Pulitzer Remix
I
am excited to be one of 75 poets selected for the Pulitzer Remix. Each Pulitzer Remix poet will create 30
poems from his or her assigned Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. We will post our poems each day in April as a
celebration of National Poetry
Month.
New
York Times on Cancer
Poetry Project
Congratulations
to Karin Miller, whose Cancer Poetry Project was the topic
of a recent New York Times article. The upcoming volume includes my poem,
“Landfall”, which won a Cancer Poetry Project Honorable Mention as well as
“Breast Imaging.” The book will debut in April during National Poetry Month but
you can preorder copies now. You can also contribute to this worthy
project by visiting Kickstarter.
Anthology updates
Journey to Crone (Chuffed Buff Books), an anthology out
of London which features two of my poems, will make its debut on International Women’s Day, March 8. I am equally thrilled to be in Rabbit Ears: TV Poems (Poets Wear Prada), which includes poets such as Edward Field, Annie
Finch,
Tony Hoagland and Dorianne Laux. And The
Lives We Seek, an anthology that takes a contemporary look at saints, has
identified a publisher—I won’t jinx the deal by saying which one.
African American
History Month
This
February, the Town of
Greenburgh
asked Executive Director of Arts and Culture Sarah Bracey
White
to interview Dr. Olivia J.
Hooker. Hooker, 98, a civil rights activist, veteran
and retired Fordham University professor, is a last survivor of the 1921 Tulsa race
riot
where more than 300,000 died—a bigger toll than Watts, Detroit, Washington and
LA riots combined. She has spent her
life educating people about this event.
She and other survivors have sought restitution in a federal lawsuit—the
subject of the documentary “Before They Die.”
Gerda Lerner and
Women’s History
Gerda Lerner would have
appreciated Dr. Hooker. A founder of the
National Organization for Women, she was the creator
of the first Women’s Studies
Graduate Program
at Sarah Lawrence. Her books allowed me, for
the first time, to explore American history from the viewpoint of women—whether
abolitionist, colonist or slave. From
there, it was easy to imagine women quietly recording their experience over the
centuries in texts undiscovered or unrecoverable. Lerner passed
away last month,
and women writers honor her by putting our voices out there—maybe for discovery
in a distant galaxy!
Inaugural
Poet Richard Blanco
What a pleasure to discover Richard Blanco
through the excellent choice of President Obama! In an interview
with Anderson Cooper, Blanco said that it came to him that who we are as a country is
as yet unfinished — and yet everyone one of us is vital in defining it. Blanco’s expansive, Whitmanesque vision
nailed the inaugural
poem, don’t you think?
Frost Medal to Robert Bly
Congratulations to Robert Bly on
receiving the 2013 Frost Medal,
the highest honor from the Poetry Society
of America. One time at a Dodge
Festival panel on translation, I
had asked him when he knows a translated poem is finished. He said he works
with a linguist who indicates when more work is needed—news he greets with a
few expletives. The poet, in turn, asked me what language I was working on.
“French,” I said. “Oh, impossible!” he erupted — a confirmation of the work I
knew I had to do.
Katonah
Poetry Series
Come hear poets Michael Dickman on
Sunday, March 4, at 4 p.m., and Katha Pollitt on
Sunday, April 28, at 4 p.m., at the Katonah Village Library. The $10 admission fee includes an informal
reception and conversation with the poet after the reading. For more on the poets, visit the Katonah Poetry Series.
Matters of the HeARTSee the 9th Annual Matters of the HeART Art Exhibit at Greenburgh Town Hall, 177 Hillside Avenue, Greenburgh, March 8 through May 2. Sponsored by the Helen Andrus Benedict Foundation and the Greenburgh Arts & Culture Committee, Matters of the HeART supports creative aging through the arts. An opening reception will take place Sunday, March 17, from 2-4 p.m., with doors open at 1 p.m. for people with disabilities.
Literary Translation in Paris
Columbia University’s Art of Literary Translation in Paris, a month-long summer course, will feature weekly writing
workshops, a lecture and guest speaker series, and additional cultural
activities. To get ready, you might want
to read Speech Begins After Death (University of Minnesota
Press, 2013), a conversation between philosopher Michel Foucault and
Claude Bonnefoy
translated by Roberto Bononno; or celebrate the 100th anniversary of
Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending A Staircase by
visiting in Francis Naumann Fine Art's exhibit
on this important painting, through March 29.
‘Round the Net
Thanks
to these people for sending me these great links:
· Memoirist Lou
Spirito for his new book, Gimme Shelter, a story of how one pit bull
changed his life—and to novelist Terry Dugan for this history of pit
bulls
before the media turned against them
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