Here is a link, Fired Up, to Lev Grossman’s picks for the “best of….” for 2011. Looks like some good reading to me. What do you think?
He modestly didn’t put his own book, The Magician King, on the list but you can find out more about that by going to the Fantasy heading on this blog’s podcast and listening in to the interview we did with him.
USPS putting its stamp on U.S. poets
It’s quite a bunch. And it tells us much about the United States of America – and its poets.
In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service will bring out a series of “Forever” stamps dedicated to U.S. poets of the 20th century. Tentatively, they’re to be dedicated March 3 at the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Chicago, says Roy Betts of the Postal Service.
Poets have been on our stamps before, as standout Americans, among them Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg, T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Bryn Mawr grad Marianne Moore. But the new lineup keeps to that most poetic of centuries, the 20th. The selections speak “to the importance of poetry in American life,” says poet E.D. Hirsch. “The U.S.P.S. is making a key statement here. . . that poetry is a necessary part of our culture.”
The lineup: Elizabeth Bishop, Joseph Brodsky, Gwendolyn Brooks, E.E. Cummings, Robert Hayden, Denise Levertov, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. All are deceased, Brooks most recently (2000).The list “does a very good job of mixing a range of styles and voices,” says Kim Bridgford, poet and director of the Poetry Center of West Chester University. These 10 are four women, six men, two African Americans (Brooks and Hayden), one poet who could be considered Latino by virtue of his Puerto Rican mother (Williams), and two naturalized immigrants (Brodsky and Levertov).
Greg Djanikian, poet and director of the creative-writing program at the University of Pennsylvania, says these last two “might be a tip of the hat to the great immigrant influx in the U.S. in the last two centuries (which includes my family, by the way).”
Geographically, it has no poets west of the Mississippi, with Brooks (Illinois) and Hayden (Michigan) its westernmost members. There are local connections, with Stevens, born in Reading, and Williams, a graduate of the Penn Med School. For a time, Roethke taught at Lafayette College in Easton.
It’s an album of diverse lives. There’s an insurance executive (Stevens), homemakers, academics, a family doctor (Williams), and a World War I ambulance driver (Cummings). There’s a lesbian (Bishop), a suicide (Plath), and a couple of alcoholics. There are lifetime happy marriages (Brooks, Hayden), messy divorces (Plath), and alternative arrangements (Bishop, Cummings). This bunch piled up many honors, including a Nobel (Brodsky).
from The Inquirer http://articles.philly.com/2011-12-07/news/30486337_1_poet-laureate-wallace-stevens-gwendolyn-brooks“And if the physical book, as we’ve come to call it, is to resist the challenge of the e-book, it has to look like something worth buying and worth keeping.”
Quote from an interesting article in the NYT about publishers reaction to e-books. What’s your opinion? Click on the link to see the whole article. NY Times article
Yes we are behind on our podcasts…sorry, sorry, sorry. My computer has decided it needs to spend some time at a spa for overworked cyber tools. I’m hoping it will pull itself together and come back soon. Then I’ll catch you up with what’s been going on.
In the meantime you can listen in to the live shows via wcomfm.org live streaming any Monday at 10 a.m. EST. We are pushing the written word for the best of holiday giving. Sit back, put your feet up, grab a cup of tea or a glass of wine and browse our podcast archives for great gift ideas without any crowds to rush you. And, of course, remember you can find an independent book seller near you by going to indiebound.org.
The best of good spirit to one and all!
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Books
Tagged Bill Ferris, Ebook, Give My Poor Heart Ease, UNC Humanities
if words could save us by Anthony S. Abbott (broadcast 10-24-2011) Both personal and universal Abbott’s stunning use of language and poetic form reaches deep into the reader’s psyche and heart. He shares with us the rich, moving thrust of life, filled with a consideration of pleasure, puzzlement and pain that captures the emotions. The effect is that of sitting with a thoughtful friend who quietly, and with grace, opens a world of experience to you. A generous addition to the collection is a CD with the poet’s own rendition of his words.
This conversation also introduces a very freshly printed volume, What Writer’s Do, volume editor Anthony Abbott and Series Editor Rand Brandes. “Anyone who loves to read will want to own this collection documenting Lenoir-Rhyne University’s remarkable Visiting Writers Series. From Julia Alvarez’s explanation about why her haiku-a-month project failed to Abigail DeWitt’s confession that all her characters are versions of herself, this book is a treasure trove.” Shannon Ravenal Find out more about both of these works at http://www.thegirlintheyellowraincoat.com/
My Business Is To Create (Blake’s Infinite Writing) by Eric G. Wilson (broadcast 10-17-2011) Based on and celebrating William Blake’s personification of creativity in action, Wilson provides an indispensable writer’s handbook that is a call to consider life itself as a creative act. A small book of just some 85 pages, not including notes, it manages to offer an exquisitely written distillation of Blake’s approach to imagining the world and the effect it has had on so many of those who followed him, from Yeats to Ginsberg, from Emily Dickinson to Phillip K. Dick. Included along the way are wise words for all who write or want to write. A book to excite the way the reader, and the writer, looks at life. Find out more at http://www.wfu.edu/~wilsoneg/
Posted in authors, book review, Books
Tagged Eric G. Wilson, My Business Is to Create, William Blake, writer's handbook
In the Arms of a Marquess by Katharine Ashe (broadcast 9-26-2011) Ashe has written a perfect example of the historical romance novel. This third installment of the “Rogues of the Sea” trilogy takes us to Regency England and the romance and danger of the West Indies. Supported by thorough historical research her story of passion blends seamlessly into the cultural mores, adventure and political intrigues of the time. For lovers of historical romance this is a definite winner. Find out more at http://www.katharineashe.com/
Kingdom in the Balance/The Source by Debra Killeen/Diana Bastine (broadcast 9-19-2011) Sister authors, Killeen and Bastine, have each come up with good reading fantasy novels that fit into the young adult category. Kingdom in the Balance, by Killeen, is the final and very satisfying installment in The Myrridian Cycle. This series of five books takes place in a medieval kingdom discovered by accidental visitors from our time who become actively involved, as does the reader, in a world where Magic works and who controls it intensifies the intrigue. The Source, by Bastine, also takes us into another world but this is one hidden in ancient caves deep below the magic terrain of Ireland. The story begins when a young girl discovers a strange-looking man who she first suspect is a vampire but soon learns something about him even more fantastic. This is Bastine’s first novel and gives promise of a lot more enjoyable reading to come. Find out more at http://www.myrridia.net/ and http://www.fairycatmother.net/
Posted in authors, book review, Books, Fantasy
Tagged Debra Killeen, Diana Bastine, fantasy, Kingdom in the Balance, The Myrridian Cycle, The Source, young adult
Poetry and Social Media address by Keith Flynn at the NC Poetry Society Annual Meeting, Sept. 17 (broadcast 10-10-2011) Keith, with four collections of poetry published, is the author of The Rhythm Method, Razzmatazz and Memory: How to Make Your Poetry Swing, founder-editor of The Asheville Poetry Review and a highly respected touring musician/composer. An engaging speaker he offers valuable tips for making social media an effective marketing tool for the poet’s art. Find out more about the NC Poetry Society at ncpoetrysociety.org and about Keith Flynn at keithflynn.net.
