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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:
- from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Prague, Czech Republic, broadcasting to Eastern and Southeastern Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Middle East)
“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
- from The Houston Chronicle (Texas)
“Poet fathers an angel, confronts his demons,” a review of Marc Bamuthi Joseph’s “choreopoem,” Word Becomes Flesh, by Molly Glentzer
- from The Los Angeles Times (California)
“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
- from The Star (South Africa)
“Poet-singer rocks the boat, and more,” a brief introduction to Mauritanian griot, Malouma, by Marie-Laure Josselin
- from Brazzil (Brazil)
“Farewell to a cursed poet,” a profile of irreverent Brazilian poet Hilda Hilst (including poems in English translation) by Elma la Nascimento
- from The Boston Globe (Massachusetts)
“Words of power, sounds of promise,” an introduction to Boston sign-language poet Ayisha Knight by Steven Morse
- from Screen Weekly (India)
“Poet, where art thou?,” a review of poets lives and poetry in Indian film, including a guide to popular Indian lyricists and poets who have influenced the mass media
- from The Scotsman (Scotland)
“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
- from The Telegraph (England)
“Sapphic slanders,” a defense of the “remarkable classical poet against the vulgar liberties taken with her reputation” and a review of two new books based on Sappho’s poetry by Anne Carson and Erika Jong, by Tom Payne
- from China View (China)
“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...
2003 archive
2002 archive
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