Click the link to read the full interview between The Seattle Times and Seattle's first Youth Poet Laureate, Leija Farr. Last week, Leija Farr walked into her U.S. history class at Cleveland High School and was hailed as a celebrity — not for leading a championship sports team, or winning a beauty contest or being … Continue reading Seattle’s first youth poet laureate fights racism through verse (via Seattle Times)
There is, in fact, an intricate web of support across the Anglosphere established to provide poets with recognition and money, none as prominent in Canada as the Griffin Poetry Prize, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary on June 4. The Griffin now annually awards $200,000 in total—more than the Scotiabank Giller does—to its nominees and … Continue reading The restoration of poetry’s place (via Maclean’s)
Poetry is dead. Christopher Ingraham notes in an article from The Washington Post: “According to the latest numbers, poetry is less popular than jazz. It’s less popular than dance, and only about half as popular as knitting. The only major arts category with a narrower audience than poetry is opera…” Ouch. People have been writing … Continue reading Poetry Isn’t Dead: A Wake-Up Call (via Paste)
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)
Full Title: The Massachusetts Poetry Festival: Doves, Blancos, Hoffmans and Duhamels flock together When the winter finally consented to go back where it came from and I felt comfortable running again on the streets of my neighborhood, I was startled by the birds, by the songs of birds – they began exactly where they ended … Continue reading The Massachusetts Poetry Festival (via Wicked Local Wareham)
On May 14, University of Oregon students will have the opportunity to see renowned slam poet Anis Mojgani perform on campus, free of charge. Mojgani is one of only two people to have won a national individual slam poetry title twice — in 2005 and 2006. He’s also been a TEDx speaker, published three collections … Continue reading Slam poet Anis Mojgani is coming to the University of Oregon (via Daily Emerald)
