THE BEST WORDS IN THEIR BEST ORDER

Jonathan Galassi On The End Of Poetry Month

2009-04-30T17:10:46-04:00

This year for National Poetry Month, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publisher Jonathan Galassi wrote a post for the blog every Tuesday and Thursday. This is his final column for 2009. I hope you've enjoyed this poetry month, and I look forward to seeing you back here next year!

It’s been a horrendously busy week, and I’ve been remiss in my posting. And now I see the Poetry Month 2009 is ending and I haven’t talked about many of the great books we’re publishing this year.

I haven’t talked about Frank Bidart’s heartbreaking WATCHING THE SPRING FESTIVAL, which just won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry.

I haven’t mentioned Carl Phillips’ magical and mysterious SPEAK LOW, his 9th book, which is just coming out.

I haven’t signaled our reissue of Seamus Heaney’s great book, FIELD WORK, as an FSG classic, or congratulated Seamus on his 70th birthday, which was a cause for national celebration in Ireland. Nor have I mentioned Dennis O’Driscoll’s incredible STEPPING STONES, his book-length interviews with Seamus, which make for one of the most revealing books ever by a poet on his own work.

We also just reissued T. S. Eliot’s magisterial ON POETRY AND POETS, which has been out of print for years and years.

Then there’s the brilliant English poet Michael Hofmann’s SELECTED POEMS, just out, and THE BALLAD OF DOROTHY WORDSWORTH by Frances Wilson, a definitive reconsideration of this strange genius’ troubled life.

There’s Anne Carson’s AN ORESTEIA, her inventive and startling translation of Aeschylus’ AGAMEMNON, Sophocles’ ELEKTRA, and Euripides‘ ORESTES, a compendum of Greek drama in miniature that is endlessly revealing.

And coming this fall we have Edward Snow’s THE POETRY OF RILKE, in which he has gathered and reworked his maginificent versions of the great German, with an introduction by Adam Zagajewski (whose ETERNAL ENEMIES is out in paperback). And Louise Gluck’s stunning new book, A VILLAGE LIFE, and Fady Joudah’s moving translation of the Palestinian poet Mohmamed Darwish’s last book, IF I WERE ANOTHER. And the paperback edition of Marilyn Hacker’s translation of KING OF A HUNDRED HOURSEMAN by Marie Etienne, which just own the PEN Poetry Translation Prize. And last but not least, the first edition of Robert Lowell’s NOTEBOOK, one of his most beautiful and searching books, which is not included in his COLLECTED POEMS.

And more, too. I know I’ve left a lot out, but I have to file this blog or I’ll be killed (don’t tell anyone, but I hate blogs). We’re busy here—happily busy trying to bring you the best in contemporary poetry. Thanks for reading, and please enjoy the fruits of our labors!

Upcoming FSG Event

2009-04-29T16:52:15-04:00

By now you all know Susan Wheeler from the selection of poems we've been sending out in our poem-a-day emails, and from her amazing ringtone.

She'll be reading at Housing Works on May 11, which is actually post-poetry month. You can find the complete details here.

Jonathan Galassi In The New Yorker

2009-04-28T16:59:54-04:00

In lieu of a post from Jonathan Galassi today, I want to point you all towards a poem of his recently published in the New Yorker, titled 'Lunch Poem for F.S.' You can read the whole poem here, but I am particularly fond of this stanza:

The dirty sunlight in the clerestory
windows of our faux-Parisian lair
lends a streaky, half-forgiving glow
to yet another summit with no purpose:
duck and iron Pinot Noir and double
decaf espresso, sheer necessities
for urban inmates who still keep the faith
with a wan cerise velvet banquette
and eye-level mirror lit with faces
a John-the-Baptist puritan might judge
corrupt with too much liquid happiness.

Frank Bidart Wins Los Angeles Times Book Prize For Poetry

2009-04-27T10:43:55-04:00

Great news for the FSG team this weekend, when it was announced that Frank Bidart's Watching the Spring Festival won the 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for poetry.

We've of course been big fans of Bidart for the past couple of years on this blog. You can listen audio from previous years of him reading 'To the Republic,' 'If See No End In Is,' and from Stardust, 'The Second Hour of the Night.'

Fiona McCrae On The Afterlife Of Poems, Part Two

2009-04-24T14:00:00-04:00

Today on Graywolf Press Friday, Fiona McCrae, director and publisher at Graywolf, returns to discuss the life cycle of a poem. You can find the first part of her post here.

Every quarter the staff likes to get a report on the permissions activity for the period. It’s fascinating to look at the poems and poets that are most in demand: Tony Hoagland, Dana Gioia, Natasha Tretheway, Linda Gregg, Eamon Grennan, Claudia Rankine, Nick Flynn, Katie Ford. If I had to come up with one quality that unites the most requested poems, it’s clarity. When we are selecting our poets, clarity is not a quality that we have in the front of our minds. Instead, I think we are looking at originality, complexity, innovation. Perhaps some of our more opaque poets need to read in the context of their other poems: the collection as a whole teaches the reader how to fully understand the work. Or perhaps they need more time to filter into the wider cultural currents.

At the top of our permissions list are the poems of William Stafford and Jane Kenyon. And when people phone me to ask for a poem to read at a ceremonial event (and even when I am wanting one for an occasion) it is often to these poets I turn. It’s not necessarily that they are my favorite poets; it’s that they seem the most share-able. Their work has a quality of inclusiveness that Dana Gioia has described in his essay about Elizabeth Bishop (“Elizabeth Bishop: From Coterie to Canon," from Disappearing Ink). He talks about Bishop’s appeal to a wide spectrum of tastes, and he notes how many of her poems contain the word we. I immediately thought of Stafford’s “Traveling Through the Dark” and Kenyon’s “Let Evening Come,” which are our most requested poems. Both include the reader in lines at the end of their poems. Stafford with, “I thought hard for us all” and Kenyon with, “God does not leave us / Comfortless…” In these two gestures, each poet, one could argue, significantly increased the audience for their poems.

Fiona McCrae On The Afterlife Of Poems

2009-04-24T11:09:23-04:00

Today on Graywolf Press Friday, Fiona McCrae, director and publisher at Graywolf, returns to discuss the life cycle of a poem.

I love the afterlife of publishing, and poetry has a particularly potent afterlife. As publishers, we see a book from the manuscript’s first draft to the finished pages bound between covers. In over twenty years in publishing, I have never lost the thrill of seeing the finished book for the first time. And if the e-mails (“such-and-such title has ARRIVED!”) and cries of excitement that reverberate around the office are any measure, my younger colleagues at Graywolf feel the same way on the day a box of new books is opened. A day or so after the book appears on our desks, it arrives at the author’s house, and he emails his (usually delightedly happy) reaction. Then (we hope) come the reviews.

Fiction tends to be reviewed close to the publication date; it sells well up front, and there is a lot of hooplah and attention. In any given month, it is normally the fiction—and certainly prose—that is selling the most copies. But poetry travels a different path, and must be judged over the long term. Reviews for a poetry book can still appear twelve to eighteen months after the book is first released, and all the time, the book’s slow and steady sales continue.

After about two years, the first chapter in the poetry book's life is done: sales have established their rhythm, the reviews are in, and there are no more prizes the book can be eligible for. At this point, arguably, the real test begins. Has the book registered? Are people reading it? One way in which a poetry collection's afterlife shows is in permission requests. We get about twenty-five permission requests a week, with about twenty-four of those for poetry. Poems within collections are discrete units; we never get requests for a single page in a novel, for example, in the way we get requests for a poem that occurs on a single page in a collection.

Permission is often requested for the poems to appear in anthologies, of which there are many: death, work in translation, work in a particular style, Robert Pinsky’s Favorite Poem Project, the grand canonical Norton anthologies, etc. Sometimes a composer wants to set the poem to music; sometimes it’s Garrison Keillor’s office requesting permission (usually after the fact!) for the poem to be read on the radio. The internet, too, is gathering momentum as a medium particularly suited to the wider distribution of poetry. We often get requests from the Academy of American Poets, Poetry Daily, and the Poetry Foundation for online use of our poets’ work. Regulating the use of poems on the internet is turning out to be a whole other, fascinating, conversation. But the single unit of the poem, making its way in the world, without the rest of the book, but perhaps drawing audiences back towards the wider body of work, seems like a journey to be encouraged.

You can find the second half of Fiona McCrae's mediation on the afterlife of poetry here.

Jonathan Galassi On Charles Wright

2009-04-23T16:03:39-04:00

This year for National Poetry Month, Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publisher Jonathan Galassi has agreed to say a few words about our upcoming poetry collections. You can expect his comments here every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the month.

SESTETS is, I believe, the ninth book I’ve done with Charles Wright here at FSG. We did a couple at Random House before that, too, in the early eighties. I fell in love with his hypnotic melancholy, his never-satisfied hunger for transcendence, the sheer beauty of his imagery, and above all with his mesmerizing sound. Charles’s project is an ongoing adventure in that is one of the great poetic creations of our moment. Charles has submitted the substrate of his longing, his tender memory, his knowledge of loss and beauty, to many tests, formal, and ever seeking the elusive reward of oneness—with self, with the world, with the supernatural. SESTETS represents one of his most radical experiments, but by no means the only one. Here the test is to confine the poem within six lines.

Here’s one, almost at random:

Music for Midsummer’s Eve

Longest day of the year, but still, I’d say,
too short by half.
The horses whacked, the dog gone lost in the mucked, long grass,
Tree shadows crawling toward their dark brothers across the field.

Time is an untuned harmonium
The Muzaks our nights aad days.
Sometimes it lasts for a little while,
sometimes it goes on forever.

A song lyric, almost—country music of a philosophic cast of mind. Fact, reaction, image, opulent metaphor—and suddenly you’re on another plane, in timelessness, and it all happens before you’ve even realized it.

I first read Charles’s early book BLOODLINES and heard the echo of one of my great heroes, Eugenio Montale, in those terse, intense lyrics. Charles is more relaxed now, by the compression, the immediate movement from here-and-now to elsewhere, is the same. No one else does it with his inspired sleight-of-hand.

More From FSG's Frederick Seidel Tribute

2009-04-23T12:17:36-04:00

Here are some more readings from the mini-Frederick Seidel tribute, staged last week at the FSG reading series. The first reader is Seidel's editor Lorin Stein, and the second is author Benjamin Kunkel.

FSG Poets in the News

2009-04-22T15:00:00-04:00

The Guardian's profile of August Kleinzahler: "Writing in the Realm of Fire" ran last weekend. Read about his adventures with Ginsberg, Gunn, and as a Jersey-boy in San Francisco here.

David Hinton's translation of "Drinking Wine" by T'ao Ch'ien ran in the Washington Post's "Poet's Choice" column. You can also read about him and the art of translating in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

"Perspective Comes in Six Lines," The Boston Globe on Charles Wright's new book Sestets.

Susan Wheeler's Assorted Poems---"a collection that is confounding, stunning, and ultimately affirming in its coherence"---reviewed in The Brooklyn Rail.

Ta-Nehisi Coates Reads Frederick Seidel

2009-04-22T11:47:30-04:00

Last Tuesday, the FSG Reading Series hosted an evening featuring 'three poems by Frederick Seidel (not read by Frederick Seidel).'

Here's footage of two of the poems, read by author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates (whose own book The Beautiful Struggle, is pretty amazing, too).

Jonathan Galassi On Yusef Komunyakaa's Warhorses

2009-04-21T16:00:00-04:00

Yusef Komunyakaa has just been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters—a sign of the great esteem in which his work is held among his fellow writers. WARHORSES, his most recent book, has recently been issued in paperback by FSG and is one of his powerful and resonant achievements.

Yusef’s work addresses the biggest themes—life, love, and death through the lenses of history, war, and race—with a majestic breadth of gesture that in its own American way recalls the wide sweep of Derek Walcott.

Gilgamesh’s Humbaba was a distant drum
Pulsing among the trees, a slave to the gods,
A foreign tongue guarding the sacred cedars
Down to a pale grubworm in the tower
Before Babel. Invisible & otherworldly,
He was naked in the king’s heart,
& his cry turned flies into maggots
& blood reddened the singing leaves.

When Gilgamesgh said Shiduri, a foreplay
of light was on the statues going to the river
Between them & the blinding underworld.
She cleansed his wounds & bandaged his eyes
at the edge of reason, & made him forget
birthright, the virgins in their bridal beds.

But the high point of the book for me is the amazing ”Autobiography of My Alter Ego” that takes up the second half of the book. Loose limbed, musical, it takes up all of Yusef’s themes—which means all possible themes.

Forgive the brightly colored
                                    Viper on the footpath,
guarding a forgotten shrine.
                                    Forgive the tiger
dumbstruck beneath its own rainbow.
                                                    Forgive the spotted bitch
eating her litter underneath the house.
                                                    Forgive the boar
hiding in October’s red leaves.
                                          Forgive the storm century
of crows calling to death. Forgive
                                                the one who conjures a god
out of spit & clay
                       so she may seek redemption.
Forgive the elephant’s memory.
                                            Forgive the saw vine
& the thorn bird’s litany.
                                 Forgive the schizoid
gatekeeper, his logbook’s
                                 Perfect excuse. Forgive

the crocodile’s swiftness.
                                   Forgive the pheromones
& the idea of life on Mars.
                                    Forgive the heat lightning
& the powder keg. Forgive the raccoon’s
                                                          Sleight of hand beside
the river. Forgive the mooncalf
                                            & doubt’s caul-baby. Forgive
my father’s larcenous tongue.
                                          Forgive my mother’s intoxicated
Lullaby. Forgive my sixth sense.
                                             Forgive my heart & penis,
but don’t forgive my hands.

“Don’t forgive my hands”—that is a typically Komunyakaa formulation: powerfully direct, unsparing, and knotted with intense lyricism. There is a deep history behind that phrase, poetic, personal, historical. It demonstrates the power and resonance of this magnificent poet’s lyric gift.

Q & A With Tanya Chernov, Translation Editor Of The LA Review

2009-04-21T14:29:02-04:00

As part of our ongoing interview series, Ryan Chapman spoke with Tanya Chernov, translation editor of the LA Review.

FSG: What do you do, and how did you come to work at the LA Review?

Tanya Chernov: I’m the translation editor and poetry co-editor for the LA Review.

In all seriousness, I am fortunate to work with a group of my fellow grads from the Whidbey Writers Workshop at the Northwest Institute of Literary Arts on this fine and well-established literary magazine. With their hands full at Red Hen Press, Kate Gale and her husband, Mark E. Cull, have brought on a gaggle of us Whidbey folk to breathe some overzealous post-MFA energy into the LA Review.

FSG: Who are some of the recent poets you've been enjoying?

TC: Diana O'Hehir—a recommendation from my co-editor, Kelly Davio…Nick Laird…Jack Gilbert (a consistent favorite with special admiration for Monolithos and The Great Fires)…Robert Bly—always…Kim Addonizio, who is having quite a moment and is a badass harmonica player…Marvin Bell, who completely embarrassed me in front of my whole program during a class last summer (but it was worth it)…Wallace Stevens, for his handling of snow…Russell Edson—what a weirdo.

FSG: Do you think poetry has changed in form, audience, or accessibility with respect to changes online in recent years?

TC: Certainly the poetry genre has broadened its audience with the newfound accessibility offered through online mediums. Though many online publications may have initially carried a “less than” stigma, there are many fine electronic publications now able to surpass the burgeoning obstacles presented by the economic crisis, under which so many wonderful small presses and literary magazines have crumbled. With many literary magazines accepting less than one percent of the submissions they receive, online submission managers and e-publications can really help a writer feel somewhat in control of their literary destiny.

With more and more people internet-stumbling upon things they would never normally be into, surely some will occasionally find scraps of poetry here and there. I mean, statistically there must be someone out there who does a Google search for “Nudes” and ends up with a copy of "Bonnard’s Nudes," and decides that reading this well-published poem written by the Pacific Northwest’s homeboy and short story writer Ray Carver is much more worthwhile than looking at porn. This is good.

In addition to growing accessibility, poetry has been unavoidably influenced by a rapidly mutating web-vernacular, constantly creeping into the diction and format of many contemporary writers. In my opinion, this is bad. It is neither fresh nor futuristic—just lame. Call me a purist, but having a poem hop all across the page willy-nilly does not add anything enhance its meaning. None of us will supersede e.e cummings’ abilities here, so let’s all just stop trying. It's tacky.

FSG: Where do you think poetry will go, or how will it change in the coming year(s)?

TC: Look, poetry will never again be as widely accepted and well-loved as it was in the Islamic Golden Age, but let’s not dwell on the past—there is much to look forward to. Though it isn’t really my thing, performance and slam poetry is quickly gaining momentum among the young urbans, the pouty hipsters, and the angsty après-emo music crowd. Like I said, my theater days have long been finished, but I don’t mind slam poetry taking the limelight for a while if it means that we traditional poets can share the side stage for a while.

Poetry continues to be obscure even in literary circles, but much is changing in the poetry world. Boundaries bend and snap, forms rise to the surface and sink back interchangeably, subject matter grows ever-more daring. People no longer balk at Elizabeth Bishop’s thinly veiled reminiscences on her lesbian lifestyle, Anne Sexton’s candid tours through mental illness, or Robert Lowell’s rejection of a privileged, upper-class lifestyle. Confessional poetry sure has taken on new meaning these days. Now we’re talking about things like dead babies, transgendered journeys into the fashion underworld, and monkey-born hemorrhoid epidemics. Nothing is shocking anymore, so poetry must work to be remarkable in more craft-based ways, making it infinitely more challenging and interesting. What will remain constant as poets find new ways to reach the world with their artfully crafted messages is that poets posses a well-honed ability to condense, infuse, and create with mathematic precision and foresight.

FSG: Um, wait—I was told there would be no math.

Nick Twemlow of The Canary & Canarium Books Pt. 2: On MFAs and Slow Readings

2009-04-20T16:29:41-04:00

FSG: As a poet who spent time in a creative writing MFA program, what are your thoughts on that path for aspiring poets?

Nick Twemlow: Take some time off between undergrad and applying; go see the world. Don't hesitate; go while you're still young. Apply to Iowa. Don't apply to Iowa. Don't spend a dime on an MFA. Mortgage yourself to the limit. Go to a big program. Make sure you find a small, intimate program. The only thing that matters is who is teaching there. Your teachers will be an afterthought; it's all about your peers. Rankings matter. Rankings are useless. You need to attend a highly structured program. You should go somewhere where all you do is write. The creative writing PhD is the new MFA, which was the new apprenticeship to Stanley Kunitz. Never, ever say "workshopped," as in, "Today, we workshopped Gino's poem about aporia and smelly socks." If a poet with an MFA tells you to not get an MFA, ask them how, then, do I go about getting tenure? When a prospective non-academic employer asks you what job skills you acquired while earning your MFA, act like you have a rash on your arm that cannot stop itching. They will go silent.

FSG: Do you regularly submit your work to journals? Is it a frustrating process? What would you change about it if you could, and what opportunities do you wish poets had?

NT: I wish poets had fewer opportunities to publish. I don't mean that I wish there were fewer venues for poetry publication; more that the enterprise of publishing poems came with a few restrictions. For example, I have long been a fan of the idea that you should not submit work to any magazine (this applies to print) that you do not subscribe to or at least have purchased a copy or two of. If The Canary had as many subscribers as poets we had published--never mind as many poets who submitted work to us--we might not be on hiatus.

I recognize that subscriptions cost money, and that many poets do not have much left at the end of the month to pay for an issue of their favorite journal. I also admit that I have sent work to many more magazines than I have actually subscribed to. And yet, how many people think twice about downloading a song, an album from iTunes? or getting cable? or going to see Observe and Report? Add all that leisure cash up, you get a few magazine subscriptions. It's not about making money, of course; all the editors I know or have worked with lose cash, out of pocket, year in and year out. It's a matter of community, and support in the form of actually purchasing journals is one way to ensure that the community you value and participate in continues to exist.

FSG: I noticed the "Slow Readings" section of the Canarium Books website. How does that work? Do you approach reviewers and ask them to give their impressions of specific poems, or do they offer? Can readers send you their own reviews/opinions of the poems you publish?

NT: The Slow Readings idea was born out of a desire on all the editors' part to read reviews devoted to one poem, allowing as much space as the writer felt necessary to discuss the poem. I understand the need for brevity when it comes to newspapers and magazines, but many reviews often read like blurbs. What can a reader of a short review really get out of 300-500 words on a book? There's little room for excerpting, and since poems generally don't paraphrase neatly as novels do, unless the reviewer is exceptional the review ends up being a gloss of catchphrases that just as well could describe the next book over on the reviewer's shelf.

So we wrote a brief statement of what we wanted, and sent it to reviewers we've admired for some time (initially, Jordan Davis and Dan Beachy-Quick) for their excellent prose and thinking. We had one caveat: We asked that the reviewer choose a poem from any previous issue of The Canary. We wanted to direct readers and potential readers back to the poems we love, and we think it's the perfect balance between celebrating these poems and the writers who wrote them. We are happy to receive inquiries from anyone who may want to write for the Slow Readings section of our site.

FSG: And finally, who are your favorite poets, and which emerging poets are you excited about these days?

NT: The books that excite me most right now are books very near and dear to me: Revolver, by my wife Robyn Schiff; Ish's Union!; and Tod's The Tangled Line. What excites me about these books are their obsessive, complete worlds, the ambition of each book's vision, as utterly different from each other as they are. All three present a world I couldn't, as a writer, begin to conceive, and I suppose that is what I look for in a book, simple as it sounds.

I am excited about several other recent books, including Arda Collins' It is Daylight; John Thirkield's The Waker's Corridor; Kevin Davies' The Golden Age of Paraphernalia; James Shea's Star in the Eye; Ed Skoog's Mister Skylight, and Paul Killebrew's first collection, Flowers, which Canarium Books will publish this winter. I also am a great fan of several poets who await a first book (please Google them and read their poems, publish them if you have the means): Erica Bernheim, Andy Carter, Josh May, and Kevin Larimer.

Please read Nick Twemlow's poetry by clicking the below links:

"With Delicate Hand"

"Pastel"

"Remote Viewing"

and others.

Nick Twemlow of The Canary & Canarium Books Pt. 1: On Curatorial Editing

2009-04-20T11:21:48-04:00

Among the vast number of literary magazines and journals out there, The Canary, which I've sadly come to learn is on (hopefully a very short) hiatus, is among the most special. I got the tremendous opportunity to interview one of its editors, Nick Twemlow, for The Best Words In Their Best Order. Nick is also a poet in his own right, and the founding editor of Canarium Books whose first two books of poetry Union! by Ish Klein and The Tangled Line by Tod Marshall were published this month. In this first part of our interview, Nick gives us compelling insights into his editorial process and his endeavors for a more curatorial way of editing for The Canary. Enjoy, and please check by later today for more literary insights from Nick!

-Angie Venezia

FSG: Tell us about The Canary and Canarium Books.

Nick Twemlow: The Canary is an annual magazine of poetry, founded by Joshua Edwards in Eugene, Oregon in 2001. Josh and Anthony Robinson edited the first two issues. They invited me to coedit beginning with issue three, and I thank them both; editing The Canary and Canarium Books has been a tremendous, life-changing endeavor for me, and though the magazine end of the small press venture is on hiatus (perhaps like Roswell, Cagney & Lacey, and Star Trek, with enough fan support, The Canary will live to see another season), Canarium Books launched its first two titles this month, Union! by Ish Klein, and The Tangled Line, by Tod Marshall.

The press, which is committed to publishing 2-3 titles each year, with at least one a work in translation, is supported in part by the University of Michigan MFA Program in Creative Writing, in the form of financial assistance and an internship program that employs the terrific writing students in the MFA program. I edit the books series with Josh, Robyn Schiff, and Lynn Xu.

FSG: As The Canary is an annual magazine, do you and your fellow editors find it difficult to decide on the few poets that do end up appearing? Can you tell us about your editorial process?

NT: Our editorial process likely resembles that of many literary magazines: each of us takes a pile of poems from the slush that we like; we winnow that down after each of us reads the other piles; and then we ask my cat, Sock Puppet, which one he likes. He's very picky, thankfully, and has considerable good taste, so really, the decision-making process is out of our hands early on.

That said, I remember once The Canary being criticized (somewhere in some blog's comments field) for representing a sort of mainstream experimentalism, and we were bunched together with, if memory serves, Fence and jubilant as exemplars of this apparently mushy, strip-mall (strip-mined?) version of American avant-garde poetry. This commenter went on to say something I've never forgotten. To paraphrase, he said that if The Canary were to publish a poem by John Taggart (we never have), it would not be the same as if a magazine like No, or Jacket, or some other more serious, muscular venue were to publish a John Taggart poem. He never clarified his remarks, so I was left to guess at what he might've meant. The implicit entitlement and arrogance of his comments aside, he was pointing to the very interesting issue of context, or the frame that a magazine--its editors, its history--provides the poems contained therein. This is an old argument, of course, but given the sheer number of literary journals in existence, print and online, one I think relevant.

Editing a journal is an act of curation. Part of a curator's responsibility is to make use of the venue, ensure that works exhibited interact with the space, that the viewers move in a way conducive to viewing whatever is on display in the best possible way, whatever that may be. So with editing. For example, I was looking through previous issues of The Canary, and settled on #5, specifically on a poem by Robert Fernandez "Study for a Pope II (After Bacon)," and the poem on the next page, "Asianamerican Halfbreed Trilogy" by Ed Go. Representative lines: Fernandez: "tan voice knocks on the black base, / sundown to the left of you, proud / hours of your hands like pastels / through the gap in the teeth--"; Go: "I'm into my early 20s / when i saw it as my duty to inform everyone of who i was / & what greatness i had come from / not the lies i had been taught / but truth about fireworks & ghengis khan / marco polo & Magellan."

As different as poems are from each other, they both catalog in similar ways, and both poems made me think of Frank O'Hara. Was O'Hara on either poet's mind when writing? Do they read him? Who knows. But I read O'Hara, and so I bring O'Hara to my reading. And though these two poems do more than just catalog, just as O'Hara is no mere list maker, it is this hunger to name, to contain the named things and the way they approach it that creates a conversation. When we found each poem independently in the slush pile, we knew that they would have a richer life together and it was important to us to publish them in the same issue. There are clear formal differences, but very similar instincts and obsessions. So you place them next to each other, and leave the rest to the reader. The editorial art that gives me most pleasure is curating a conversation between poems, between poem and reader.

And so, having looped back on myself with this question, I suppose I still don't know what this commenter meant, but the thinking it inspired was useful. Plus, I asked my cat about it, and he said he hadn't read any Taggart and thus remains indifferent.

Rejection: A[n] [Letter or Lament or Ode]

2009-04-17T12:28:29-04:00

Today on Graywolf Press Friday, Jeff Shotts, senior editor at Graywolf, returns with a meditation on the art of the rejection letter.

[DATE]

[ADDRESS]

Dear [NAME OF POET]:

Thank you for sending [TITLE], which we have read and seriously considered for publication at [PUBLISHER]. We appreciate your thinking of [PUBLISHER], and also your patience during the last [NUMBER] [MONTHS or YEAR[S]] while we read and considered your work.

In these last [NUMBER] [MONTHS or YEAR[S]], [TITLE] moved from our slush pile of unsolicited submissions to our [EDITORIAL ASSISTANT’S or ASSISTANT EDITOR’S or GRADUATE ASSISTANT’S] desk, before it then found its way from the [NO SNOWBALL’S CHANCE or UNLIKELY or POSSIBLE or “B” ] pile to the heralded [LIKELY or IT WOULD BE NICE IF or HALLS OF MOUNT PARNASSUS or “A”] pile. From there, [TITLE] moved into the [NUMBER] dimension, where admittedly it was lost for a short time as it turned from [A SOLID or DARK MATTER or TOXIC THREAT] into a [LIQUID or GAS or SONNET CROWN]. Upon reconfiguration, [TITLE] materialized long enough for our [POETRY EDITOR or SENIOR EDITOR or GRADUATE ASSISTANT] to read and seriously consider it. What an amazing journey your submission has made, and only in [NUMBER] short [MONTHS or YEAR[S]].

I have the [UNPLEASANT or SELF-GRATIFYING] job of informing you that [PUBLISHER] decided it will not publish [TITLE], not now, not [EVER or IN THE NEXT TWO YEARS or IN ITS CURRENT STATE]. I have no doubt there is a great deal of merit in your poetry, but finally it came down to [ENTER ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING:]

[1] THE FACT THAT YOUR WORK READS LIKE

[1a] A HALLMARK CARD.
[1b] A JOHN ASHBERY KNOCK OFF.
[1c] A TAX RETURN.
[1d] WISHFUL THINKING.

[1e] LYRICS BY GORDON LIGHTFOOT.
[1f] YOUR RESUME.
[1g] DIRECTIONS FOR HOW TO ADMINISTER THE HEIMLICH
MANEUVER.

[2] BRASS TACKS.

[3] THE FACT THAT WE DON’T PUBLISH

[3a] SONNET CROWNS.
[3b] LIVING AUTHORS.
[3c] POETS RESIDING ABOVE 42nd STREET.
[3d] POETRY IN TRANSLATION.
[3e] YOU.

[4] THE REALIZATION THAT

[4a] WE’RE REALLY MEAN.
[4b] WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU’RE ATTEMPTING TO CONVEY, EVEN IN YOUR COVER LETTER.
[4c] THIS IS POETRY AND WE DON’T PUBLISH POETRY.

We hate to be [DISAPPOINTING or WISHY WASHY or SOUL-CRUSHING], but I hope you understand our position and can accept this personal response as some kind of [CONSOLATION or CONVERSATION STARTER or BATHROOM WALLPAPER].

Sincerely, and with [REGRETS or MOCKING LAUGHTER or BEST WISHES FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH],

[NAME OF EDITOR]
[TITLE OF EDITOR]

Jonathan Galassi On August Kleinzahler

2009-04-16T16:56:59-04:00

This year for National Poetry Month, FSG Publisher Jonathan Galassi has agreed to say a few words about our upcoming poetry collections. You can expect his comments here every Tuesday and Thursday for the rest of the month.

August Kleinazhler’s new and selected poems SLEEPING IT OFF IN RAPID CITY, which won the National Book Critics Circle award in poetry this year, has just been issued in paperback. King Augie, as I like to think of him, is the undisputed master of a region of American poetry that is all his own. He grew up in New Jersey and he talks out of the side of his mouth in a tender, ironic idiom that melds classic movie dialogue and the lyricism of his old neighbor William Carlos Williams. One of his early, radically exciting books was titled STORM OVER HACKENSACK. (Other titles include RED SAUCE, WHISKEY AND SNOW and GREEN SEES THINGS IN WAVES, which suggests the peculiar admixture of gnarly vernacular expression and razor-sharp poetic intelligence that has made him the monarch of his own boundless place.

Augie long ago left New Jersey for that other epicenter of American poetry, San Francisco, spiritual home of Jack Spicer, Robert Duncan, Kenneth Rexroth and Augie’s own bosom buddy Thom Gunn.
(I should mention that he is also the author of an unforgettable memoir, CUTTY, ONE ROCK.) His poetry is of these places—what he defines as "The dead solid center of the universe / At the heart of the heart of America.” What moves me most about his distinguished, arousing, alert-making work, is how right it always is in what it does and doesn’t say, how economical, how wise, how accurate in emotion. It’s devastating, and exhilarating.

Blue at 4 a.m.

The burnish of late afternoons
as winter ends—
this sadness coming in on waves is not round
and sweet
as the doleful cello

but jagged, intent
finding out places to get through the way wind
tries seams
and cracks of the old house, making
the furnace kick on

or the way his trumpet
sharks
through cloud and paradise shoal, nosing
out the dark fillet
to tear apart and drink his own

FSG and Graywolf Poetry Readings April 16-23

2009-04-16T16:00:00-04:00

Thursday, April 16th; 7pm
Susan Wheeler + Mark Halliday
McNally Jackson, 52 Prince St. NY, NY

Saturday, April 18th; 8pm
Paul Muldoon
Bowery Poetry Club, 308 Bowery NY, NY

Monday, April 20th; 7pm
Dobby Gibson (Graywolf) + Fanny Howe (Graywolf)
+ Sarah Manguso (FSG)
Thompson Room, Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

Wednesday, April 22nd; 4:30pm
Adam Zagajewski
Monmouth University Wilson Auditorium, 400 Cedar Avenue,
West Long Branch, NJ

Wednesday, April 22nd; 7pm
Paul Muldoon (FSG) + Robert Pinsky (FSG) + Linda Gregerson
Central Library, 630 W. Fifth St., Los Angeles, CA

Thursday, April 23rd; 7pm
Yusef Komunyakaa
Greenberg Lounge, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, New York, NY

Frederick Seidel's Evening Man

2009-04-16T13:54:30-04:00

Just a reminder to everyone that we're still planning to give away 50 copies of Frederick Seidel's chapbook 'Evening Man.' This is a limited-edition print run chapbook, and each edition is signed by the poet.

To enter to win a copy, just go here. Winners will be notified in the beginning of May.

The Rime Of The Teenage Drama Queen

2009-04-15T14:21:06-04:00

Guest blogger Kevin Guilfoile is a Contributing Writer for The Morning News and the author of Cast of Shadows, now available in paperback. He is also the commissioner of the recently finished Tournament of Books with John Warner. He lives in the Chicago area with his wife Mo, his sons Max and Vaughn, and a cat you wouldn’t like.

Years ago, in an attempt to keep pace with the blogging community's ceaseless demand for Leonard Cohen quotes, Leonard Cohen said, "Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash." I recall it now because I've noticed another performer, Lindsay Lohan, has been speaking almost exclusively in verse since her own life began incinerating before our eyes.

This fact is all the more strange when you consider what a terrible songwriter she is. Here are some of the words to "A Little More Personal," a tune credited to Lohan and the unnecessary new judge on American Idol:

You say you gotta go but what does that mean?
Do you wanna be together or is it just me?
Sometimes I think you're in, until I think your out
It's like I'm swimmin' in the deep and pull me out.

That's really bad. But somehow, when Lindsay is just chatting with reporters, her lips spin silky verse like William Carlos Williams emceeing at Lawrence Ferlinghetti's birthday jam. I call these improvised compositions (which I first pointed out during the recent Powell's/TMN Tournament of Books) LiLoKu:

The (Sycophants) and the Noise
By Lindsay Lohan

I move forward
And I change.
Life’s too short not to.
If people would just leave
My personal life alone—
Because it’s really not all that interesting—
Then I could land
A great role.
But all the sicko fans
And the noise
Is so distracting.

The Burn Books of Hollywood
By Lindsay Lohan

Oh my God,
I'm not working,
And I have a house
To pay for now. And yes,
The web sites,
The gossip pages,
And all of that stuff
Have hurt my career—
They're like the
Burn books of Hollywood.

I Meant To Say Starvation, Obvs
By Lindsay Lohan

I’m planning a trip to Africa
During the second week
Of December.
I’m working with
The American Red Cross.
Temptation is always there.

Like Leggings and Food
By Lindsay Lohan

Tights are another staple just
Like leggings.
For girls that don’t want
To wear socks
With their leggings,
Tights are a natural
Alternative.
They are sexy.

A few weeks ago, Lindsay sent a LiLoku to another actor through her primary mode of communication, the pages of celebrity magazines:

The Callback
By Lindsay Lohan

We’re trying to get Seth Rogen
For this project, but
Seth won’t call us back.
So call us back Seth,
If you’re reading this.

When this LiLoku appeared in the papers, Seth Rogen, a writer himself, cheekily replied with a fine SeRoKu of his own:

(So I Don’t Know) What Happened There
By Seth Rogen

No one that works for me
(Or with me)
In any capacity
Has received any word from anyone
That works for Lindsay Lohan.

It's possible that Lohan is faking it when she writes songs, trying to manufacture the emotions of normal, music-buying teenage girls when she never really was one. Perhaps the real Lindsay, the one who has been beat down and drug-addled and heartbroken on the covers of gossip magazines since she was a very little girl, can only speak from the heart when she talks to the same reporters who are trying to exploit her. Observe the existential angst, the poignancy, the naked honesty in what is perhaps her signature LiLoku:

Am I Now Or Have I Ever Been?
By Lindsay Lohan

It would be
Really nice
If people would believe in me.
I don't drink,
I don't do drugs
And I don't lie.
I just want to live the dream
That I've worked so hard for
Since I was four
Years old.
I'd like to have
My own charity
Do work overseas, be
In Oscar-nominated films.
Produce movies, shows,
Videos.
Design clothes,
Make music
Write books,
Etcetera.
It's all possible
If people would just
Stop judging me
And accusing me
And making me
Out to be
This aloof, spoiled,
Ungrateful and
Unprofessional person
That I am not
And could never be.

Put a little drum machine on that, with some funky synth, and turn up the Autotune, Lindsay.
You can call it a comeback.

Q&A with Elizabeth Spires

2009-04-15T12:16:36-04:00

Elizabeth Spires is one of our favorite authors for readers young and old. Her book The Mouse of Amherst was PW's Children's Book of the Year, and she is also the author of several adult titles published by Norton---Worldling, Now the Green Blade Rises, and The Wave-Maker.

Her latest book from FSG is I Heard God Talking to Me: William Edmondson and His Stone Carvings. This is one of the rare titles that appeals to children and adults alike. It's an artistic and fascinating look at the life and work of William Edmondson (1874–1951). Born just outside Nashville, TN, Edmondson began carving beautiful creatures out of rocks from a nearby quarry at the age of 57. Throughout his life, Edmondson held fast to the belief that all his pieces were divinely inspired. And in 1937 Edmondson was the first black artist to have a solo show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Elizabeth revives Edmondson’s story through her well-crafted poems---artfully incorporating fragments of Edmondson’s own words from archived interviews. ---Alyson Sinclair

FSG: When and how did you first discover William Edmondson's sculptures?

Elizabeth Spires: I fell in love with William Edmondson's sculptures about ten years ago on a trip to Nashville. Edmondson lived and worked in Nashville in the 1930s and 1940s, and a large number of his carvings are still there. Some are in the collections of the Cheekwood Art Museum and the Tennessee State Museum, and others are in the hands of private collectors.

FSG: Why were you drawn to Edmondson and his work and how does it speak to you?

ES: I think Edmondson's style is terrifically original, like no other stone carving I've ever seen. His human and animal figures are vital, individual presences, full of zest and verve. There's also a sense of playfulness in some of the figures that I find very appealing. And at the same time, the work seems fresh and hopeful. There’s a timeless quality to it that speaks to me of human persistence and endurance.

FSG: What is your favorite piece by Edmondson and why?

ES: I feel guilty having a favorite, but if I do, it would be “Angel with a Pocketbook.” I like the rock-solid, no-nonsense quality of the angel, the way Edmondson gives a heavenly figure a very down-to-earth incarnation. She is a definitely an angel that a person in need could depend on!

FSG: What was your process? How much did you research Edmondson’s art and life?

ES: I read just about everything that has been written on Edmondson, including several books that have been out of print for years. I also wrote and talked with collectors and museum staff and tried to see as manyEdmondson sculptures as I could, not just in Nashville but in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington. I tracked down old photos and slides ofEdmondson’s work from all over the country. Along the way, I met a few people who had actually known him. One collector had bought her Edmondson carvings from Edmondson himself in the 1930s when they only cost five or ten dollars.

FSG: What is your relationship with Edmondson's hometown, Nashville?

ES: My husband, the novelist Madison Smartt Bell, is from Nashville, and we go back several times a year to visit his father. So I've had a lot of opportunity to deepen my knowledge and appreciation ofEdmondson on our trips. Recently, I found six of Edmondson 's tombstones still standing in a small hillside cemetery only two or three miles from my father-in-law’s farm. That was exciting!

FSG: Who do you hope the book will appeal to?

ES: When I began working on I Heard God Talking to Me, I was simply hoping to introduce children to Edmondson’s amazing art and life story. I thought his wit and humor would appeal to young readers, and that combining poetry with photographs would inspire children’s own creative efforts. But the project began to take on a life of its own that outgrew my original intentions. Given the early enthusiastic reactions to the book from adults, I’m now thinking I Heard God Talking to Me might appeal to all ages—both to a general audience, and to readers interested in American folk art and African-American history.

Jonathan Galassi On Maureen McLane

2009-04-14T13:26:52-04:00

Today I want to say a few words about a young poet whose work has brought me a great deal of delight.

Maureen McLane's SAME LIFE was published last fall. As the two complementary and contrasting drawings by Sol Lewitt on its jacket suggest, there are (at least) two lives in SAME LIFE-- the life experienced and the life considered if not always in tranquility then in retrospect. As Maureen writes in one of her understated, often devastating lyrics, "Same View":

same view

same long lush lawn

same three tall maples and their lower kin

same windwashed lake

and beyond, the immemorial mountain

the sleeping granite man

still keeps his giant sleep

but I have come back

and I am not she

The changes that come into a life that is the same and yet not, the discontinuous nature of our experience which still contributes to a unified self—that is Maureen's territory. She brings to it a refreshingly spare, classically-informed modernist lyricism that hops backwards over several generations of poetic lingo to something at once modest, pure, direct, and commanding.

Maureen is also a gifted critic and her book BALLADEERING, MINSTRELSY, AND THE MAKING OF BRITISH ROMANTIC POETRY, was recently published by Cambridge University Press. Her poems are brilliant, sometimes wickedly aware, deeply sophisticated, and amazingly moving. She understands sexual politics AND love AND death AND loss AND memory and writes about them all with the kind of clarity that engraves itself on the mind. There is nothing same-old same-old about SAME LIFE.

After Sappho 1

some say a host of horsemen, a horizon of ships
under sail is most beautiful but I say it is whatever
you love I say it is
you

Q&A with Don Selby of Poetry Daily

2009-04-13T15:30:00-04:00

Today I'd like to share my recent discussion with Don Selby, co-editor and co-founder of Poetry Daily. I've been a fan to the site since 2001, and it's held my attention first as a reader and a student, then as a teacher, and now as a publicist (and still a reader) who works with many of the new poetry titles at FSG. From the weekly newsletter with updates on recent articles on poetry, the run-down on poets they will feature during the week, to the contest and conference notices, I've found PD to be a valuable (and surprisingly well-designed, non-overwhelming) resource. In the Q&A below, Don shares his insights into the making of one of the best (and first) online-only resources for contemporary poetry.---Alyson Sinclair

FSG: Can you tell us a little about how Poetry Daily got its start?

Don Selby: My co-editor and co-founder, Diane Boller, and I were working in a very different sort of publishing then---law publishing (for a company that is now called Lexis Publishing. Diane and the third co-founder of Poetry Daily, Rob Anderson one day presented some new technology ideas ("bulletin boards" back then, if you can believe it, but also the nascent Web) to a management group I was part of, which before long got me thinking about things other than new tools for lawyers and judges.It seemed to me that the web might help poetry publishers with thin (to say the least) marketing budgets reach the always-suspected-but-never-quite-recovered audience for contemporary poetry. Equally, it might help readers find out what was being published---not so easy in those days, even in communities with good bookstores. Shortly, thereafter, I walked into Diane's office for the first time and saw a volume of W.S. Merwin peeking out from behind Liability of Corporate Officers and Directors, or some such. We went to lunch, I sketched the basic idea for Poetry Daily, we began exchanging poems we liked, and before long we were using off-time on business trips to sound out editors and publishers like Joseph Parisi at Poetry, Peter Davison and Wen Stephenson at The Atlantic, and Jonathan Galassi at FSG, about the idea. We started working on it in earnest ten months or so before out launch on April 7, 1997.

FSG: How has the site changed in the past twelve years? What features have you added? What have you shifted away from?

DS: The design--the physical, graphical look of the site--has changed quite a bit, of course, along with the tools we use to publish the site, though we have worked hard with our designer, Jim Gibson (of Gibson Design Associates) to maintain a consistent look and feel. Our goal all these years, in keeping with our mission of bringing publishers and editors together with readers in order to help make contemporary poetry part of daily life, has been to keep the site simple and easy to use. The web has become a complex place since we began but its greatest virtue, to us, continues to be uncomplicated, free, democratic access.

All by way of saying that our features have remained pretty constant as well, providing selections of poetry and prose-about-poetry from magazine and book publishers large and small, along with current links to news and reviews from around the poetry world. Early on we did more original features than we do now. For example, we published a comprehensive original survey of current books about poetry writing, by the poet (and Shenandoah editor), R.T. Smith; an extensive feature highlighting Ecco Press's Essential Poets series; a month of poems written by David Lehman and sent to us each night for publication the next day, when he was engaged in the work that became The Daily Mirror, and an interactive feature that allowed readers to add lines to Albert Goldbarth's; Iowa Review poem "Library." But the point has always been to draw attention to what editors and publishers and poets are doing, not to present original work in the same way they do. That has kept us pretty simple.

FSG: I imagine your audience has grown wildly since 97, what sort of feedback have you received from your various visitors to the site and subscribers to the newsletter? Have any particular comments struck you as either highly rewarding or annoying?

DS: Yes, our audience grew rapidly from the start---the audience was there, and hungry, as we guessed, and from early on we heard from them, and from far and wide (my favorite was a note from a woman on a research ship in the Antarctic, when she read a poem on PD by a friend, thanking us for keeping her in touch with things). There have been some wonderful moments. I always think first about an unexpected onslaught of angry notes when we features Ron Padgett's "Nothing in That Drawer" (from his book with Godine, New & Selected Poems)----a sonnet that repeats the title for 14 lines; offensively, it seems, to a great many devotee's of the form. And on the other hang, a rush of positive, you-go-girl!-type notes from women readers when we features Kim Addonizio's "What Do Women Want" ("I want a red dress. / I want it flimsy and cheap, / I want it too tight, / I want to war it / until someone tears it off me . . . " (from Another Chicago Magazine). The most rewarding notes, as you'll guess, come from readers who report that they are doing just what we'd hoped---discovering poets new to them and then buying the books or subscribing to the magazine where more of their work can be found.

FSG: Is it true that you are not a poet yourself? This makes you a rare specimen in the poetry world as someone who neither teaches nor writes poetry, but is doing great things to help promote it. Are people often surprised when you tell them this?

DS: True! Neither is Diane. My first and last efforts were for (mandatory) submission to my junior high school annual literary rag. Diane confesses to no attempts to date. Our most valuable contribution to poetry, surely, is not writing it.

And, yes, it does seem to surprise, sometimes confuse, some people---from poets to publishers to editors to grant panels. It makes sense. We're hard to place, now that so much poetry publishing is done by people who are poets first. We're publishers first, and devoted readers.

FSG: Everyone is talking about the loss of print media these days, and in the book world this means fewer reviewers---especially for non-commercial titles. Since most poetry titles are automatically viewed as non-commercial (as in unlikely to sell more than a few thousand copies), we're seeing less and less poetry book reviews. Are there are web sites, bloggers, etc. that you think are doing exciting, intelligent things to keep the dialog going online?

DS: I have a feeling a great deal is going on online when you consider not only efforts dedicated to reviewing like Contemporary Poetry Review, but the traditional print publications that are making serious commitments to online publishing, such as the Kenyon Review and Iowa Review, not to mention publications like Jacket, which was online from the Web's Ur days. Bloggers, of course, are legion by now. Silliman's Blog is one I always think of---he has been at it for a long time now. It's becoming a serious challenge to keep up.

It's clear that something important will be lost if serious reviewing continues to decline; and blogging, even by serious people, seems to me very different. But, from the poetry publisher's standpoint---wanting to sell as many books (print or digital) as possible---the most exciting development must be the rise of online social networking. Even before the newspaper and magazine industries began their decline, it must have been tough to get one's book reviewed. And the spark ignited in a reader by a review might be counted on to spread by that longer-for thing, word-of-mouth, only so far. Now, word-of-mouth is suddenly possible on a new scale, and all but instantly, thanks to online social networking. Friends sharing with friends writing that moves them is always the best bet for passing the fever along in a way that results in a sale, it seems to me. Serious, informed and formal, evocative reviews can start it of course. But it doesn't matter how this sort of enthusiasm gets started---reviews, blogs, a lucky find browsing a bookstore or library shelf, "Today's Poem" on Poetry Daily---social networking has changed the subsequent possibilities.

FSG: I'm sure you see many literary journals and online sites as the Co-Editor for Poetry Daily. Any favorites for finding exciting emerging poets?

DS: As to poetry resources generally, I visit Poets.org (Academy of American Poets) quite often, I realize now you ask. And The Poetry Foundation site is very rich. As to sources, print and/or online, for emerging poets specifically, the perennial editorial task for us it to try not to have favorites in looking for authentic contemporary poetry to share with our readers. This doesn't mean that we will select something from every source, needless to say. But is does mean that we work hard at taking a fresh approach to our reading every year.

David Hinton On Classical Chinese Poetry

2009-04-13T10:03:21-04:00

Poet and translator David Hinton returns to the blog this year to discuss his passion, classical Chinese poetry. Hinton is the translator and editor of Classical Chinese Poetry, an anthology released last October by FSG. You can see all posts about him here, and listen to his podcast here.

T’ao Ch’ien (365-427 C. E.) was the first major Chinese poet to speak in a direct personal voice about the full range of his immediate experience. This is the voice that came to typify the Chinese tradition after T’ao Ch’ien, and it is why classical Chinese poetry has felt so contemporary to American readers over the last century. T’ao lived in relative poverty on a quiet farm, though he moved for a time in a nearby village. There, living in the midst of the human-generated noise that modern urban-dwellers take for granted, he wrote his famous poem about drinking wine:

Drinking Wine

I live here in this busy village without
all that racket horses and carts stir up,

and you wonder how that could ever be.
Wherever the mind dwells apart is itself

a distant place. Picking chrysanthemums
at my east fence, I see South Mountain

far off: air lovely at dusk, birds in flight
going home. All this means something,

something absolute: whenever I start
to explain it, I forget words altogether.

Drinking wine is widely experienced as a relaxation of our struggle with the world, and it appears frequently in the work of T’ao Ch’ien and virtually every poet who followed him in the tradition. But those poets invest that relaxation with striking philosophical dimensions, for in a poem drinking wine generally meant drinking just enough to achieve a serene clarity of attention, a state in which the isolation of a mind struggling to understand and interpret the world fades away. It was T’ao Ch’ien who first began to explore those philosophical dimensions, as in the ending of “Drinking Wine,” with its skepticism about language. This skepticism was there in Chinese intellectual culture from the beginning, in Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, and soon after T’ao Ch’ien it became the essence of Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, with its emphasis on silence, no-mind, direct transmission of enlightenment outside texts and institutions, and the paradoxical koan practice that teases the mind outside its normal linguistic structures. The primary source of this skepticism is the realization that even after the most exhaustive and accurate description or philosophical account, the most compelling mythology or the most concise and penetrating poem, things in and of themselves elude us perfectly. This insight represents a kind of liberation, because it opens the possibility of immediate experience outside our linguistic story-telling selves, and in that immediacy lies a much deeper potential for dwelling in the world.

This distrust of the ideas and stories we tell ourselves about the world adds another dimension to the imagist poetics that help give classical Chinese poetry its strikingly contemporary feel. To the extent that it is made of landscape images, a poem conspires to speak outside our story-telling selves, to let landscape itself speak as part of identity, a kind of deep ecological practice that weaves identity into landscape as accurately as language can. And translating such poems allows me to speak with even less of a center, because it frees me of the need for an isolated mind struggling to compose the poem. Instead, I can speak in other voices and let other voices speak in my voice—the voices of poets themselves, and of the ten thousand things speaking in poems:

Egrets

Robes of snow, crests of snow, and beaks of azure jade,
they fish in shadowy streams. Then startling up into

flight, they leave emerald mountains for lit distances.
Pear blossoms, a tree-full, tumble in the evening wind.

—Tu Mu (803-853)

The Day the Audience Came to Poetry, Part Two

2009-04-10T14:00:00-04:00

This is part two of a post by Graywolf Press publisher Fiona McCrae about Elizabeth Alexander and her inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day. For the first part of the post, go here.

It was the most famous poem in the world. Of course, I wanted everyone to love it, to be reciting it from hilltops and across coffee tables across the land. But inevitably, the poem had its detractors: “too prose-y,” “she didn’t read with enough emotion.” Jon Stewart, a self-confessed poetry disliker, joked on his show: “how do you clear the Mall of two million people?” Answer: “read them a poem.” I can’t pretend I didn’t wince when I saw that.

And yet, and yet… Elizabeth went on a media tour that would make any film star dizzy: ABC, CBS, the BBC, the Jim Lehrer News Hour, National Public Radio, Newsweek, Time magazine, and more. One of our favorite appearances was when, as if to counter Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert conducted a hilarious interview with Elizabeth. “What’s the difference between a metaphor and a lie?” he barked, before going on to quote T. S. Eliot. Elizabeth handled the interview brilliantly. Then there is the anecdotal evidence from people who heard and admired the poem: my neighbor, the woman in the hot tub at the Y, poets I have run into both locally and as far afield as Kenya. One of the most meaningful exchanges for me was when I ran into a friend who I had not seen for some years, so she had not made the connection between the poem and Graywolf. “That poem did something to me,” she told me, eyes wide. “She slowed things down.” This is exactly what Elizabeth had intended. It’s why her inbox is still filling with emails from people across the country who were moved, touched, and refreshed by the poem.

As publishers, we spend our days wrestling with the question of how to bring poetry to a larger audience. On that day, January 20, 2009, the audience came to poetry. I still relish that thought, and think back to the previous election when it really did seem that we were all in danger of perishing “for lack of what is found” in poetry. Praise that day, and the poet who rose to the occasion, indeed.

A commemorative chapbook of “Praise Song for the Day” by Elizabeth Alexander is now available in English and bilingual English/Spanish editions. Please visit our website for more details.

The Day the Audience Came to Poetry: A Guest Post From Fiona McCrae

2009-04-10T10:07:59-04:00

Today on Graywolf Press Fridays (as I've taken to calling them), we have two posts by director and publisher Fiona McCrae.

It was a really big secret that only three of us at Graywolf knew: the title of the inaugural poem, and its contents. We couldn’t tell other staff members or even our loved ones. It was an extraordinary feeling. I’m used to thinking of our poetry working its way through the body of society like homeopathic medicine: infinitesimal quantities having a powerful effect on the whole organism, one cell at a time. But in this case, if the text of the poem was released early, we realized it would make international news and ruin an enormously public and momentous occasion.

Poetry, ignored daily by millions, was invited to participate in the inauguration of Barack Obama. By virtue of Graywolf’s long publishing relationship with the inaugural poet, Elizabeth Alexander, history-in-the-making had walked right up to our door and was knocking, loudly. We realized that, with over two million on the Mall, and untold millions watching on TV and the internet all over the planet, this would be the largest audience for a single poem, ever.

Talking to Elizabeth in the days leading up the inauguration was fascinating. Sure, she was giddy, excited, and honored, but it struck me that she never questioned whether poetry belonged at that occasion. She did not believe it was about her, but about the invitation to bring a different type of language, a heightened language, to the political arena. She saw herself as serving poetry, the demands of that moment, and a president for whom she has so many hopes.

Praise Song for the Day. Waking up that morning, and knowing that millions of people were going to hear that perfect title was thrilling. At Graywolf, as the inauguration got underway, we all sat around watching the live coverage on a central computer, and a local TV station turned up to watch us watching. My jitters for Elizabeth seem trivial in retrospect: What if she stumbles? Chokes? Drops the words? Faints? Loses her voice? But she did none of the above. She let the words ring out, crystal clear. I loved the gathering rhythm as she read out, “On the brim, on the brink, on the cusp.” And how did she know it would be a cold day? The words seemed so right, so true, and intuitively echoed many of the themes of Obama’s speech.

It was a civic moment in the broadest sense, and a poem to remind us who we are, and where we came from. I wonder if I expected the proceedings to stop, there, at the poem. But history rolled on. Obama showed George to the door, or at least to the helicopter. There was Cheney wheeling out of sight. Then, less than thirty minutes after the poem had been read, Elizabeth was calling. Our very secret poem, the one that we could not even whisper to our spouses, was now the most public poem in the world. Wrongly transcribed versions were flying around the internet. Our job changed within minutes – from keeping the poem under wraps, to getting the correct version out there as quickly as possible. This second job proved to be the harder.

You can read the second half of Fiona's post here. You can purchase a chapbook of Elizabeth Alexander's 'Praise Song for the Day' here.

August Kleinzahler vs. Juan Felipe Herrera

2009-04-09T17:04:11-04:00

New York Magazine just posted a Kleinzahler vs. Herrera smackdown on their Culture Vulture blog. Both poets won the NBCC Award for Poetry this year in an unprecedented tie---August for Sleeping It Off in Rapid City. We're a little biased around here, but invite you to share your thoughts on this blog or NY Mag's site. (*Note: We would also like to rebuke the claim that August is grumpy. He's one of the nicest writers we know. Hope we're not ruining your rep by saying this, August.)

To hear August read, check out our audio files.

photo (c) David Liittschwager

Seamus Heaney's 'Digging'

2009-04-09T15:32:43-04:00

A new statue has been erected in Seamus Heaney's former town of Bellaghy in honor of his poem Digging. There's photos and the full story here--my favorite part is that the statue was started by being formed out of peat.

A couple years back we recorded Seamus Heaney reading Ted Hughes' The Thought Fox--you can (and should!) listen to it here.

Jonathan Galassi on Susan Wheeler

2009-04-09T10:00:00-04:00

One of our new poetry offerings this spring is Susan Wheeler’s ASSORTED POEMS, Everything about this book—from the title itself to Robert Lostutter’s brooding giant birdman on the jacket—is arresting and rewarding. To me, Susan’s work represents a bright, moving, highly articulate refreshment of poetic language.

She’s funny, she feels deeply, but above all it’s the washed-clean rightness of her very lines and syllables that draws me in. When you read her you sit up and take notice because every word is spanking fresh and hospital-corner neat. Nobody sounds anything like her.

Reflected Sonnet

A verdant swale appeared to me—
disburdened of perspicacity—
but sunset vaulted o’er. What kine
left the budded quicks will in time
lack the evening star, bedded fast
beyond the gable-wall, and copsed
in barn-light’s slumbrous, languid air.

From fane, then, to meet you there,
Light glinting through the trees, and moss
Soft underfoot, soft leaves, I crost
‘til, gleaming in a bower’s frame,
in golds, alit, the riverbank,
long light shaking o’er river’s glass,
charged me light where now you pass.

How arresting, and rewarding, is that? The sonnet just isn’t the same (sane?) when she gets her hands onnet.

I wanted to do this book with Susan to see how poets like Kleinzahler, Glück, Bidart, Walcott, and Wright read, reflected in her light—and vice versa. I think it’s a truly enthralling conversation.

Today's Poetry Daily Featured Poet

2009-04-08T17:04:40-04:00

Today's Poetry Daily Featured Poet is Carl Phillips. You can read more about his latest collection Speak Low and read his poem "The Moon Flowers" here.

In late-February, Phillips gave a lecture at the University of Chicago. Check out this link to watch a video of his talk or to download the MP3.

Q&A with Ron Hogan of Beatrice.com

2009-04-08T10:28:18-04:00

Ron Hogan, for years with his MediaBistro blog, Galley Cat, has kept us all informed on the publishing industry's goings-on and ups and downs. This month, with his site, Beatrice, which is more directly engaged with contemporary literature and poetry, Ron is setting out to feature a collection of poems a day (last week he featured Farrar, Straus and Giroux's own poet Carl Phillips, whose collection Speak Low came out this month). Read my interview with Ron below, for his insights into topics such as the future of poetry.

--Angie Venezia

FSG: Tell us about Beatrice.

Ron Hogan: Beatrice began in the mid-1990's as the convergence of two trends in my life: First, a few friends thought it might be cool to launch a "Generation X" zine, and, second, I'd seen the first article in Wired about Netscape and the World Wide Web and realized I wanted to do a web page. The zine lasted one issue before everybody realized they loved the idea of doing a zine more than doing a zine, and because I was working in a bookstore at the time, I eventually hit on the notion of interviewing writers as they passed through town on their book tours.

That Q&A format lasted, off and on, through three years of freelance dotcom work in California, two years at amazon, and another four years of freelancing in New York City, until my paid writing gigs began to crowd out the time available to do the kind of interviewing I was doing effectively. The site was almost in danger of dying out completely until I switched to the blog format near the end of 2003; ironically, once I was posting to the site everyday, my readership grew much faster than it ever had before.

FSG: What is the mission behind Beatrice, and what is Beatrice's relationship to poetry?

RH: "Mission" sounds a bit grandiose, but if I had to pick one, I suppose it would be the phrase I've been using as the site's tagline since shortly after it became a blog: "introducing readers to writers." I'm the first to admit the criteria for that is purely personal and idiosyncratic; I focus on the books and writers that I find interesting, and I hope other people will find them interesting, too.

I hesitate to make any great claims about Beatrice's "relationship to poetry." It's one of those parts of our literary landscape, like short stories and international literature in translation, I'd like to see receive more attention, and I do what I can to make that happen. Without a website, I'd probably just be "handselling" the poets I admire to my friends.

FSG: As a publishing industry and book blogger, how do you think the current, strained climate of layoffs and industry shake-ups will affect poetry that is published?

RH: It will either have absolutely no effect, or it will gut poetry completely, and I'm betting on the former.

Poetry is easily the most marginal facet of mainstream commercial publishing. I haven't researched this very thoroughly, and would gladly be proven wrong, but I'm struggling to think of anyone besides the late Mattie Stepanek who got on the New York Times Bestseller Lists in recent memory with a volume of poetry. (Certain poets, including Mark Doty, Mary Karr, and Kathleen Norris, have achieved bestseller status with their memoirs.) And you'll notice how, when America's literary cultural class gears itself up to talk about poetry every April, it never talks about Mattie Stepanek, even though he was at least as good a poet as, if not better than, let's say, Alice Walker.

At New York publishing companies, working on poetry collections is probably the purest labor of love the industry has to offer, and the advances, print runs and so forth are minimal compared to the most other types of books. And, sure, you could run the numbers and say, "Hey, look at all the money we'd save if we cut these books out," but taking poetry away from editors would be like---oh like pulling all the water coolers out of the building. Whatever you'd save financially, it's not worth the hit to your staff morale when you take away the projects that give them that sense of doing something culturally significant.

The independent publishers, meanwhile, are already acutely aware of just how economically marginal poetry is to what they do--and they don't care. They publish poetry because they love it, and they're going to keep publishing as long as they can afford to stay in business. (And though independent publishers may be at risk in this economic climate, publishing poetry isn't what put them there.)

FSG: I'm sure you receive galleys daily from small presses and publishers trying to get the word out about their latest poets. Which presses/publishers are coming out with the best poetry content these days, and which poets are you excited about at the moment?

RH: I actually don't get very many collections to review unless I ask somebody for them specifically. I don't see that as especially alarming: First, publicity resources are stretched so thin for ALL books at presses large and small that if I were a publicist, I wouldn't send a poetry galley out unless I was nearly positive it was going to get attention or hoping for a spot in a National Poetry Month round-up; second, Aprils aside, I haven't done as much as I could on the site to make it obvious that I'm ready and will to discover great poetry.

I'm actually only just beginning to refamiliarize myself with what's been published lately, so I don't feel especially comfortable signaling out any presses, but I would probably pick Gary Snyder as my favorite poet working today. And last fall I tried to put together an event that would bring together David Hinton and David Young, who had both published translations of classical Chinese poetry; I was always a bit regretful that I was never quite able to make that work, as I think it would've been a fascinating hour's conversation.

FSG: Why did you decide to feature a book of poems a day on Beatrice for National Poetry Month? Are you discovering that to be a daunting task?

RH: This isn't the first year I've set myself this goal, although it's the first one in awhile where I feel like I'm going to make it--well, apart from cutting a few corners on weekends to talk about other websites that are celebrating National Poetry Month. There's no huge motivation for this doing this beyond my own interest in poetry.

I will say that from the moment I started doing this, back in 2004, I was pleasantly surprised by how much you could find online about poets if you did a little digging, and as much as I enjoy introducing short poems to Beatrice readers, I'm equally glad to be able to collate some of the other information that's floating around out there, and maybe encourage readers to search out more.

FSG: Are there other blogs or websites doing exciting things to celebrate National Poetry Month that some of our readers might not know yet?

RH: I'd actually like to call attention to some sites that are out there celebrating poetry every day of the year, not just in April: site like No Tell Motel, which showcases a different poet every week, or The Best American Poetry blog. Poetry Daily showcases a new poetry collection every day, and Verse Daily takes its cues from the literary magazines (many of which are also online).

Robert Pinsky On Reading Poetry Aloud

2009-04-07T15:45:00-04:00

You fans of the FSG poetry blog are probably also at this point big fans of Robert Pinsky. Over the years, we've featured him reading Elizabeth Bishop, judging a metaphor-off, recording a 100% unique poetry ringtone, and, of course, reading his own poems.

This year, Pinsky is being featured on a blog called Poems Out Loud, where he's reading poems by Christopher Smart, Christina Rossetti, and Ben Jonson, among others.

FSG Publisher Jonathan Galassi On Frederick Seidel

2009-04-07T09:48:00-04:00

Dear Friends,

It’s such a pleasure to have the chance to talk about some of the poets we’re publishing on the FSG list this year. Poetry has always been intrinsic to the company’s sense of itself, and that was one of the reasons I immediately felt at home when I came here over twenty years ago. I didn’t ever have to explain to anyone why publishing poetry was important. And not only important: vital. I’ve often said that fiction and poetry are two sides of the same coin, the coin being imaginative literature. I really don’t think you can have one without the other. That’s fundamental to our understanding of what we’re doing here, and it helps make the publishing of poetry a great joy and a great deal of fun.

When I was a college student in the late sixties and early seventies, I had two FSG poets, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell, as teachers, and I remember vividly the absolute reverence I had for their work. Their books seemed like sacred objects somehow, and the FSG colophon, style of print, and jackets were all part of their seductive mystique. Forty years later that mystique lives on for me and, I hope, for others. WORDS IN AIR, the complete correspondence between Bishop and Lowell, published last year, is a distillation of the close artistic and personal relationship of these great poets who are two of the pillars of our list. This year we’re reissuing Lowell’s NOTEBOOK 1967-68, one of the books I remember being amazed by as a student. There are a number of Bishop books in the pipeline, too, including her correspondence with the New Yorker, and her journals.

One of our new books that I find most exciting this season is Frederick Seidel’s POEMS 1959-2009, nearly five hundred pages of supple, savage, witty, emotionally gripping terror and delight. Calvin Bedient has called Seidel “the most frightening American poet ever.” Michael Robbins calls him “a ghoul,” while James Lasdun defined his work as "an oasis…in the desert of contemporary American poetry.” I think he is dazzling, memorable, scathing, uncomfortably honest, and monumentally tender, New York’s and America’s and the Western World’s twenty-first-century Baudelaire. Seidel’s collected poems represents a high water mark in the poetic achievement of his generation. This, I think, is his moment.

Here are the first two stanzas of “Evening Man”:

The man in bed with me this morning is myself, is me,
The sort of same-sex marriage New York State allows.
Both men believe in infidelity.
Both wish they could annul their marriage vows.

This afternoon I will become the Evening Man,
Who does the things most people only dream about.
He swims around his women like a swan, he spreads his fan.
You can’t drink that much port and not have gout.

You can’t read Seidel without having an utterly changed sense of what life in our moment is truly like. Seidel is a reporter, a scourge, a secret sharer, and above all a lyric master. Read him and be amazed.

Q and A with Publishers Weekly Poetry Editor Craig Teicher

2009-04-06T14:25:59-04:00

Last week I corresponded with Craig Teicher, Poetry Editor for Publishers Weekly. PW is a major trade journal for people in the book publishing industry. It is also one of the few remaining print publications that devote a relatively large amount of space to new and forthcoming poetry titles in every issue.

Craig is a critic, teacher, and a poet. And he recently became the VP/Membership Coordinator for the National Book Critics Circle. You can find out more information about his poetry, criticism, and musical tastes from his website www.craigmorganteicher.com. —Alyson Sinclair

FSG: When did you begin working at PW as their Poetry Editor?

Craig Teicher: I took over as PW Poetry Reviews Editor from Michael Scharf about three years ago in Spring 2006.

FSG: How many new titles do you receive every month? Has this number increased or decreased since you started working at PW?

CT: I get somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 poetry titles a month (though that number goes up drastically in the lead up to National Poetry Month and plunges right after, so 50 is the average). The number of titles has definitely gone up, for a simple reason: increased availability of inexpensive, higher quality digital printing options. Poetry doesn’t sell in huge numbers, but there are tons of small and micro presses doing tons of books; with digital printing, they are able to publishing on a small scale that fits the audience for a particular book, maybe only a few hundred copies. I get a lot of really compelling small press books that are printed that way. Of course, I get a lot of really bad ones too.

FSG: How do you decide which books should be reviewed, especially in this rough time when most magazines are shrinking?

CT: Fortunately, my space—twelve reviews a month—isn't shrinking. I just try to pick the books that are most relevant to the national conversations going on around poetry as I perceive them. I'm a poet, so I participate in some of those conversations, in my social life, through reading blogs and literary magazines, as a board member of the National Book Critics Circle, and while of course my judgments as to what books are important to those conversations are subjective, I try to cover a fairly wide range of stuff. Frankly, twelve reviews of poetry books per month is a huge number relative to what most other publications that cover poetry are able to do, so I'm able to get a lot in, considering.

FSG: You teach Creative Writing at Pratt and Columbia. I did my time in an MFA program, where I taught a few undergraduate courses in poetry. In my experience it seems fairly easy to get students excited about sharing their own work, but not so easy to get them excited about critiquing their colleagues and published works of poetry. Do you have this problem when you teach?

CT: I teach mostly undergrads with whom, I’m grateful to say, I don’t have that problem. Though I will say I’m a big believer in the notion that, for a poet, anything one does is done to enrich or broaden one’s own poems, so when I teach published poetry to my students, and even when I’m leading a workshop, I’m always urging my students to pretend they had written whatever is on the table, to try to read it as if they were spontaneously thinking the work under consideration at that moment.

FSG: Like many poetry critics, you are also a poet yourself with your second book coming out from BOA next year. If we lived in a world where people were paid a living wage solely for working on their poetry (with no teaching responsibilities, day job, or scrapping grant money together every few months), how do you think this would change the poetry world?

CT: I can't speak for all poets, but if I didn't have to do anything other than write poetry, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't write any poetry. Writing has always seemed a guilty pleasure to me, or at least a slightly shameful compulsion, the time for which I have to steal away from other more pressing things tied to money and survival. That sense that I'm kind of doing something wrong, that I'm taking resources to make poetry that might be more helpfully used elsewhere, is one of the pressures that animate my poems. I suspect many poets have similar guilt structures built into their writing practice.

FSG: What do you love most and what do you really dislike about National Poetry Month?

CT: I have a question for publishers of poetry about National Poetry Month, which I think is a great idea and is always a boon time for poets who want to do poetry-things in public: why do you have to PUBLISH 60% of the year’s poetry books in one month? It seems to me publishers should simply PROMOTE, rather than PUBLISH in April. Imagine someone in my position—I get maybe 200 books, all of which are coming out in one month, and I have to pick which ones to cover. Keep in mind I have comparatively a lot of space—between January and April, I’ll run reviews of 48 spring poetry titles—but most publications (and there are only a few left) will pick maybe THREE poetry titles to review from among that 200.

Hooray for the month-long appearance of the poetry table at Barnes and Noble, but I think the first half of the year’s poetry titles need to be spread out more evenly throughout the first half of the year.

Frank Bidart On Book Worm

2009-04-06T10:57:04-04:00

Don't worry: I've found the ideal antidote for this rainy Monday morning.

KCRW's Book Worm interviewed Frank Bidart last March, and the whole thing is so full of passion and excitement that you can't help but have a little rub off of you. It's better than a mid-morning cup of coffee.

The audio for part one and two can be found here.

A Poetry Final Four: Finale

2009-04-03T16:30:00-04:00

Get your blog or Moleskine notebook ready, because here's Graywolf Press senior editor Jeff Shotts announces the winner of the 2009 Fantasy National Poetry Month Playoffs.

Stephen Burt vs. David Orr

In our championship duel, we may well go into overtime. Orr is the award-winning commentator in the NYTBR who has written on such a wide array of poets, including John Ashbery, Zbigniew Herbert, Mary Jo Bang, and Matthea Harvey, and poetry topics, from defining what “greatness” means to defending the Poetry Foundation. In other words, he’s strong on both sides of the court, both relentless scorer and taunting defender. Burt can make an outside shot, with such illuminating essays and reviews on Rae Armantrout and C. D. Wright, and with some genre-defining essays, such as the title essay of his new collection of criticism, Close Calls with Nonsense, and his essay on “ellipticism” in contemporary poetry. He is also the smartest critic, tellingly, on Randall Jarrell’s life and work. Burt can, admittedly rarely, take it to the hole with a smart, deeply critical review of a poet like Sharon Olds in the NYTBR, but that is surely not his strength, as it is Orr’s. Orr will out-rebound and out-post Burt.

Both critics take on very large questions in contemporary poetry, more than most, which is why they are vying for the championship. In a recent essay-review on Ashbery, Orr writes: “What will we do when Ashbery and his generation are gone? Because for the first time since the early 19th century, American poetry may be about to run out of greatness.” On new innovative poetry, in “Close Calls with Nonsense” (originally appearing in The Believer), Burt writes: “These poets have found modes of writing—ways to put language in order—that did not exist before, that present otherwise unknowable individuals, and that seem to fit our experience now: I think we’ll be reading some of them for a long time.” Where Orr seems so often grave, Burt’s tone is optimistic about new poetry—arguably to a fault, one could say. And yet, what will create the buzzer-beater shot is Burt’s hopeful, youthful, and meaningful sense of possibility. What else should a critic come to poetry with? What else will more powerfully serve the art? What else can at the same time intelligently approach challenging forms of contemporary poetry and passionately earn it new and more readers?

National Champion: Stephen Burt

This is just one scenario, and certainly the original field of sixty-four would include a wider array, with such critics as Joel Brouwer, Jordan Davis, Timothy Donnelly, John Freeman, Maureen N. McLane, Ange Mlinko, Chris Nealon, John Palattella, Benjamin Paloff, Craig Morgan Teicher, Christian Wiman, and other young critics hovering around forty or younger. Maybe I’d pick a different Final Four next week. And in full disclosure, Stephen Burt is a critic and poet published by Graywolf Press, where I serve as poetry editor. But who can say these aren’t complete guesses? After all, I’m also the guy who picked Kansas to repeat in this year’s men’s NCAA basketball tournament, and we see how that turned out.

Related: the first bracket and the second bracket of the poetry final four.

A Poetry Final Four: Second Bracket

2009-04-03T14:30:00-04:00

Graywolf Press senior editor Jeff Shotts continues speculation on Fantasy Poetry Month Playoffs. And you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears? Take the rag away from your face, now ain't the time for your tears.

David Orr vs. Dan Chiasson

On the right side of the bracket, slugging it out no doubt in the pages of Christian Wiman’s arena in the Comments section of Poetry magazine (where many scouts go to find their fearless, talented trash-talkers), comes Orr and Chiasson, the two contenders most likely to be sporting neckties. Orr’s is black or gray, and Chiasson’s is undoubtedly green and striped. Orr is the dour, levelheaded lawyer-turned-critic, who is most comfortable as power forward: aggressive, a rebounder, unafraid to take a poet all the way down the court and dunk them hard. Chiasson, also unafraid to write a strong, negative review, is better from the perimeter, someone who can surprise you with a shift in sensibility, just when you think you’ve figured out his aesthetic.

Chiasson seems to be the more emotional player of the two, and isn’t afraid to come out and say he likes a particular poet’s work (or that he doesn’t), and when he’s spot on, it’s the equivalent of raining down a series of threes. Orr, however, with sheer exertion, will out-rebound, out-sass, out-hustle his opponent. His bluntness is a powerful tool, and many poets don’t want to be on the other end of it: event when he’s praising, he quickly spins and offers up some intense, critical comments, when you least expect it. Both critics are often in Poetry magazine, have written for The New York Times Book Review, and Orr is the regular columnist for “On Poetry” for NYTBR. This is a very evenly matched duel, but in the end, Orr’s position as pure critic (rather than poet-critic, as the other three here are) makes him a juggernaut of focus and determination. He outwears Chiasson, who misses what would have been the game-winning three-pointer.

David Orr advances.

Related: the first bracket and the winner of the poetry final four.

A Poetry Final Four

2009-04-03T12:00:20-04:00

Today, we've got something special for you—the first in a series of posts from the fine folks at Graywolf Press. They'll be taking over the blog every Friday. Today's posts are by senior editor Jeff Shotts.

Many poets discuss, debate, and grouse over who their favorite poet of the day is, and why, but I’ve been intrigued to see more recently how many poets have been discussing, debating, and grousing over who their favorite poetry critic of the day is, and why. For a long time, that discussion had frequently pitted Helen Vendler against Marjorie Perloff as a kind of winnowing down of the tournament bracket to the number one seed from the East versus the number one seed from the West—perhaps with William Logan as that fearsome number two seed that neither one of them wants in their region. (Maybe that would make Harold Bloom the Bobby Knight of contemporary poetry criticism?)

But that particular tournament feels like a rivalry no longer heated enough to sell tickets. Who are the new generation of critics, and how do they match up? I’d be eager to hear any readers’ picks on their Final Four of younger poetry critics—those under, say, forty—and which of them would go home with a national championship. Luckily, there’s no “do or done” sudden death in contemporary poetry criticism. But what if there were?

Here throughout the day I'll be posting my picks. Here's the first bracket:

Stephen Burt vs. Adam Kirsch

On the left side of the bracket, two young and very different players emerge. Burt, the enthusiast, the versatility player, the new go-to kid at Harvard matches up in an intriguing contest of opposites with Kirsch, the formalist, the traditionalist-at-heart, the center who makes up for less dexterity with sheer knock-‘em-down high-percentage accuracy in the paint.

Burt’s reviews and criticism has appeared in the widest range of publications of the Final Four. He is the poetry critic associated with The Believer, which gives him far more street cred on both coasts than most opponents, but he also has the likes of The New York Times Book Review, The Boston Globe, and several other dailies, in addition to The Nation, Boston Review, and many other literary magazines. He’s also the critic here with the strongest reputation across the Atlantic in such publications as the London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.

Kirsch is a stalwart young critic, whose long essay reviews in The New Yorker have made him a powerful player. His writing on Lowell, Berryman, and Bishop is important, as is his reviewing of contemporary poetry in The New Republic, The New York Sun, and the Times Literary Supplement.

The match-up here finally comes down to who has more weapons at his disposal. Kirsch is brilliant, at his best, when writing of mid-twentieth-century poets. He writes powerfully argued and persuasive criticism, though it feels at times straightforward, traditional, and without Burt’s passion and ability to read and appreciate (and explain) both the traditional and the more innovative poetry of our day. Ultimately, Kirsch’s more narrow focus makes him a specialist, and versatility takes the day.

Winner: Stephen Burt

Related: the second bracket, and the winner of the poetry final four.

Today's Poetry Daily Featured Poet

2009-04-03T10:47:00-04:00

Today's Poetry Daily Featured Poet is our own Susan Wheeler. You can read more about her latest collection Assorted Poems and find her poem "Air Map" here. Susan is a new addition to the FSG poetry list and we're excited to have her. She is the author of four previous books of poetry and the novel Record Palace, which was published by our friends at Graywolf Press in 2005. ---Alyson Sinclair

Carl Phillips' Speak Low on Beatrice

2009-04-02T17:00:00-04:00

Ron Hogan of GalleyCat fame has taken on the ambitious project of reviewing one book of poetry every day for the month of April on his site Beatrice.com. Today's post (day-2) features our own Carl Phillips' and his latest book Speak Low. Check it out here.

---Alyson Sinclair

Q & A with 92nd Street Y's Alexandra Wilder

2009-04-02T15:58:21-04:00

Recently, I corresponded with Alexandra Wilder, the Managing Director of the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center in New York City. The Poetry Center has booked some fantastic and important poets throughout its history. The list includes such greats as T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, and Dylan Thomas. I asked Alexandra some questions about the role of the Unterberg Poetry Center and her own relationship to poetry. Her experience working at an organization that brings so many fascinating literary figures to New York City each month has given her a compelling perspective within the poetry community.

—Angie Venezia

FSG: When did you begin working at the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center as their Managing Director?

Alexandra Wilder: I began working here in October 2005, soon after I completed an MFA in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence, as a Research Assistant, and was promoted to Managing Director in July 2007. I help run our readings—which consist of our main reading series in the evenings, our Biographers & Brunch and Critics and Brunch series on Sunday mornings, our Children’s Reading Series on Saturday afternoons and our Afternoon Night Table series on weekday afternoons. Most of my work involves programming and running our Writing Program, which has been around since our reading series began in 1939. We offer around 45 classes a year, ranging from creative writing workshops in poetry, fiction, nonfiction and playwriting, to literary seminars on topics such as the work of James Joyce and Emily Dickinson.

FSG: Are there any poetry events coming up that you’re particularly excited about?

AW: I’m really looking forward to our reading with Natasha Trethewey and Charles Wright on April 6. I love Wright’s poem “Words and the Diminution of All Things.” One of my favorite readings of every season is our “Discovery”/Boston Review poetry contest winners' reading, which will be on May 11 this year. The winners are poets at the beginning of their careers and, as such, are always so excited to have won and to be able to present their work that I’m intensely reminded of why I love to do what I do. Also, I’m really looking forward to Richard Wilbur’s reading here on May 21. He first read at the Unterberg Poetry Center on March 23, 1950!

FSG: Do you find that poetry events at the Center are popular? Do you get to observe enthusiasm for poetry through your work, despite what seems at times like a small readership of it?

AW: Yes, our poetry readings are well-attended. However, if you were to ask me if they are as well-attended as, say, the Toni Morrison reading we had this fall, I would, of course, have to say no. But just because the audience for poetry is smaller than the audience for fiction, I don’t believe there’s reason to fear that poetry is dying. Poetry lovers are a small but tenacious bunch! People who attend our poetry readings will stay long afterwards to talk to the poets and have their books signed. I find people tend to linger and socialize a lot more after a poetry reading than any other kind of reading here … are we poetry lovers like LARPers (Live Action Role Players) in that way, united in our passion for an obscure art? I wouldn’t go that far, but the poetry community is able to be much more close-knit by nature of the fact that it’s smaller.

FSG: Without naming names, have there been any past events that you weren’t pleased with? What makes a reading disappointing, and what makes a reading successful?

AW: I can’t think of any events that I thought of as unsuccessful; even if there’s the odd event that runs off-course a bit (more likely to occur if it involves a group of people), or that runs a bit too long, there’s always a successful aspect to it. I’m happy to say there’ve only been a handful of times that we’ve had to deal with difficult or diva-ish writers; for the most part, writers, unlike rock stars, are extremely gracious and professional. The events we’ve had that have been the most successful are the ones in which the writer is able to really connect with the audience and make his or her work come alive.

FSG: Tell us about the best poetry event you attended or organized.

AW: Well, my favorite contemporary poet is Kay Ryan; she has had a huge impact on me. Read some of her poems here in this New York Times portfolio, including one of my favorites, “Blandeur.” Her poems navigate that balance between funny and serious in a way that’s so original and surprising and, well … just very much the way that life is. We’ve had her here a couple times in the past few years and she’s an incredible reader—so warm and funny and self-deprecating. I’d love to bring anyone who thinks they don’t like poetry to a reading by Kay Ryan. We had an event with Anne Carson last spring which was also fantastic; she’s an example of another poet who really takes the common conception of poetry and throws it out the window. Her poetry readings aren’t your grandma’s poetry readings—they involve dancers and various visual elements that really elevate it to a performance piece. She’s another poet who doesn’t take herself too seriously, and the audience really responds to that. Yes, poetry speaks a truth in a way that no other art form can … but it can make you laugh, too!

FSG: Which poet living or dead would you be most excited to hear read their work for an audience, and what about their poetry makes you want to hear it aloud and in person? What are the virtues of reading poetry aloud?

AW: This is a tough question to answer because there are just so many poets I would have loved to hear read their work. Just to name a few: I would have loved to hear W.H. Auden, e.e. cummings and Sylvia Plath—though we’re lucky to have recordings of them reading. How amazing would it be to hear Emily Dickinson read? How would she have wrapped her voice around those words of hers? That’s a wonderful thing to imagine. A Canadian poet who had a great influence on me as a kid (I was born and raised in Toronto) was Gwendolyn MacEwen. She lived from 1941 to 1987 and is highly regarded in Canadian literary circles. Her poetry is full of magic and myth and mysterious beauty. She had a very soft and musical voice and, from what I’ve read, her readings cast an incantatory spell over the audience. The music of poetry—the meter and rhythm and texture—can only be fully appreciated by hearing it aloud. I encourage anyone who is unable to attend a reading for whatever reason to read aloud to themselves or to others or, better yet, try to memorize a poem. It seems old-fashioned, but memorizing a poem is the best way to get inside it and appreciate it fully.

The Best of Last Year

2009-04-02T10:17:59-04:00

For those of you tuning into the blog for the first time, here are some of last year's highlights:

David Hinton and Marilyn Hacker weighed in on the art of translating poetry
Adam Zagajewski taught us all what 'epithalamium' means
We heard the Grace Paley poem that Galway Kinnell reads to himself daily
Children's author Helen Frost discussed 'freedom in form'
Maureen McLane read from her debut poetry collection

And here's a link to highlights from 2007. Did I miss anything good? Is there anything you'd like to hear more about this year?

The 2009 FSG Poetry Ringtone

2009-04-01T16:00:00-04:00

I've got good news for you fans of mobile technology and poetry: the FSG poetry ringtone is back for another year. As in the past two years, we've got an original couplet, composed by one of FSG's award-winning poets, available for download to your cell as a ringtone. Highly recommended for savvy poetry fans who appreciate a little lightness in their verse.

In 2007, Paul Muldoon wrote the ringtone. And last year we heard from Robert Pinsky (who you can listen to this year over at Norton's website Poems Out Loud).

This year's couplet is by Susan Wheeler, who just had a collection of poetry released. You can listen to her ringtone in the box below, or here's the couplet for those of you who like your poetry quiet:

No talk, no text, no tweet --
Next time, let's meet!

FSG Poetry Announces a Poem-a-Day

2009-04-01T07:30:00-04:00

We're always evolving here at the FSG poetry blog, trying to bring you better and better National Poetry Month content.

This year, we've started a new promotion, one poem daily delivered directly to your inbox. Our poets have selected the verses themselves, so you'll be receiving daily selections from the likes of Louise Gluck, Frederick Seidel, Charles Wright, and tons more.

To sign up, just click here, or fill out the information in the sidebar to the right.

Frederick Seidel Giveaway of EVENING MAN

2009-03-30T12:14:43-04:00

We're pleased to announce an exclusive giveaway of Frederick Seidel's Evening Man, a chapbook produced by FSG in a limited edition and signed by the poet. This book will never be available in stores; this is your only chance to acquire a copy! We were all pretty excited in the office when the books arrived - they came out beautifully in a minimal, handsome design. You can sign up here for the giveaway: we're giving away 50 copies at the end of March and 50 copies at the end of April.

For more on Seidel, check out the recent Los Angeles Times review of his forthcoming collection Poems 1959-2009: "There is no doubt that Seidel is one of the best poets alive today, and now... his collected works can be taken at their measure: They are haughty, funny and terrifying, with plenty of delicious contention throughout."

There's also a wealth of audio readings available by the poet on our Downloads page.

"Racer"

You can download the audio here, or listen to it in the player below.

Charles Wright at the 92nd St Y

2009-03-30T11:47:23-04:00

Charles Wright, whose forthcoming book Sestets will be published on March 31st, will be reading at the 92nd St Y in New York on April 6th. You can find more details and purchase tickets here. Here are a couple samples of Wright's work, read by the man himself.

"Jesuit Graves"

You can download the audio here, or listen to it in the player below.

One More Poetry Giveaway!

2008-05-02T16:34:07-04:00

After checking out what a great month the blog has had, in terms of hits and attention, we decided we couldn't end National Poetry Month without one more big THANK YOU to everyone who read.

So we've got ten more CDs to give away, all filled with the best recordings from the FSG poetry blog both from this year and last year. You've got Seamus Heaney (reading Ted Hughes), Maureen McLane, Henri Cole (reading Elizabeth Bishop), C.K. Williams, and Eliza Griswold, and that is just for starters.

So if you would like to be entered to win one of these ten CDs, please leave a comment below with the name of your favorite poem by an FSG poet. We'll pick ten winners at random on May 9th.

And thanks again for reading!

A Fine Rain Falls

2008-04-30T17:36:53-04:00

In a perfect world, we would have been able to post audio of August Kleinzahler's 'Goddess' as the final post for this National Poetry Month, with its fabulous final line, "Unvisited I do not live, I endure."

But you know, in thinking about it, I have to say I've decided it would have been a bit melodramatic and probably something that the poets themselves would have eschewed. So instead we end, rather pleasantly, with Kleinzahler reading his poem 'Noir.' (Which I like to think of as a little love letter to certain nights in San Francisco.)

Thanks so much for reading this month, and I hope to see all of you here again next year!

You can download 'Noir' here, or stream it in the player below.

Wind Makes A Rush At The House

2008-04-30T16:00:00-04:00

I never thought that a single word could break my heart, but here we are: Kleinzahler has done it in this deceptively simple poem. This poem, Portrait of My Mother in January, is also from his new collection, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City.

You can download the audio here, or listen to it in the player below.

Chaste In Its Geometry

2008-04-30T14:51:09-04:00

I thought it would be perfect to close out the month with the voice of August Kleinzahler, who has a new collection out from FSG this month, Sleeping It Off in Rapid City. Maureen McLane wrote a fabulous three-piece consideration of the book earlier this month, that is an excellent introduction to the sounds of Kleinzahler's poetry, but honestly, there's nothing as good as listening to him read it aloud.

This first poem, Almost Nothing, has a epigraph: "In memoriam: Gordon Ashworth, architect." I'm afraid I couldn't find any info for you via my good friend Google, but perhaps someone has more information to post in the comments? Regardless, I feel confident ending the month with such strong verse (and we'll have two more from August later today). You can download the poem here, or listen in the player below.

Why Blame The Fire For Its Damage?

2008-04-29T12:07:46-04:00

By now, you are all probably well familiar with Maureen McLane's 'After Sappho IV,' which has been printed out since early April and hanging on your office wall. (Right? You all printed it out, right?)

And now here is McLane reading two poems from that cycle, 'After Sappho IV' and 'After Sappho V,' which McLane describes as "emerging out of a year of reading translations of Sapphic fragments."

As a reminder, both of these poems will appear in McLane's debut collection of poetry, Same Life, which will be published by FSG in the fall.