Life isn’t linear. It’s full of twists and drops, peaks and pitfalls. Sometimes paths can only be seen from a certain distance down the road.K.M. English’s debut book of poetry isn’t particularly linear, either, both physically and emotionally. Set to be published by Tucson-based Kore Press on May 15, “Wave Says” draws from English’s settled life in … Continue reading Sacramento resident and former restaurateur publishing debut book of poetry (via The Sacramento Bee)
Simon Armitage has written a poem to mark the death of Prince Philip, his first to address the royals in his time as poet laureate, saying that the obituaries had taught him that Prince Philip “hated sycophancy – I didn’t want to write anything that would have sounded sycophantic in his ears”.Titled The Patriarchs – … Continue reading Poet laureate Simon Armitage publishes elegy for Prince Philip (via Guardian)
At dozens of cafes, libraries and bookstores — even a garage in Bell — Southern California teemed with poetry readings and open mike nights before COVID-19 took hold of the world.Some of these events managed to survive by migrating online. Others we’ve lost for good.Now, as the vaccination rollout continues and an end to the pandemic appears … Continue reading Five Los Angeles Poets on Life Beyond the Pandemic (via L.A. Times)
When I Found Malcolm XBy Kevin Powell I shed tears the way a dambursts wide open when exposedby an awful hurricanethat moment at age 18after the first time Ihungrily ate the words ofThe Autobiography of Malcolm Xbecause I did notknow a Black manlike him could even existI cried—hard—because they hadbowed and arrowedbullet after bulletinto Malcolm … Continue reading Kevin Powell’s Poem “When I Found Malcolm X” (via Complex)
One casualty of the pandemic in the publishing world, the book launch party, is sure to return. The only question is not “when,” but why”? The vast majority, and I mean like 99.5%, of book launch parties, are not profitable nor worthy of media attention. They can be big ego boosters and serve as fodder … Continue reading Are Book Launch Parties Needed Anymore? (via BookMarketingBuzzBlog)
The shortlist for the prestigious Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry, which carries prize money worth $10,000, was made public this morning. Our poetry editor Chris Tse is ecstatic. Here’s a sobering statistic: since 2001, only two non-Pākehā poets have won the poetry category at the book awards – David Eggleton (who is of … Continue reading Please excuse Chris Tse as he freaks out over these poetry finalists (via The Spinoff)
On Valentine’s Day 2015, Philip Levine, former poet laureate of the United States and longtime English professor at California State University, Fresno, passed away from pancreatic cancer. The New York Times obituary characterized his work as “vibrantly, angrily and often painfully alive with the sound, smell and sinew of heavy manual labor.” Levine told Bill … Continue reading Philip Levine Was a Poet of the Working Class (via Jacobin)
A bedrock principle of the prison abolitionist movement is that you don’t ask an incarcerated person what they’re in for. It’s more than etiquette. To eschew the identity that the punitive state assigns — which could be false — is to see someone whole. “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done,” … Continue reading Is Poetry magazine “platforming toxicity” or promoting the “practice of freedom”? (via The Intercept)
The title of Erin Belieu’s new book of poems, “Come-Hither Honeycomb” (Copper Canyon), is a compact gadget of a phrase that embodies her tinkerer’s style of found puns, verbal doodles, and word games. “Come-hither” is both invitation and command, an adjective that evolved from, but clings to, the imperative. It modifies the word it mirrors, … Continue reading Big Laughs and Hard Silences in Erin Belieu’s Poetry (via The New Yorker)
Mark Lanegan will release a new book of 76 poems, Leaving California, this spring. His publisher, Heartworm Press, is likening the book to a sequel to 2020 memoir Sing Backwards and Weep, the brooding singer-songwriter’s gritty elegy for the grunge era in Seattle, where he was once the frontman for Screaming Trees. The book will … Continue reading Mark Lanegan’s New Poetry Book ‘Leaving California’ to Follow Up Grunge Memoir (via Rolling Stone)
