Author: thepoetslist

Candidates for one of the most prestigious posts in poetry are embroiled in a war of words as Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka hit back at claims by broadcaster Melvyn Bragg that he was too old and “grand” for the role at Oxford University. Bragg, who had previously backed the Nigerian poet to be the next … Continue reading Wole Soyinka dismisses claims he is too grand and old for Oxford poetry chair (via Guardian) →

Steve, my patient, fancied himself a poet, first and foremost. Brilliant, yet sadly bedeviled by schizoaffective disorder — a condition somewhere between schizophrenia and bipolar — he feared he would die before his gift was discovered. “I think I’m dying,” he said every week. His poetry reflected this preoccupation. For example: The roses are down-petaled, … Continue reading Poetry Kept My Patient Alive (via NY Times) →

Moe’s Books’ ground-floor den has been cleared, with a stage set up in the center. Rows and rows of folding chairs are fully occupied, and people have squeezed along the walls and settled the steps of the staircase. Here, on a clear Friday night — surrounded by friends, fans and contributing poets — Berkeley Poetry … Continue reading Berkeley Poetry Review release party features local writers, student poets (via The Daily Californian) →

Many of us think of poetry as so refined that we can only refer to it occasionally, like fine silverware that you can’t put in the dishwasher. Piercing minds go mute around poetry. It is imagined to be overly technical, like advanced arithmetic; otherworldly, priestess-like; suffocatingly personal; excessively decorative; exhaustingly bourgeois or tiringly avant-garde.  (Some … Continue reading Don’t Give Up On Poetry (via Salon) →

Amy Turn Sharp, a 1992 graduate of Logan High School, recently published a book of poetry titled Hold Me Like Ohio. The author, who attended Ohio University and works for an advertising agency as a writer, said that she has always loved to write, and at this stage in her life made it a point … Continue reading Logan Native Draws on Ohio Upbringing for Poetry Book (via WOUB) →