Calligraphy Typewriters: The Selected Poems of Larry Eigner

For anyone interested in American poetry post-WW2 at its experimental, processual best, & who was not able to pick up the set of Collected Volumes (very expensive indeed) or only owns a few (there were many!) of the small-press chapbooks & books Larry Eigner published during his life-time, this is THE BOOK. Here is what Lynn Hejinian had to say about it: “Following publication of the massive (and magnificent) four-volume edition … Read more Calligraphy Typewriters: The Selected Poems of Larry Eigner

For July 28: Not Forgetting Ashraf Fayadh

via Arab Lit (in English) & BY MLYNXQUALEY on JULY 28, 2016 • ( 0 ) Today is a Day of Creativity for Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh, serving eight years and 800 lashes in Saudi Arabia for the alleged apostasy in his collection Instructions Within: Graffiti for Ashraf in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “I am scared to be forgotten.” The Guardian translated this message from the Palestinian poet, artist, and curator … Read more For July 28: Not Forgetting Ashraf Fayadh

Make Noise & Beauty on July 28, a Day of Creativity for Ashraf Fayadh

BY MLYNXQUALEY on JULY 13, 2016 • ( 0 ) An open letter from poet-activist Mona Kareem and ArabLit editor M Lynx Qualey:“Everything has weight. Your weight is well known to the back walls because your heavy shadow doesn’t give the asphalt, the paint, or the writings stuck on the windows a chance to appear. You also have space, significant space, in the void.” – Ashraf Fayadh Dear editors, … Read more Make Noise & Beauty on July 28, a Day of Creativity for Ashraf Fayadh

Yves Bonnefoy reads his poem “La Maison Natale”

PEN America: ‘Detention of Poet Dareen Tatour Signals Worrying Escalation in Israeli Repression’

via Arab Literature (in English) & by MLYNXQUALEY on JUNE 18, 2016 • ( 0 ) PEN America released a statement about the case of Palestinian poet Dareen Tatour yesterday, condemning the “further evidence of the increasingly aggressive measures undertaken by the [Israeli] government to restrict speech critical of the state”: Tatour is one of a number of Palestinians who’ve been arrested for online speech critical of Israel. According to Nadim Nashef … Read more PEN America: ‘Detention of Poet Dareen Tatour Signals Worrying Escalation in Israeli Repression’

Happy Birthday, Jack Kerouac!

Possibly my single favorite piece of writing by Ti’Jean (March 12, 1922, Lowell, MA — October 21, 1969, St. Petersburg, FL): October in the Railroad Earth — given as poem by Youtube, in fact a prose piece, though its absolute beauty is exactly its genre-defying swing — writing at its most superb, writing to be listened to. Enjoy!

On Paul Verlaine’s 172nd birthday…

…here — via the very useful Lyrikzeitung & Poetry News — is a translation of Verlaine’s most famous (& famously untranslatable) poem Chanson d’automne into Yiddish by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. Born in Czernowitz in 1924, this young woman, a cousin of Paul Celan’s (they would on occasion meet and sing together & talk poetry at Celan’s grandfather’s brother house on Sabbat evenings), wrote poetry in German and died at 18 of typhus in Michailovka on the … Read more On Paul Verlaine’s 172nd birthday…

Happy 70th, Joachim Sartorius!

Joachim Sartorius is one of Germany’s most elegant poets and, besides diplomatic service in New York, Istanbul, Prague and Cyprus, as well as becoming director general of the Goethe Institut in 1996, he also directed the Berliner Festspiele from 2001 to 1011. Sartorius is further the editor of the Collected Works of Malcolm Lowry and William Carlos Williams and has translated, among others, John Ashbery, Wallace Stevens and ee cummings. Below, a poem … Read more Happy 70th, Joachim Sartorius!

The Murder of Syrian Poet Mohammad Bashir al-Aani

by mlynxqualey PEN International has condemned the murder of Mohammad Bashir al-Aani and his son Elyas in Deir al-Zour City “by the armed group calling itself Islamic State (IS)”: Al-Aani’s death was reported last Thursday. The poet, who published three collections, was reportedly kidnapped last fall. From the PEN release: According to media reports, Al-Aani and his son were originally held in an undisclosed locations with 100 others after they attempted … Read more The Murder of Syrian Poet Mohammad Bashir al-Aani

Adonis in Osnabruck

Last September I wrote a blog entry about the Syrian poet Adonis receiving the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize of the city of Osnabrück & the resistance from a range of quarters to this award. You can read my original post here. Since then a fair amount of pressure has been put on the award committee demanding the award be rescinded, while the man who was supposed to give the laudatio — last … Read more Adonis in Osnabruck

Nomadics

Category: Poet