March 29, 2012
Mix Tape: “Whatever happens, this is.”
Here’s to Adrienne Rich, who said: “I am uncomfortable with talking of poetry as a priestly profession, because I have little use for organized religions and priestly hierarchies. They have […]
March 22, 2012
Mix Tape: The Art of Making Stuff Up
Lee Gutkind, editor of Creative Nonfiction, weighs in on the D’Agata scandal and what it means to “do a D’Agata”—new slang for “fudge”—in a piece of writing. “In creative nonfiction, […]
March 15, 2012
Mix Tape: March Madness
The Dude himself is publishing a book of Zen teachings. Why Zen? Because nihilism “must be exhausting.” Walden and climate change: Scientists use Thoreau’s notes about flowering dates in 1840s Massachusetts […]
March 8, 2012
Mix Tape: My Dystopia Is Better Than Yours
Huxley had the nerve to write Orwell and claim that Brave New World trumped 1984. The John D’Agata fact-checking brouhaha continues. Check out Ned Stuckey-French’s Dear John letter from the AWP lyric […]
March 1, 2012
Mix Tape: Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover (or a Poet by Her Thermos)
Don’t head to AWP in Chicago this week without this hilarious field guide to the conference. “Consider yourself very lucky if you come upon a poet—they are an endangered species! […]
February 23, 2012
Mix Tape: “You’ve been chosen as an extra in the movie adaptation / Of the sequel to your life”
Thanks for the quote, Stephen Malkmus. I’m always looking for an excuse to invoke Pavement. Being Flynn, the regrettably titled film adaptation of Nick Flynn’s memoir, Another Bullshit Night in […]
February 16, 2012
Mix Tape: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been
The theme park Dickens World “promised to be an ‘authentic’ re-creation of the London of Charles Dickens’s novels, complete with soot, pickpockets, cobblestones, gas lamps, animatronic Dickens characters and strategically […]
February 2, 2012
Mix Tape: Cellar Door
What’s so beautiful about cellar door? These two little words have gotten a lot of attention from Donnie Darko, Dorothy Parker, and beyond. “If you can pronounce correctly every word […]
January 26, 2012
Mix Tape: Cursed Poets
What does it mean to “be a poet”? Philip Larkin “didn’t give readings or lectures, was never a poet-in-residence at a university, never taught, rarely gave interviews, generally stayed away […]
January 19, 2012
Mix Tape: Word Processing
Is the Pushcart biased against online journals? The Pushcart folks won’t find much on Meijer’s Facebook page. Although, isn’t sausage, football, and poetry an intriguing combination? Writing long sentences: “a way […]
January 12, 2012
Mix Tape: Bibliophiles, Artists, Hipsters, Literary Men, and Bros
Bookshelf porn: Totally safe for work, except for the fact that it will keep you from doing your job. A fascinating look at famous authors’ personal libraries. Behold the Hipster-Literary-Bro […]
January 5, 2012
Mix Tape: The New Year (“So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different”)
Helen Vendler goes after The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove. “Multicultural inclusiveness prevails: some 175 poets are represented. No century in the evolution of poetry […]