The Poet's Pulpit

Looking for a place to happen

A feature by John Mazerolle<p>38 Years Old<p>38 Years Old<p>Twelve men broke loose in seventy-three<br>From Millhaven maximum security<br>Twelve pictures lined up, …

What Can Poetry Do That Politics Can’t?

Last year, the poet, novelist, and literary essayist Ben Lerner published a slim book called <i>The Hatred of Poetry</i> in which he argued that “contempt” …

Sean Hughes' Poem About Death Is All The More Poignant Now

He died earlier this week, at the age of 51.<p>A poem written by the comedian Sean Hughes has been recirculating on social media, following his death at …

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Drunk

<i>Welcome to</i> The Thread<i>, OZY’s brand-new weekly podcast unlocking a series of linked histories, starting with the murder of John Lennon and stretching</i> …

Keats’s ode To Autumn warns about mass surveillance and social sharing

John Keats’s ode To Autumn is one of the best-loved poems in the English language. Composed during a walk to St Giles’s Hill, Winchester, on …

Crad Kilodney

Margaret Atwood receives Franz Kafka award in Prague

PRAGUE (AP) — Canadian novelist and poet Margaret Atwood has been awarded the Franz Kafka Prize.<p>An international jury selected Atwood in May as the winner of the annual literary award, which is handed out by the Prague-based Franz Kafka Society.<p>Atwood was in Prague on Tuesday to receive the award, …

10 Black Poets Share Their Favorite Pieces Of Poetry

In honor of Black Poetry Day<p>Today, October 17, is Black Poetry Day. Is it a legitimate holiday? It is according to the internet and this website! It was established in 1985 and is meant to celebrate black poets both past and present. October 17 is also the birthday of Jupiter Hammon, the first …

Leonard Cohen art exhibit to be paired with concert series

The Musée d’art contemporain has announced a series of concerts based on iconic Leonard Cohen albums that will accompany the museum’s exhibition …

Poet Billy Collins Describes His Childhood and Shares Two Unpublished Poems

Billy Collins, 76, was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2003 and is the author of 11 collections of poetry, including his latest, “The Rain in Portugal” (Random House), now in paperback. He spoke with Marc Myers.<p>I wrote my first poem in the early 1950s when I was 10. I was in the back seat of my …

Why Should We Read Virginia Woolf? A TED-Ed Animation Makes the Case

Virginia Woolf dissuaded readers from playing the critic in her essay “How Should One Read a Book?” But in addition to her novels, she is best known …

Sextober poetry slam encourages sex positivity

Unite for Reproductive Gender Equality and the Black Student Union hosted a poetry slam Oct. 10th at the Center for Student Involvement to celebrate …

Riverside poet shocked when his book becomes an International Latino Book Awards finalist

In his prose fragment, “Worstword Ho,” the great Irish existential playwright-novelist Samuel Beckett penned twelve words that have continually …

Two forgotten poets found friends in Portsmouth

Editor�s note: This is the 10th in Robinson's monthly series of �formerly famous� locals.<p>Most of what we know about poet Clara Anetta Lynn comes from …

Richard Wilbur, 96, of Cummington, Pulitzer-winning poet

Richard Wilbur, a former poet laureate of the United States whose elegant verse earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and whose dexterous renderings of the …

Harold Pinter’s best friend reveals playwright’s painful secrets

Memoir tells how legacy of tragic first wife haunted his work<p>For 60 years actor Henry Woolf was the intimate friend of Harold Pinter, the Nobel laureate widely judged the greatest theatrical voice Britain has produced in the past 50 years. Now Woolf has revealed extraordinary details of their long …

Did His Secret Love Lead Charles Dickens to Burn His Most Private Letters?

Charles Dickens’ desire to keep secret an affair with a young actress helped lead him, in 1860, to light a bonfire and burn 20 years’ worth of his letters and papers.<p>There’s a grand literary tradition of famous writers who request that their correspondence, personal papers, and unfinished works be …

Bukowski Animated Interview: the Gift of a Crappy Life, Quitting the Post Office & Writing the Next Line

A still from the video “Charles Bukowski. Uncensored.”<p>Quoted, the content studio behind the PBS animated interview series Blank on Blank, has …

Ottawa Writers Festival's 20th edition puts spotlight on Indigenous authors, progressive issues

Twenty years ago, when the very first Ottawa International Writers Festival was held at the National Arts Centre, Algonquin elder William Commanda …

Indigenous authors pull works after anthology publisher keeps contributor with violent past

Despite open letter, editor and publisher stand by decision<p>Six female authors have removed their contributions from an upcoming Indigenous anthology …

'To Kill A Mockingbird' Pulled From Mississippi School Over 'Uncomfortable' Subject Matter

Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" was removed from the 8th-grade curriculum Thursday at a Biloxi, Mississippi, school. Administrators from the …

Margaret Atwood: We are closer than ever to 1930s-style totalitarianism

FRANKFURT – The world is closer to the dark days of the 1930s than at any time since, Canadian author Margaret Atwood said on Saturday in Frankfurt, …

Watch: Words come alive in Belfast's first Poetry Jukebox

A new initiative which brings new poetry to the streets of Belfast has launched on Thursday.

Writers step in to defend author accused of plagiarism in New York Times

Jill Bialosky’s Poetry Will Save Your Life was charged with extensive use of others’ writing, but peers say accidental repetitions ‘were not egregious theft’<p>More than 70 authors, including Pulitzer prize winners Jennifer Egan and Louise Glück, have come to the defence of the editor and poet Jill …

The Poet Knows

Dear Diary:<p>I was waiting at a corner to cross Lexington Avenue. There was an older gentleman standing next to me. He was very hunched over, with unkempt clothes, hair and beard, and he was pulling a suitcase.<p>When the light changed, I could see he was struggling to pull the suitcase across the …

Miniature book said to have inspired Virginia Woolf's Orlando to be published

Vita Sackville-West’s stamp-sized book about a fashionable sprite who meets famous fairytale figures was written in 1922, four years before Woolf’s novel<p>A postage stamp-sized book by Vita Sackville-West, featuring a “fashionable and ageless sprite” who may have inspired her lover Virginia Woolf’s …

This 2-Word Quote From Writer Kurt Vonnegut Will Change the Way You Work

You're always going to be in the process of becoming who you want to be, so you may as well learn to enjoy it.<p>When it comes to insights about work, there are tweaks and there are game changers. Which isn't to diminish tweaks. Sometimes, the perfect scheduling hack or productivity ritual can …

On Alden Nowlan, a unique figure in Canadian literature born in poverty and raised in poetry

Alden Nowlan was the first and so far only person to win the Governor General’s prize for poetry without getting to the fifth grade in public school. …

In a Future Without Books, a Loner Makes an Incredible Discovery

Writer-director Pablo Calvillo’s <i>The Inksect</i> is set in a dark future where books are burned as one of the planet’s few remaining energy sources. But …

Revealed: Lost Burns letter containing two original poems to go on public display for the first time

The letters were collected in the 19th century by Marseille Middleton Holloway, one of the leading London book dealers, until his death in 1897. They …