| Poets in the News | |
| 2004 | |
If you know of places on the Net where poets from your part of the poetry world are making news, send us the links, dear Readers!
POETS FROM AROUND THE WORLD ARE NEWS!
3.5.2004
Our front-page About Poetry blog has largely replaced the ongoing page of Poets in the News you’re reading right now, at least with respect to the arrivals and passings of poets of national or international renown. But your poetry guides are still keeping an eye on local papers all over the world, for poets and poems you may not already know about who show up in the mainstream news media. Here’s a selection of the most interesting stories from the first few months of 2004:
“Simin Behbehani, a poet for the ages, captures nation’s suffering and joys,” a profile of the woman recognized as Iran’s “greatest living poet... a master stylist and one of the country’s guiding moral voices” by Nazi Azima
“Poet fathers an angel, confronts his demons,” a review of Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “choreopoem,” Word Becomes Flesh, by Molly Glentzer
“Something to ‘Howl’ About, Ginsberg’s icon-busting poem resonates in the Patriot Act era,” commentary on the continuing pertinence of a poem that is 50 years old, by Jonah Raskin
“Poet-singer rocks the boat, and more,” a brief introduction to Mauritanian griot, Malouma, by Marie-Laure Josselin
“Farewell to a cursed poet,” a profile of irreverent Brazilian poet Hilda Hilst (including poems in English translation) by Elma la Nascimento
“Words of power, sounds of promise,” an introduction to Boston sign-language poet Ayisha Knight by Steven Morse
“Poet, where art thou?,” a review of poets lives & poetry in Indian film, including a guide to popular Indian lyricists & poets who have influenced the mass media
“Stark poem that inspired 14-year-old McConnell,” on the Scots First Minister’s first contact with the real thing, a poem by Edwin Morgan, whom he would later name Scotland’s first poet laureate, or makar
“Sapphic slanders,” a defense of the “remarkable classical poet against the vulgar liberties taken with her reputation” & a review of two new books based on Sappho’s poetry by Anne Carson & Erika Jong, by Tom Payne
“Libai caught in controversy again,” commentary on the modern play of Li Po aka Li Bai’s life, newly restaged in Beijing
MORE POETS IN THE NEWS...
- A POET HIDDEN IN EVERY PERSON
- TED JOANS, 1928 - 2003
- MOHAMMED DIB, 1920 - 2003
- BILL NEVINS suspended from his poetry teaching job after a student reads her anti-Iraq war poem on the school TV system
- STATE POETS LAUREATE gather for their first conference
- PAUL MULDOON wins the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for poetry
- The Poetry of D.H. RUMSFELD
- ADRIENNE RICH wins the 2003 Bollingen Prize
- FEBRUARY 12, “A Day of Poetry Against the War”
- RUTH LILLY gives $100 million endowment to Poetry magazine
- WILLIAM PACKARD, 1933 - 2002
- DANA GIOIA nominated as next NEA Chairman
- QUINCY TROUPE resigns his post as California’s first Poet Laureate
- AMIRI BARAKA asked to resign his post as poet laureate of New Jersey
- CHARLES HENRI FORD, 1913 - 2002
- CHRIS BRANCH, 1971 - 2002
- ECE AYHAN, 1931 - 2002
