Poetry Rising
Friday, October 21st, 2011Terry Gross featured poet Marie Howe on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, sending her books up the Amazon sales rankings.
#92 (from #141,111)
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#162 (from #318,263)
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Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category
Poet Tomas Transtromer Nobel Laureate
Thursday, October 6th, 2011At least you can credit the Nobel committee with consistency. Again, the committee passed on American writers (a Nobel judge said in 2008, Americans are “too insular“ to be worthy of the award; Toni Morrison was the last American to win, in 1993). A late surge in betting at Ladbroke’s in the UK gave Americans brief hope that Bob Dylan might be the winner.
This year’s winner, Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, at least has some connection to the US. The Guardian, in reviewing a new collection of his poetry earlier this year, called him, “…that rare thing: a non-English-language poet who has been fully accepted into British and US poetry in his own lifetime. In the 60s he became associated with Robert Bly and the Deep Image school of US poetry.”
For Americans not familiar with him, the AP story provides helpful information on the pronunciation of his name; TRAWN-stroh-mur.
Transtromer’s latest, New Collected Poetry hasn’t been published in the US yet, but three earlier collections are available and in many library collections.
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Philip Levine Reprints on the Way
Monday, August 15th, 2011As the NYT reported last week, sales of poet Philip Levine’s books soared after his appointment as Poet Laureate was announced on Wednesday.
A Knopf spokeswoman told the NYT that they are doing a rush reprint of Levine’s books and expect to meet all of the demand by early next week.
For those who want access to Levine’s poetry immediately, his most recent collection, News of the World is available on OverDrive.
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Levine won the 1991 National Book Award for his collection What Work Is, (Knopf, 9780679740582) and the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for The Simple Truth, (Knopf, 9780679765844). He was interviewed on NPR’s All Things Considered last night.
Grooving to the Classics
Thursday, August 4th, 2011
I’m not making this up. A forthcoming movie is described by Deadline as an “action epic battle between good and evil that is inspired by the John Milton poem [Paradise Lost].” Benjamin Walker is in talks to play archangel Michael, who “will go mano a mano against Bradley Cooper’s Lucifer…the film will have cutting-edge visual effects that will make these battles resemble 300 meets Lord of the Rings– but with winged warriors.” Plans are to begin shooting in January, with the film possibly debuting at the end of 2013.
Bradley Cooper ,who starred in The Hangover has been literary lately. He just finished filming as the lead in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and is about to begin shooting The Silver Linings Playbook, based on the debut novel by Matthew Quick, which was one of Nancy Pearl’s picks for summer reading, 2009).
What Would You Suggest?
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009
I had an interesting reference question today from a school administrator of an inner city school with a high percentage of ESL families.
A generous donor is going to buy a book for every child in the school, K through 5th grade, to take home to keep. The donor wants the books to be hardcovers and something they will treasure for years and perhaps read to their own children in the future. What books would I suggest?
After considering beautifully illustrated classics like Alice in Wonderland or modern classics like Because of Winn Dixie, I thought about what I like to give kids that I don’t know. I often choose poetry, because it is something one can revisit, share and revel in. I also wanted to choose books that would be beautiful to hold.
Here’s what I suggested for each grade. What would you pick?
Kindergarten
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First Grade
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Second Grade
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Third Grade
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Fourth Grade
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Fifth Grade
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Poetry Gets an Obama Bump
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009It’s heartening to see the chapbook of Elizabeth Alexander’s Inaugural poem, Praise Song for the Day, rise on Amazon. It’s currently at #290 (from #9,059) in overall sales rankings and at #1 in poetry, despite the fact that it was reprinted in newspapers and online.
The AP’s story on the poem noted that the publisher is releasing 100,000 copies of the chapbook, but that Maya Angelou’s poem for President Clinton’s inauguration sold a million copies. At the time of that story, Praise Song was at #429 on Amazon.
Alexander’s earlier poetry collection is at #3 in poetry (#2 is Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter, which is not poetry, but a collection of essays. Amazon’s classifications can be strange) and is at #333 on the overall list. It’s owned in small quantities in most large libraries, with reserves in some areas
Praise Song for the Day: A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration
Alexander, Elizabeth
- Paperback: $8.00; 32 pages
- Publisher: Graywolf Press (February 6, 2009)
- ISBN-10: 1555975453
- ISBN-13: 978-1555975456
American Sublime
Alexander, Elizabeth
- Paperback: $14; 96 pages
- Publisher: Graywolf Press (September 22, 2005)
- ISBN-10: 1555974325
- ISBN-13: 978-1555974329
