Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
From poets on poetry and lives of the great poets, to fact-checking verse and Google Voice as poetry ... something for the bard in us all
Gorgeous review of Philip Larkin's collected letters to his long-time mistress, Monica Jones. Permeated by Larkin's sad, lyrical, grumbling character. Why didn't he marry her? The poems give the answer
Elizabeth Bishop stands as the most highly regarded American poet of the second-half of the 20th century. But she wrote slowly and published little – fewer than 100 poems in her lifetime, each one a model of scrupulous perfection
Adrienne Rich is an iconic 20th century poet, essayist and feminist. Famous for refusing a medal from Bill Clinton, she shares her thoughts on poetry, warfare and what it takes to be a “woman citizen”
On fact-checking poetry at the New Yorker. Yes, fact-checkers do check everything, even in a poem, that might be construed as a fact. Poets can refuse a change, but rarely do. Magazine has never had to publish a correction to a poem
Frederick Seidel's rakish poetry evokes Bukowski and Kerouac in its lust, crudeness, cynicism. X-ray of American male concerns. Honest, incriminating
First, they're very hard to detect. Two "most eminent French women poets of the Renaissance" never existed. A 17th-century hoax was uncovered only in 1954. Second, we're very bad readers, if so easily fooled
This may be the first poem ever recommended on TheBrowser. And we probably won't make a habit of it. But this is the equal of a dozen papers on behavioural economics. And it's from the lovely blog—read more!—of Caterina Fake
Vivid profile of "vain, self-pitying, obsessive, narcissistic, snobbish" poet, and his mistress, an old flame of Nietzsche's
What the media take for incoherence is the fruitful ambiguity of verse
Glorious full-length portrait of Ireland's greatest living writer, first Nobel prize-winning poet since Yeats—charming, popular, homespun,erudit
Demanding, discerning critical review of Lévi-Strauss biography. He reinvented anthropology using structuralist principles derived from linguistics. But result was not science, as he claimed. It was storytelling
Lovely essay on Elizabeth Bishop's poetry and prose, pegged to publication of her correspondence with her editors at the New Yorker. "At times the politeness of poet and magazine seems that of two countries about to go to war"
Criticism: James gives a close reading of Stephen Edgar's poem, "Man on the Moon"
"He gets awards that are his due / He knows important people, too / Important people just like us / And we know how to make a fuss"
New biography of poet "better than magisterial—masterly"
UK's first female, Scottish, openly gay poet laureate
Elizabeth Alexander got lost in cliche and self-consciousness
Anthology of Google Voice transcriptions formatted as poetry. Funny, touching, and revealing of how the simplest messages can gain dignity when rendered in written form
Frederick Seidel is a crass, disturbing, great poet
I am looking forward to enjoying a little more peace, and a little more privacy
According to Graber, poetry demands that readers and thinkers slow down; just as a poem emerges through careful attention, it demands and recreates that kind of attention within the reader
