Still reading along with The A.V. Club 's Wrapped Up In Books club? Here's your official reminder of the next selection. Starting Monday, November 30th, we'll spend a week delving into Scott Tobias' suggestion for the section, James Dickey's To The White Sea. Here's what Scott has to say about why he selected it: "After hearing that the Coen brothers intended to adapt To The White Sea as a movie—a...
In his essay "Business and Poetry," Dana Gioia wonders why "[t]here have been many important American poets who supported themselves—either by necessity or choice—by working in business, but none of them has seen it as an experience fit to write about." T.S. Eliot didn't write about Lloyd's Bank of London. Wallace Stevens didn't write much about insurance. A.R. Ammons...
I'm thrilled to see that the New Yorker 's "Book Bench" blog today takes up James Dickey and his wild poem, "Falling"! I recently lamented, in a blog essay you can read here , the apparent "falling" of Dickey's reputation as a poet... but maybe he's in the air again. Click here to read Jenna Krajewski's ultraswank blog post on him.
“A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning.” James Dickey Some folks around the country have seen enough of rain this year, in fact they are starting to pair up the animals...
By Ken Weaver In the past you had to go to a store if you wanted to rent or buy a movie. Now, with internet usage exploding, movie downloads are becoming very popular. Below is a sample of some of the movies you can find using movie download sites. Deliverance: This is an excellent re-creation of the Dickey novel of 4 Atlanta businessmen who get more than they can handle throughout a weekend canoe...
Beltway Poetry Quarterly NEW ISSUE NOW ONLINE: US POETS LAUREATE ISSUE, GUEST EDITED BY DAN VERA Vol. 10:4, Fall 2009 An exciting new issue of the journal Beltway Poetry Quarterly features essays, interviews and poems by and about US Poets Laureate, guest edited by Dan Vera. Contributors include: Peter Montgomery, Christy J. Zink, Michael Gushue, Jean Nordhaus, Grace Cavalieri, Alan King, and Danielle...
Thought about Jack Leigh (1948-2004) today. He was part of the Biograph Theatre’s staff in late-1973/early-1974. Leigh was earnest and quick-witted. Jack liked to play chess and talk about movies, and of course -- photography. In those days he was already a very good photographer. Once, when we went out shooting pictures together, he snapped his shutter maybe twice, in the same time it took me...
During the latter part of my stay in Newcastle, things began to pick up speed. I took a trip down to London to see Mimi Khalvati, with whom I had lunch near her place in Stoke Newington. That same week, I spent some time with James Byrne and Sandeep Parmar, too, in fact, they put together a sort of joint birthday dinner for us, with guests Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon, plus Nina Zivancevic over...
Slow reader? Long-term planner? Either way, we're glad to help by letting you in on our plans for Wrapped Up In Books for the next three months, so you can get a jump start on your reading assignments. Beginning Monday, October 26, we'll be discussing Zack Handlen's book-club pick, Peter Straub's Halloween-appropriate Ghost Story . Starting Monday, November 30th (put off a week so we don't run afoul...
Houston Chronicle: ... For hours before the Marines arrived, giddy relatives decorated homemade signs and passed out tiny American flags. Wives dressed to the nines in high heels, cocktail dresses, halter tops and new hair-dos. They traded text message updates from the Marines, who sent cell phone photos of their plane landing at the airport in Houston and the progress of their bus trip down I-45,...
There are always lists of books purporting to be what one should read. There are also books readers love. A friend of mine sent me along a link that puts them side by side. 1. ULYSSES by James Joyce* 2. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald* 3. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce* 4. LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov* 5. BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley 6. THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William...
Our host, Don Levy, invited a prose writer (!) as the featured "poet" tonight, & there were a handful of open mic poets to read & comment. I first heard Amy Halloran read back in April 1988 at the QE2 on Central Ave. in Albany. This was before the last Monday series had started (the black & white shot). Her first short, short story, fresh from the Port Townsend Writing Workshop,...
Dreamtime - Commentary Inspired By Bob Dylan's Theme... (Free subscription) | 08/05/2009
I've been dipping into Chronicles: Volume One again while talking with Scott Warmuth over various discoveries we've made in the text. Scott, as you already know if you follow Dreamtime , found evidence that a 1961 issue of TIME magazine was the reference source for at least one section in Chronicles. During our correspondence Scott mentioned another discovery he had made, which I'll let him reveal...
Poems for Shark Week Where the fin of the shark cuts like a black chip out of the water... —from "Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman In honor of Shark Week, the Discovery Channel's annual weeklong series of television programs devoted to sharks, Poets.org has compiled 35 Poems about Sharks , and examined how the animals have been represented in classic and contemporary poetry. Described...
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