Watch the poem here! "If you think it's cool or edgy to hate selfies, it's not cool, it just means you're uneasy about the fact that girls believe they are beautiful." This is how two young women begin their "Ode to the Selfie." In under two minutes, poets Megan Falley and Olivia Gatwood manage to … Continue reading This Spoken Word Poem Is The Ultimate Love Letter To Selfies (via Huffington Post)
Greg Pardlo submitted “Digest,” his slim book of poems, to the major publishers. All rejected it. He sent it to Four Way Books, which is, like the poet, literary and decidedly non-profit. In 2014, Four Way published his 75-page book. When Pardlo won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, “Digest” had sold 1,500 copies. I … Continue reading He Won the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. He’s a Grad Student in…Nonfiction? (via The Good Men Project)
Barbara Lawlor, Gold Hill. When a newcomer to Gold Hill asked former resident Edie Eilender if she knew any poets in the small mountain town, she became inspired. She wrote poetry and she knew people who wrote poetry and all of them, being typical mountain, atypical city folks, were kind of misfits and the poetry … Continue reading Misfits create 15 years of poetry (via The Mountain-Ear)
The College Programming Board made themselves busy in Friends Hall on Friday preparing for their Slam Poetry event. “I completely forgot about this bad mamma-jamma,” junior Chris Cortez said, lugging a speaker across the room. At the back of the hall, others were laying out refreshments upon a table for guests’ enjoyment, while another adjusted … Continue reading Students Perform at Poetry and Spoken Word Event (via The Ramapo News)
“He grabs her hand, he pulls her close, and he sings, ‘you are my sunshine.’ ” Those were the opening lines of Savannah Spencer’s poem, “Gray Dancing.” As she recited, she switched between spoken word and song, depending on what her lines called for. (See her full poem at the end of this story.) Savannah, a … Continue reading Young poets exude style and substance at poetry contest (via Democrat Missourian)
Follow the link, below, for the full list of finalists! The finalists for the 2015 National Book Awards in poetry are a diverse group in both subject and approach. The winner of the $10,000 prize will be announced in New York on Wednesday. Terrance Hayes’s “How to be Drawn” (Penguin; paperback, $20) is the challenging … Continue reading The National Book Award finalists in poetry (via Washington Post)
More than 30 poets will be rhyming, reciting and rallying together for a brand new festival taking place from today. The Nottingham Poetry Festival will include big names like John Agard and Lemn Sissay as well as acclaimed local talent like Mouthy Poets, Blackdrop and Kavya Rang. It is the first time it has taken … Continue reading New poetry festival launches in Nottingham (via Nottingham Post)
Below is an excerpt from Dream Nation's interview with poet, Alysia Harris. Alysia Harris is an American poet, Yale graduate and one of the original members of The Strivers Row, a spoken word collective. Dream Nation caught up with Alysia to find out her inspirations, how life has changed since leaving The Strivers Row, what … Continue reading A Dreamer’s Profile: Alysia Harris (via Dream Nation)
At 7 p.m., Nov. 18, 19 and 20, a team from Young Chicago Authors (YCA) returns to Sheboygan to share their collaborative workshop and interactions with area community members in a spoken word poetry performance on stage at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC), 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. The piece has never been … Continue reading Chicago Authors to share spoken word (via Sheboygan Press)
On a recent afternoon on Front Street in Dumbo, a patron approached Jared White, the owner of Berl’s Brooklyn Poetry Shop, and asked for recommendations of Spanish-language and Scandinavian poets. He pointed to “Poems,” by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Milán, and “Remainland,” by the Swedish poet Aase Berg. White and his wife, Farrah Field, opened … Continue reading The Curious Persistence of Poetry Shops (The New Yorker)
