Tag: poetry

Poetry 365

January 28, 2012

Poet Troy Jollimore

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting Troy Jollimore’s eagerly awaited follow-up to his acclaimed debut Tom Thomson in Purgatory, winner of the 2006 National Book Critics Circle Award.  In At Lake Scugog, the California State University professor continues his exploration of age-old philosophical questions in clever, flexibly formal verse that includes 14 new sonnets featuring his neurotic title character.  Witty, eccentric, and vulnerable, this engaging collection is further proof that Jollimore is “an utterly fresh, original voice” in American poetry.  So check out this stellar sophomore collection, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

January 21, 2012

Tom Cruise is… Jack Reacher?

Hollywood’s decision to cast the diminutive star as Lee Child’s rugged 6’5″ ex-Army hero is fiercely debated in the Wall Street Journal.  Inviting you to vote for your ideal choice, the in-depth story retraces Reacher’s long road to the big screen and peeks behind the scenes of One Shot.

Baby, Let’s Not Fight

SF Signal offers this hilarious, heartfelt letter from genre fiction to literature. A sample quote: “Please, darling, let us stop this. This artificial separation between us is painful, it is undignified, and it fools no one. In company, we sneer at each other and make those cold, cutting remarks. And why?”

The Accursed Poets

The mythology of the poete maudit – or “cursed poet”- is explored in this excellent essay from First Things.  Ravaged by alcoholism, diabetes, arthritis, and syphilis, greats like Baudelaire and Verlaine helped birth the image of the afflicted genius who suffered for the sake of his art.

The Anticipation is Killing Me

The Atlantic presents 15 books to look forward to in 2012 including new titles from Jonathan Safran Foer, Lionel Shriver, Anne Tyler, Nell Freudenberger, Peter Carey, John Irving, Michael Chabon, and Justin Cronin’s follow-up to The Passage.

The Difference Between Poetry and Lyrics?

December 20, 2011

“Lyrics, even poetic ones, are not poems.” This statement is from none other than Stephen Sondheim, one of the most famous and well-regarded lyricists ever to have his work appear on Broadway. See this thoughtful article which discusses some nuances of music and poetry and different ways of understanding them.   Shira S.

Poetry 365

November 17, 2011

Poet Michael Palmer

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting the latest collection from experimental poetry pioneer Michael Palmer.  Author of 21 volumes and winner of the 2006 Wallace Stevens Award, Palmer is often associated with Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, and the Language Poetry movement.  In Thread, he presents 86 new poems structured in two parts and frequently linked in stunning suites that reintroduce the Master of Shadows from 2005’s acclaimed Company of Moths.  Lyrical, visceral, and surreal, Thread offers wry meditations on mortality and war that feature “fresh images and experimental language that will haunt readers’ minds long after they’ve stopped reading.”  So check out this excellent intro to the avant-garde, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365. Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

Nobel Prize in Literature Announced

October 7, 2011

Swedish Poet Tomas Transtromer was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize for Literature Thursday. Although he may not be familiar to many Americans, he was the subject of a 1986 Washington Post profile, and his work has been translated into more than 60 languages. The 80-year-old poet was called the “Ingmar Bergman of poetry” by president Jonathan Galassi of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.  Transtromer’s book of poems The Half-Finished Heaven is in the EPL collection, and his poetry is also included in Friends, You Drank Some Darkness (along with two other Swedish poets). Read more about him in this Washington Post article. Also check out this NYT article.

Laura, Reader’s Services

Poetry 365

October 1, 2011

Poet Matthew Rohrer

October is here, and we couldn’t be further from National Poetry Month.  At this point, April is but a speck on the distant horizon, we’ve lost radio contact, and even the most steadfastly optimistic are starting to worry she’ll never return.  But take heart, dear reader.  April may be far away, but poetry never left.  It lives here year round, and to celebrate this happy fact, we’re unveiling Poetry 365.  Each non-April month, this new Off the Shelf feature will highlight a contemporary poet’s most recent work as both prelude and encore to the big poetry party in the spring.  We kick things off with Griffin Poetry Prize finalist Matthew Rohrer’s collection Destroyer and Preserver.  Tender, organic, and unnervingly humorous, Rohrer’s latest “illuminates the modern plight: trying to figure out how to be a thoughtful citizen, parent, and person as the landscape of terror and history worms its way into our everyday existence.”  Check it out, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back for Poetry 365.  Continue reading “Poetry 365” →

An NU Alumni Sampler

June 23, 2011

NU alum Charlton Heston

All dressed up in its purple best, Northwestern University celebrated last week as it sent a new graduating class out into the world, and odds are good this won’t be the last you hear of them.  Over the years, you see, NU has become a veritable assembly line of notable alums – a fact comedian Stephen Colbert duly noted during his much-anticipated commencement address. “Northwestern’s alumni list is truly impressive,” said the 1987 NU grad.  “This university has graduated bestselling authors, Olympians, presidential candidates, Grammy winners, Peabody winners, Emmy winners – and that’s just me.”  All kidding aside, though, he’s right.  From Saul Bellow and Cloris Leachman to Steve Albini and Dan Chaon, Wildcat grads are clearly an accomplished bunch.  So to honor their achievements both past and future, we present the following eclectic list of books, movies, and music from some of Northwestern’s talented very own.  Enjoy, and stay tuned.  The list is growing.

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National Poetry Month: April 30th

April 30, 2011

Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden

Sundays too my father got up early
and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,
then with cracked hands that ached
from labor in the weekday weather made
banked fires blaze.  No one ever thanked him.
 
I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.
When the rooms were warm, he’d call,
and slowly I would rise and dress,
fearing the chronic anger of that house,
 
Speaking indifferently to him,
who had driven out the cold
and polished my good shoes as well.
What did I know, what did I know
of love’s austere and lonely offices?
 
 
This poem was selected by Russell J. (Reader’s Services)
 

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