News

Roundup: "While the pandemic might have stopped poets gathering physically, poetry itself is in good health. This year books of urgency and contemplation have jostled for attention, and striking new voices have emerged."
(The Guardian)
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/28/best-poetry-books-of-2020

Feature: "[G]ratitude persists. Last week, we asked poets laureate across the country why the people in their states would be thankful. They enthusiastically responded, some within minutes, many with poetry." (The New York Times)
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/26/us/thanksgiving-poetry-poet-laureates.html

Profile: "There is something so fantastically low overhead about poetry. It’s portable, impactful, and immediate, [Nye] says. 'Poetry always made me feel rich — I had words, I had a blank page, so I was rich.'" (Sight Lines)
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https://sightlinesmag.org/naomi-shihab-nye-on-poetry-humanity-and-wifi

Review: "This collection...[Atwood's] first in over 10 years, is a reckoning with the past that comes from a place of wisdom and control. Now 81, she harnesses the experience of a lifetime to assume a wry distance from her subjects." (The Guardian)
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https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/nov/23/dearly-by-margaret-atwood-review-the-experience-of-a-lifetime

Essay: "Today, as the Chinese state bans Uighur books and paves over Muslim graveyards, poetry remains a powerful form of persistence and resistance for the Uighur people." (The New York Times)
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/23/opinion/uighur-poetry-xinjiang-china.html

Interactive Feature: "The 'Living Nations, Living Words' project features a sampling of work by 47 Native Nations poets through an interactive ArcGIS Story Map and a newly developed Library of Congress audio collection." —Joy Harjo
(LOC)
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https://loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/living-nations-living-words/

Column: "'Poetry...is so important for the function of society,' Ali said. 'I think that speaks to that desire for human connection. People still want to be in touch with the dilemmas of what it means to be human.'" (San Diego Union-Tribune)
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https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/columnists/story/2020-11-21/column-uc-san-diegos-kazim-ali-wants-to-put-more-poetry-in-your-life

Announcement: "Joy Harjo, the first Native American poet to serve as U.S. poet laureate, has been reappointed to a rare third term by the Library of Congress." (PBS)
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https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/joy-harjo-will-serve-a-rare-third-term-as-u-s-poet-laureate

Virtual Event: Join Poetry Daily on Friday, November 20 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) for a reading and discussion on the art of translation, featuring Kazim Ali, Jennifer Grotz, Forrest Gander, and Dan Beachy-Quick.

This event is free. Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/what-translation-sparks-tickets-124023801529

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Essay: "[A]ll of Celan’s poetry is elliptical, ambiguous, resisting easy interpretation. Perhaps for this reason, it has been singularly compelling to critics & translators, who often speak of [his] work in quasi-religious terms."
(The New Yorker)
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https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/23/how-paul-celan-reconceived-language-for-a-post-holocaust-world