele from the eclectic collection of philosophy, literature, cinema, and children’s books.
In 2009, Rebecca Fitting and Jessica Stockon Bagnulo opened Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, with the support of the Fort Greene Association and a Community Lender Program. This independent bookstore carries a robust selection in a wide variety of genres, and has a full calendar of events for adults and children.
"We're all going to die—and poems can help us live with that." In this TED talk literary critic Stephen Burt uses his favorite poems to help convey how poetry (simply a set of techniques used to make patterns that put emotions into words) can help us further understand and cope with what it means to be a person.
For the eighth installment of our Winners on Winning series, we spoke with Chris Hosea, the winner of the 2013 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets for his debut collection, Put Your Hands In. The prize, given annually to a poet who has not yet published a book, includes $5,000, publication, and a residency at the Vermont Studio Center. Hosea's winning manuscript, selected by John Ashbery, was published by Louisiana State University Press in March. Hosea received his MFA in poetry from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, and is a senior copywriter at H4B Chelsea. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
What kind of impact has winning the Whitman Award had on your career?
I'm pretty sure the Whitman Award helped me recently to land a new job, with better pay and more impressive-sounding title, in advertising. Creative distinctions, and particularly established institutional honors, are valued in such industries.
Has winning this award, or previous awards, changed the way you approach your work?
I'm certain that contest judge John Ashbery's comparison between my poems and Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descebding a Staircase, and even more Ashbery's remarks about derision and eroticism in Put Your Hands In, will affect my writing for the rest of my life.
Have you ever entered a contest that you didn't win?
I have entered hundreds of contests and spent thousands of dollars on fees. If you don't play, you can't win.
What advice would you offer to writers thinking of submitting to writing contests?
Sequencing is important. Give yourself at least a month to order and reorder the poems in your book. Also, contest screeners are often (though by no means always) young students who haven't read a lot of poetry before: so include some lyrical candy up front.
For more Winners on Winning, read the current issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, and check back next Wednesday for a new installment.
Hosea: Myles Paige
Shakespeare & Co. is an iconic Manhattan bookstore in the Upper East Side neighborhood founded in 1983. The store is adjacent to the Hunter College campus and includes a high-quality café. Their second location is in the Upper West Side on Broadway.
The Sonnet Project combines cinematic art with the poetry of William Shakespeare, set against the backdrop of New York City. The goal of the project is to film all of Shakespeare’s sonnets, each performed by a different actor in a carefully chosen New York City location. This is their sixty-seventh film.
Dr. Maya Angelou's joyous poem "Phenomenal Woman" trumpets: "I'm a woman / phenomenally. / Phenomenal woman, / that's me." After her passing last Wednesday, many who have been touched by her words and wisdom have been reflecting on Angelou's rich life. Today, take a moment to reflect on a phenomenal woman in your life and write a poem in her honor. Think about what makes her unique, and attempt to translate the essence of her spirit into the written word.
"I have come from farming to poetry." Amit Dahiyabadshah is the founder of the poetry movement Delhi Poetree. In this video for TEDx Tughlaq Rd, he performs and speaks with humor and gravity about his experiences in the fast-growing city of Delhi. "I gave you the green revolution from just two acres of land, you have left me with a wallpaper village of posters, and just two acres of sand."
