Poetry Daily

Room Service

Another night had slipped through that seine and swum on

Ted Kooser

from the book Raft / Copper Canyon Press

Obituary: "Nikki Giovanni, the charismatic and iconoclastic poet, activist, children’s book author and professor who wrote, irresistibly and sensuously, about race, politics, gender, sex and love, died on Monday in Blacksburg, Va."
(NYT)
#pdnews

Nikki Giovanni, Poet Who Wrote of Black Joy, Dies at 81

As a writer, she tackled race, gender, sex, politics and love. She was also a public intellectual who appeared on television and toured the country.

www.nytimes.com

Profile: "Write the poem you’re afraid to write. That’s the mantra-like advice Jan Beatty has been prescribing to budding poets of all stripes for over three decades."
(Belt Magazine)
#pdnews

Jan Beatty - Poet. Madwoman. Ally.

Write the poem you’re afraid to write. That’s the mantra-like advice Jan Beatty has been prescribing to buddin...

beltmag.com

Interview: "Somewhere at the bottom of these piles of poems is the overwhelmed little girl sitting in that minivan, I’m not necessarily trying to find her, I’m trying to pull her through the world."
(Only Poems)
#pdnews

Interview with Luisa Muradyan: On Humor, Heritage, and Writing Between Worlds — ONLY POEMS

In this in-depth interview, poet Luisa Muradyan discusses balancing motherhood and memory, navigating Ukrainian heritage, ...

www.onlypoems.net

Profile: "I felt the weight of speaking to all of that in that moment, the weight of being authentically a Palestinian writer on that stage."
(Seattle Times)
#pdnews

Redmond writer says she didn't expect National Book Award win

Tuffaha's National Book Award-winning poetry collection "Something About Living" features poems about the Palestinian experience.

www.seattletimes.com

Report: "No one thinks of Edinburgh as a great Gaelic city but it is. Gaelic poets have always lived here."
(BBC)
#pdnews

Lewis-born Gaelic poet Peter Mackay appointed Scotland's Makar

Lewis-born Peter Mackay was named as the latest holder of the national poetry role at an Edinburgh event.

www.bbc.com

Report: "A portrait of Robert Fergusson has been discovered at a Scottish castle and could help shed new light on the celebrated 18th-century poet."
(The Herald)
#pdnews

Historic painting of poet who inspired Robert Burns discovered at Scottish castle

A portrait of celebrated 18th-century poet Robert Fergusson has been discovered at a Scottish castle.

www.heraldscotland.com

Conversation: "I think, in a way, a queer childhood provides painful but valuable instruction on how to be a poet: we learn early the power—and often necessity—of solitude."
(Adroit)
#pdnews

A Conversation with Matthew Gellman

Matthew Gellman’s first book, Beforelight, was selected by Tina Chang as the winner of BOA Editions, Ltd.’s A. ...

theadroitjournal.org

Essay: "Sylvia’s diaries, meticulously kept for almost every day from 1944 to 1949, reflect her early realization that you could broadcast your own life, as Jack Benny did on his radio show (another of her favorites)."
(Lit Hub)
#pdnews

How a Young Sylvia Plath Found Her Literary Voice Through Diary Keeping

For two weeks in July 1944, Sylvia Plath attended Camp Helen Storrow at Buzzard’s Bay, Massachusetts, averaging a ...

lithub.com

Retrospective: "He pointed out that, in the past, poetry books were bestsellers, and poetry needed to have its own category recognized. We voted and added poetry unanimously."
(Publishers Weekly)
#pdnews

Looking Back at 75 Years of the National Book Awards

This year, the National Book Foundation celebrated the 75th anniversary of the National Book Awards. To mark the m...

www.publishersweekly.com

Essay: "Blind, alone, and reeling from the failures of the English Revolution, Milton wrote an epic reflection on political defeat and the possibility of hope."
(Jacobin)
#pdnews

John Milton’s Paradise Lost Mourned a Revolution Betrayed

John Milton died 350 years ago, leaving behind Paradise Lost, a poem composed in a state of deep despair. Blind,...

jacobin.com

What Sparks Poetry

Object Lessons

What Sparks Poetry is a serialized feature in which we invite poets to explore experiences and ideas that spark new poems.

In our current series, Object Lessons, we’re thinking about the relationship between the experienced and imagined world. We have asked our editors and invited poets to present one of their own poems in combination with the object that inspired it, and to meditate on the magical journey from object to poem.

Each essay is accompanied by a writing prompt which we hope you will find useful in your own writing practice or in the classroom.

This week's issue: Mary-Alice Daniel on “One Hell”

Catch Up on Recent Poems

December 13, 2024

Turn and Live

Anthony Vahni Capildeo

Did I dance with you on the blue carpet? Was your ship called the Providence? The Invitation? Was your ship called Guerilla Diplomacy?

December 12, 2024

The End Is Always Sudden

Liz Countryman

How tiny I wanted us to be on our journey which was a centimeter of atlas.

December 11, 2024

13 Ways of Nepantla

Fernando Trujillo

was it loss you felt? Does a body crossing mark across the body?

December 10, 2024

Notes from a Centaur’s Curator

Gwen Sayers

When you polish his knuckles, forget your bruises. They're safe in the chest with dead ends, nightmares and shadows he fought.

December 9, 2024

One Hell

Mary-Alice Daniel

One-bedroom disaster mansion One black hole & bad experiment One romantic Wow! after another One forest becomes abundantly fell

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B&W Photo of Dana Levin by B.A. Van Sise — Dana Levin

Phillip B. Williams